Decisions hard without input

Once again, it appears only a handful of people will ultimately decide the fate of Elmore County's future.

Judging by the lack of public support so far, does anyone really care?

Having sat through countless hours of public hearings over the past several months, I could be right. Looking at all the empty seats at these meetings, it seemed as if the public didn't seem to care until someone took a vote. Then some folks got themselves all bent out of shape complaining on the outcome.

But when the public had a second chance to voice their opinions last week, the response was again pretty lackluster. Less than 20 people sat in on a public hearing regarding a proposal to build a large-scale planned community on the western side of Elmore County.

It's not an issue that suddenly came out of nowhere. The Mountain Home News invested a considerable amount of time and space to highlight the Mayfield Townsite Planned Community proposal as well as the smaller Mayfield Springs project. Together, they represent the most rapid, monumental growth in the county's history.

The newspaper's goal, from the beginning, was to arm the public with as much information as possible on each project to help them ultimately decide if they were good for this county. It was up to the public to come forward and offer their perspectives to the county's planning and zoning commission and then to the board of county commissioners.

So far, the decision on whether to approve or disapprove either development comes down to the testimony of less than two dozen people with some of those individuals representing government agencies or private groups with a vested interest in these projects. The remaining testimony came from just a handful of concerned citizens who took time out of their busy schedules to make their voices heard.

Back in February, I posed a question to our readers: "How should Elmore County grow over the next 30 to 50 years?"

The question asked people to ponder some very important issues. Does Elmore County need more factories and other industries? What types of retail businesses would offer the most benefit, and can communities across this county draw them here? Most importantly, how many additional people and homes can the county handle without affecting the rural lifestyle that draws folks here?

Truth be told, there's no easy way to answer these questions. There's just no quick-and-easy solution to any of them.

That's why public opinion was so vital to the county's decision-making process. But right now, our elected officials are working in a vacuum -- a void of public opinion. They're not entirely sure if most folks want the county to maintain the status quo and the lifestyle people currently enjoy or if they're open to allowing significant urban growth to bring in needed tax revenue to improve our standard of living.

Here's the bottom line: Both planned communities could completely reshape the political, economic and social landscape of this region. In addition to tripling the county's population over the course of 50 years, they would dwarf Mountain Home and every other community in the county based on today's population figures.

Based on the woefully limited number of people that bothered to show up for all of the public hearings held to date, I have to wonder if anybody in the county is really paying attention. Those who provided any comments so far represent less than one one-thousandth of the county's total population -- less than an average grade school classroom.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, May 12, the board of county commissioners holds what could be the last of its public hearings on the Mayfield Townsite proposal at the county courthouse. If you want this project to go through, let the commissioners know. If you're against this development, they need to know that, too.

If you can't be there in person, you can even submit your thoughts in writing.

I'm hoping to see a room filled wall to wall with people ready to speak to the county commissioners.

However, what I'll probably see are plenty of empty seats.