Letter to the editor: What happened to this town?

By Sun Advocate

Editor:
The old saying says: “Take life with a grain of salt.” But you know, it leaves a pretty foul taste in your mouth when you have to eat the contents of the whole shaker at once.
What’s happened to this town? I used to love it here. Granted the Price has always had it’s problems, just like any other place, but within the past few years this place has literally gone to hell.
I realized the changes when my husband was no longer able to work because there was something wrong with his back or leg or both. He called nearly every doctor in the area trying to get an appointment to try and find out why he couldn’t stand for more than 20 minutes without pain shooting down the back of his leg nearly taking him to the floor on many occasions. After calling almost every doctor and being turned down because they were either no longer taking new patients or they “don’t deal with pain,” he got frustrated and went to the Castle View Hospital emergency room. They charged him his leg and a few fingers and toes, they told him that it “may” be a stressed tendon, they put a shot in his lower back and told him that it should slowly repair the stressed tendon.
Well in a couple days it started to work, then a few days after that the pain returned and took him back to his previous crippled state. Well they said the next step would be an MRI, which when you can’t afford health insurance, and you make “too much” to receive medicaid, an MRI can be quite expensive. So in order not to go deeper into debt, my husband just has to live with the pain and inability to do certain things, for an injury that could be repaired.
Then next change I’ve noticed is that when I lived here before I felt comfortable leaving my doors unlocked in the car while parked at my house and my home when I ran into town for a few minutes. Well since I’ve been back I’ve had a play station two stolen right out of my front room window while my husband was home. I’ve had a total of $268 dollars stolen on three occasions, once from my house while we were both home, once from our house while we were grocery shopping, and once from our car.
Then about two weeks ago while we were out of town, and our house was all locked up, someone broke in and stole two speakers, two cameras, my first wedding ring, my husbands broad heads, my cousins knife, and some DVDs. We called the cops and told them who we suspected did it and the police officer told us he had a history of it and that they would send his parole officer out the next day and have him search his house for our stuff.
The parole officer did come out the next day and started searching his house for our stuff, but in that process he was found with drugs and the search ended for our missing items. The next day a friend of the neighbor’s that has been staying with him came over and brought back everything except my ring and one camera. So we called the cops and informed them. They said okay, and that was it.
Then on Saturday the 26th in the evening my husband was getting ready to come back from camping and found out a part on our Jeep had gone out so he got a ride off the mountain and immediately ordered the part. The part was not available until Monday and we didn’t have anyone to tow the Jeep off the mountain, nor could we afford a tow truck, so he left it there. Well Monday morning my husband headed up to put on the part and to his dismay when he reached the Jeep it had been destroyed. He found it with all four tires, the stereo, the air filter, and the battery stolen, three windows broken out, the front windshield nearly shattered, the front fenders kicked in, and the dipstick taken out of the engine and thrown into the trees.
Again the cops were called and they found about half of a fingerprint (useless), a shoe print from a Walmart brand shoe (useless), and evidence that the thiefs/vandals drove away with our tires on their vehicle. So with high hopes that nothing will turn up as to who it was, another thoughtless crime falls through the cracks in good ol’ Price.
Now don’t get me wrong, this letter is not to disrespect on the towns health care or law enforcement. I know they all have limited resources and certain priorities. I just want people in this town to be aware that they may encounter some horrible things around here and most likely nothing can be done about it so be prepared to eat your losses.
So everyone please lock all your doors and windows in your vehicles and homes when they are not occupied, and keep or have someone keep an eye on them, and if you cannot afford health insurance but still make “too much” for assistance, keep money put aside for medical bills, or replacing items, cause even though the community around here as a whole is wonderful, there are just too many cracks to fall through when trying to get help when needed.
I hope this reaches the community in a way that changes can and will be made, because I as one person cannot change the world and with all this madness going on. Keep this in your mind so you don’t end up like me, an energy less, hopeless, lost soul with a mouth full of salt.