The terrorists have won. The body politic is in panic model. County commissioners raise taxes unmercifully to meet the wage of cities like Ephraim to keep qualified deputies and refuse to make adjustments that prove useless like an officer outside the courtroom with a metal detector collecting pocketknives from enterers.

Ephraim City now has nine policemen and a budget they admit goes beyond the model set by law to run the city by requiring transfer of funds from utilities to general fund.

Wait, where are the terrorists? Where are the rioters? Where are the looters? Where are the dangerous parts of the county or town? Do we really need to inflict higher taxes to counter the influx of citizens, mostly peaceful seniors? Have we second-class citizens become so frustrated from the loss of liberty? Have we become so dangerous that police contacting the public is putting their lives on the line as they claim?

It seems they are chasing shadows when it takes Fairview police, the sheriff’s department, the state patrol and Ephraim police to accommodate a murderer who wants to turn himself in. And the local politicians are more interested in building their bureaucracies than serving the best interests of the citizens. This is the conclusion I get from my analysis from reading the local newspaper.

Frank Crowther

Ephraim