By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Tyrone residents receive the same services that other county residents receive, says County Commissioner Greg Dunn.

Dunn and other commissioners and county staff members were stung recently when Ronnie Cannon, a Tyrone Town Council member, launched the accusation that the town is shortchanged $300,000 in county services it pays for but doesn't get.

“What if we withheld the money and took care of our own,” Cannon suggested during a recent Town Council meeting. The suggestion was greeted warmly by other council members.

“What we do for the entire county, we do for them,” Dunn told The Citizen in a recent interview.

“Do they want to run their own courthouse and build their own jails?” he added

Dunn said he is disappointed that Cannon chose to air his feelings in a public forum, rather than discussing the disagreement with county commissioners first. “It's unfair to the citizens [of Tyrone] to let them think that somehow we were cheating them,” he said.

“If they had a problem, they should have come to us and talked about it,” he added.

What ignited Cannon's ire was the county's refusal to budget $25,000 to help Tyrone with some of the expenses of improving Shamrock Park. He fired the first volley after county manager Billy Beckett declined to recommend that the requested funding be placed in the fiscal 2000 budget.

During a recent budget hearing, during which commissioners unanimously went along with Beckett's recommendation, Dunn said Cannon's accusation was unfair.

“We've been grossly misrepresented by some comments made by their representatives,” he said.

When informed the county would not provide any additional funding for Shamrock Park, Cannon said he was “disappointed, but not surprised.”

In the Citizen interview, Dunn said the county provides space for Tyrone's prisoners free of charge, provides the full range of county services such as courts and road work,and at the town's request,turned over a county park lock, stock and barrel.

The county bought the land, built the park and, when Tyrone officials asked commissioners to give the park away, did so only after spending an additional $70,000 for lighting, Dunn said.

And the county is paying for a part time employee to run the park for five years, he added.

“Now the first time they run up against some of the expense of maintaining the park, they want us to pay that too,” he said.

County administrator Billy Beckett is working on providing the commissioners with facts and figures showing how the municipalities are served, but Cannon said the numbers won't show the true facts.

“The bottom line is the people in Tyrone know they're being shortchanged,” he said.