Dear Editor,

I am responding to the editorial in the Sunday, May 11, paper. It seems that public officials only have a dim view on future growth of the county. The building of the youth baseball complex is one of those views. Elected officials seem to be inclined to favor the few at the expense of the masses. My point of view is: you may attract approximately 2,500 at the max at this complex, which is only about 10 percent of the registered voters in the county and you want all taxpayers to pay for this monstrosity.

IF you really want to grow Lincoln County and Brookhaven; then you, chamber of commerce, local city and county plus state officials should get together and push for U.S. 84 to be designated Interstate 16 that begins at the Alabama-Mississippi state line to the Mississippi-Louisiana line.

If you will examine the northeastern area of our state, this is what their officials did for their region. They first upgraded U.S. 78 to interstate specifications, in other words, did the ground work. On their local level, they were able to convince the federal government to designate this highway as Interstate 22 from Birmingham to Memphis. After all this took place, all the communities began to grow along this corridor. Just above Tupelo, they were able to get a Toyota manufacturing plant with over 2,500 employees.

The major construction along this corridor would be a bypass on better connection between U.S. 84 East and U.S. 84 West at Laurel with all the proper connections with north and south highways in this area. Now is the time to begin planning for a much larger future than just a baseball complex.

Another project that would enhance the growth of Brookhaven and Lincoln would be to petition the federal government to build exit 41 at the junction of Highway 550 and Interstate 55. This would open up most of western Lincoln County development all the way to Fayette.

To a brighter future

Yours truly,

George R. Wilson Sr.

Bogue Chitto