I witnessed two significant events in Tioga County this past month. The first was a group of people surrounding Bob Bell as he tossed his tax notice into the Susquehanna to protest high county taxes.

 The second event was less well attended by the public. It was a legislative work session at which ken Del Biano, the Tioga County superintendent of public works, presented plans for additions to the county office buildings. If I hear him correctly, he stated that the county already had "cash in the bank" to complete these plans at an estimated cost of $11.7 million.

 Subsequently, I took another look at the recently adopted county budget. Sure enough, the budget, as published, shows a current surplus in the capital fund of $17,400,000. At the same time, the budget specifies appropriations in the amount of $4,450,000 for a county building project.

 As if that were not astonishing enough, the county also has reserve funds for various purposes totaling $19,923,927. Something is terribly wrong here!

 While I am not yet ready to recommend Mr. Bell's approach, I would suggest that we all contact our legislators and let them know our concern. You will find that legislators Johnson and Burn in District 4 and Mr. Huttleston in District 1 are already on our side. The others need to be reminded as to who elected them!

 If you don't know who the legislator for your district is, you can call the Board of Elections at 687-8261.