To the editor:

In the July 8 Journal-World, City Manager David Corliss said, “This is an eat your vegetables before you eat your dessert type of budget.”

I suggest the following before the city raises any fees or taxes.

¢ Any tax dollars going to the sister city program or to the “arts” downtown should be stopped. These projects should be privately funded. I was told the art piece on the southwest corner of Sixth and Massachusetts streets cost the city $53,000. This would sure help Warm Hearts.

¢ I was told that the city budgets over $10 million for trash pickup. This should be contracted out. Then the city would not pay benefits, maintenance or trucks and could lease the space now used to store the trucks to whoever gets the contract.

¢ The school board and the Planning Commission do not get paid for serving the city on these boards. The next time the city needs consulting work done, the city should go to Kansas University and ask someone educated in that field to donate their time for free as does the Planning Commission and school board.

¢ No new library at this time. I have never stood in line at the library except to use the computers. There is a library that we can use that we seem to forget.

There are a lot of ways to reduce expenses without reducing services.

Scott Henderson,

Lawrence