PUBLIC VIEWPOINT Nothing To Criticize

The city of Bentonville is fortunate to have leaders who value the input of its citizens. These leaders regularly go to great lengths to understand the concerns and desires of all those who wish to participate in the process of building and shaping a growing and vibrant community. Roughly 100 people gathered at a recent Bentonville Planning Commission meeting to participate in this wonderful process. For the vast majority, it was their first time to be involved in the shaping of their community at such a level.

Hopefully, it will not be their last.

Upon learning that the commission was going to visit an issue that had long been forgotten (an amendment to the city’s land use map that wouldbring it up to date with current zoning), solely for the purpose of advancing the placement of a liquor store in the midst of its parks, churches and schools, the citizens of southwest Bentonville decided to make their voices heard. In fact, this attendance was encouraged by the commissioners themselves. As a group, we could not have been more grateful for their invitation. It is exciting to be involved in the planning of a community that you love, and in which you have so much invested. During the meeting, our voices were heard and our leaders had taken note of our concerns! How great is this process!

What was entirely unfair, and even inappropriate, was this publication’s comparison of this group of caring citizens to the South after the Civil Warin “Battle News Slow to Arrive in Bentonville” (Sept. 21 editorial). This is not a group of people that oppose progress, nor were they seeking to overturn the county’s desire to be “wet.” This is a group that simply wants to infl uence where liquor stores are placed within its neighborhoods.

One can hardly imagine that the best place for such venues would be across the street from a city park, or on the same intersection as a church (and just down the street from another), or at the head of a street that leads to four of the neighborhood’s schools (the proposed liquor store in question meets all of these criteria). This is not a question of the morality of drinking or buying alcohol, but about a community being able to infl uence the look and feel of its neighborhoods.

Developers should never be able to make these kinds of decisions without input from the people who actually live in a particular community or neighborhood. These kinds of decisions need to be group eftorts. To that end, we invite the property owner and liquor permit holder, Joshua Kyles, to meet with members of the community to discuss how their combined eft orts can and should be mutually benefi cial. Working together, we can continue to build communities and neighborhoods that we can be proud of for generations to come. The city of Bentonville has proven its ability to do this over and over again. We should hope that this opportunity would be no dift erent.