To the editor:

Douglas County funding priorities for windfall monies in 2019 abandon the long-underfunded, yet vital, needs of our elderly destitute resident seniors and permanently slash in half the key funding we need for county bridge and road repair. Instead, we’re told that a bigger county parking lot and tuck-pointing the exterior of the county courthouse are higher priorities than those.

Instead of waiting a short period to complete a relatively inexpensive, independent and comprehensive review of our judicial system in Douglas County — before committing millions and millions of dollars to jail ‘modification’; let alone awaiting the opening of a voter-approved county mental health campus (which will have a huge financial impact on both our homeless and prison populations); and in the interim continue a years-old adequate stop-gap measure for prisoner overcrowding, our county staff and commission members appear determined to pursue a soundly rejected jail expansion come hell or high water.

It appears futile to expect rational, responsible decision-making in the face of such ridiculous prioritization of our county’s needs in 2019.

Deborah Snyder,

Lawrence