Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I had to reread the Gazette-Journal’s Nov. 16 editorial, “An idea for the Mathews supervisors,” before deciding it wasn’t tongue-in-cheek. It began by celebrating the passage of the meals tax before it made a strange leap into urging the creation of a central water supply to encourage more restaurants.

The editorial’s equation of “public water = more restaurants = more meals tax = more improvements” left out two other factors: more patrons to eat and pay for those meals and the cost of creating a public water supply. As one of the consultants noted at the Dec. 16, 2008 board meeting, “some localities install central water, yet their businesses fail to prosper, nor do they attract new business.”

The Gazette-Journal’s “winning formula” had an estimated price tag in 2008 of 1.5 million to 2 million dollars which is why it was “buried.” So considering this, who would bear the cos...