The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket. -Ken Hubbard.

Then we have...

Old men are always advising young men to save money. That is bad advice. Don't save every nickel. Invest in yourself. I never saved a dollar until I was forty years old. -Henry Ford

Somewhere between those two famous quotes is where we should all have our motto.

Yes, we have to spend money to have anything, but we don't have to be reckless. It has become all too familiar in our time to see men spend our tax dollars on monuments to themselves. In ancient times man built great structures to honor great men. Today politicians use our money to build big things in hope that we will think the politician great.

We see new bridges being built and all to often they are named after politicians who did nothing that didn't cost you and I money. While two elder ladies in East Tennessee labor each day for no pay to feed the hungry. No bridge is named after the individual that does for others, only after those who seek glory for themselves.

Other counties keep coming to Union County to visit our new school being built. I met with one of these folks last week. You know what they were interested in? How we as a community passed a wheel tax to fund this. They told me there is no way their county could do that. They asked more questions about the community than the school it seemed to me.

I told them that we began with a plan. Long before Mr. Goforth ever became the Director of Schools he and I were diving up HWY 61 in his 1994 Ford Probe. He spelled out for me what it would take to improve the schools in our county. It was a lot more than just a new school. Although he wanted a new school he new there were several issues that needed to be addressed first.

When he took the office over I saw him begin working on those smaller things we spoke about. Small things such as cutting waste in the system. Though not popular at the time he cut positions all the way down to making sure mops were worn out before they were thrown out. No expense was too much to be examined or too small.

I explained to the person that only after this saving and cutting had been exhibited did the people get behind him. That in my opinion was how most of the populace decided that a sacrifice could be made. They felt that they had leadership that would see that their money was spent well.

I heard a very interesting thing at the meeting this week. I don't know why it made such an impression on me because I think most there missed it. Or possibly they missed the relevance of it. There was a snafu in a phase of the construction, nothing major, and easily covered under the contingency fund. Now I should explain a contingency fund. This is a fund set aside in a budget for a program in case some unforeseen expense arises. The budget for Paulette has a fairly large contingency fund built in.

Discussion went around about the new expense and it was debated at length. One official looked at Mr. Goforth and said, "I have a feeling you are trying to protect the contingency fund." He further asked, "Do you have a use for it?"

Mr. Goforth leaned across the table and explained that he had nothing set aside for this money but that didn't mean he wanted to just use it unless he had to. He explained that the county expected the most school for its money and that he wanted to see that it happened.

This is business as usual and a very minor point. But these are the things that the public rarely gets to witness. I consider myself fortunate that I am allowed to attend these meetings. I get to see someone budget our tax dollars and hold on to each penny until it absolutely must be used.

I have seen politicians that didn't want to spend money. We had several commissioners that thought it was in the county's best interest to vote no to everything. That is one end of the spectrum. At the other end you have politicians that will spend us into oblivion. That seems to be Congress today. But somewhere in the middle there are still public servants that balance the need to spend money with the determination not to spend a penny unwisely.

I toured the site this week with Director Goforth, Glen Coppock and Jason Bailey. They examined each room and made plans of what could and should be done at the facility. During the examination Mr. Goforth examined the front of the building where the awning would go up. Children will line up here with an awning to keep them dry while they get on the bus in the rain. I told him that this was a novel idea, kids at MES have learned to carry their books over their heads. Director Goforth explained to me that once the new school is opened he has a plan to address that at Maynardville. I'll share that at a later time in another article. You can see him examine the awning area in Figure 1.

The three examined the classrooms and discussed the fiber optics that would be installed. In figure 3 you can see Jason Bailey explain where the computer links would go. During this meeting Donald Tharp was called in to explain the needs of the school to the architects regarding fiber optics. Donald is one of the brains behind the computer networks that keep our schools running. He came to discuss what he considered an omission in the plans for the wiring. That is being addressed at this time.

And the tour finished up with an examination of the millwork that has gotten so much attention lately (Figure 2). I take photos and show them to teachers at MES and without a doubt the most popular photos are of the cabinets. Teachers are drawn to storage space the way moths are drawn to flame.

Now examine those first two quotes again. One said to save your money and never spend it. The other said spend in freely. Both are by successful people. We find ourselves safely in the middle. Yes we are spending money on a new school (I doubt anyone could say it wasn't needed). We are spending money to keep kids dry and supplying teachers storage space. But we are also making sure that if we budget $100 for a light fixture we spend $90 on it.

I explained to my visitor that this is how the school system got the public behind this. We first exhibited that we could be fiscally responsible. When an architect asks the Director why he is trying to hold on to every dollar....I KNOW WE ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK!