Things that make you go …

Fear and Loathing in Waynesboro column by Chris Graham
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John Lawrence told me last week that he was interviewed about his interest in running for city council by a group that included Dave Wolfe, Tom Reider and Roger Willetts. Noticeably missing from the list of people leading the effort to run somebody were the names of Reo Hatfield and Frank Lucente.

I’m wondering … am I the only person who thinks this to be curious?

I mean, I guess I’m not that naive. I’d heard for years that the people who really run Waynesboro weren’t the people we assumed them to be. I don’t know Wolfe or Willetts personally, but their names were always among those whispered as being in the power-player group. I was a little surprised to see Reider’s name in that group, at first glance, but then it started to make sense when I considered the news from the walkup to the election of how Reider was part of a group representing Reo Distribution on a field trip to China, and then the news report two days following the election that had Reider traveling around town with Bruce Allen to help him pick up yard signs.

I don’t know, I just expected to see Hatfield and Lucente and would-be mayor Tim Williams as being part of the power group.

I would actually feel better about things if they were, to tell you the truth. I might not (OK, definitely do not) agree with their politics, but at least they live in Waynesboro. Only Reider, as far as I’ve been able to verify, is a resident of Waynesboro from the group of power players that Lawrence identified.

I know that Wolfe and Willetts have business interests in Waynesboro, but that having been said, I don’t know that I feel all that good that people who don’t even live here telling us how we should run our lives.

I hope I’m not alone in thinking this way.