STATION EDITORIAL

Posted May 11, 2022

This is a station editorial, I'm Randal J. Miller, station president.  I wanted to share a couple of different thoughts in my comments.

First of all, I want to thank the 140 folks who bought tickets to the 115th Greater Taylorville Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet that honored WTIM's 70th Anniversary at the Pillars May 6th.  With WTIM footing the bill for everything that night, ticket sales were turned into a fund-raiser providing the Chamber with just over 3-thousand dollars, the Taylorville Food Pantry over 15-hundred dollars, and the Taylorville Public Schools Foundation just over 15-hundred dollars. Outgoing Chamber president Sarah Van Huss gave her final "State of the Chamber" address and presented awards for Boss of the Year, Citizens of the Year, and Volunteer of the Year.  All those were richly deserving.  
And, it was the premiere of the WTIM 70th Anniversary video, which was just under 40 minutes long.  It was the culmination of months of work by Neil Hohenstein and Addison Vocks, who are to be commended for the outstanding job they did in preserving history.  I gotta tell ya, it was an emotional moment for me at the end, as I thanked God for bringing my family to Taylorville 30 years ago.

Secondly, I've received varied reaction in my recent editorial on the demeanor and tone of  Christian County Board meetings.  My last editorial was NOT to express an opinion on the C-O-2 pipeline project which the board has to approve or disapprove, contrary to what some thought.  But rather, my editorial was addressing the way all issues are addressed.  I still think the past 2 years that we've all gone thru, has put everyone—including Christian County Board members—in a surly mood.  While I applaude the public service to their constituents and our county as a whole, the way all issues are addressed needs to be toned down so that civil discourse can happen.  Continuing the rancor is a message for any developer, that Christian County is NOT open for economic development.

I appreciate the Christian County board members who HAVE reached out to me to have a civil discussion about my last editorial.  I believe something has come out of those discussions, and I hope it's the start of a more civil tone at future board meetings.  I think our listeners and readers hope so as well.

That's our opinion, we welcome yours.  Our e-mail address is editorial@randyradio.com.