To the editor:

I am appalled at the city’s decision to renege on the 2007 budget amounts previously approved for a number of social service agencies.

Why is it that when the budget needs to be cut as a result of poor planning, the poor and needy are always the first to bear the brunt of it? I join my voice to the many others who have questioned the city’s spending of thousands of dollars on outside consultants when we have all the necessary talent at KU, the increasing number of roundabouts wanted by only a few, and on.

I wish that city officials who make budget decisions could spend just one day at the local church where I volunteer full time. On any given day, we see a microcosm of the misery so many Lawrencians endure: the hungry who visit our food pantry, the young mother unable to buy formula for her baby, the mentally ill, the homeless, the battered. Sometimes we are their last resort; yet, we can help only a fraction of whose who appeal to us.

I have lived in Lawrence for 21 years, but my ties to the city go back to the 1960s. I used to be proud of living in a vibrant, compassionate community. Now, I’m not so sure.

Eva Edmands,

Lawrence