A right way and wrong way to do business

Dear Editor,

A response to JoAnn Lord’s letter of Dec. 25 regarding the downtown antique dealer’s attitude.

Obviously you did not get the point of my initial letter to the editor on Dec. 19. The real point of the letter was not about the cost of the items being sold at the merchant’s store, or the fact that the merchant might have had to “track down, paid for immediately, picked up, unloaded, cleaned, sometimes painted or repaired, priced, displayed, moved, haggled over, sold, wrapped, sacked, loaded and often times delivered” the items in his store. All the aforementioned actions are part of doing business.

The point of the letter was about the common decency that every businessman and businesswoman should display. If you agree that it is acceptable to treat a customer rudely and tell that patron to “get out of my store” then you should expect a lack of traffic at your store as well. No customer or client deserves to be treated with disrespect.

As far as your question as to whether we as consumers would talk to any other merchant in Mineral Wells about the cost of their merchandise, the answer is that I have heard many local people question the cost of items in front of local merchants and never had a merchant come back with “get out of  my store.” Most true businessmen and women simply either “let it go” or politely say “that is what I want for the item” and in doing so the customer knows that they can either pay the amount requested or go somewhere else to shop. Once again, though, bargains are not the issue. It is the attitude.

I cannot stress enough, “in general we find the local Mineral Wells merchants very friendly and desiring to help their customers.” I am sorry if this particular owner of the business was having a bad day, it is not acceptable to take it out on a customer!

By the way I do own my own professional business and at times find myself biting my tongue in order to keep a client happy. Many times I even find myself having to do things the way the client wants them done, not the way I want to do them. As long as the end result is legal, responsible and you provide the best possible product, you are doing yourself and your client a great service. That is called doing business.

Jim Mann, Mineral Wells

Community gives generously to Angel Tree

Dear Editor,

Once again the citizens and businesses of Mineral Wells and Palo Pinto County have given of their time and resources to come to the aid of those less fortunate.

This year Tommy’s Angel Tree delivered Christmas presents to more than 725 children throughout Palo Pinto County. This amazing feat would not have been possible without the tremendous support of this caring community.

Whether you “picked” an angel from one of the angel trees and provided presents for them, spent time wrapping gifts at the Mineral Wells Volunteer Fire Department Training Center, donated monetarily, delivered presents to the children or helped in some other way, thank you.

As you can imagine a program of this magnitude would be impossible without the help and dedication of countless individuals, businesses and organizations. We commend you and thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

The Angel Tree Guardians

Tributes to Steve Perdue touching, deserving

Dear Editor,

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the citizens of our community, as well as our public servants, for their service to our department and to Steve Perdue in his final days.

As we all know, Steve was a selfless public servant himself and was known for giving everything he had to serve this community. It is fitting that so many had the chance to visit and serve Steve during his last hours.

We especially appreciate Possum Kingdom EMS, Santo EMS, and the Texas Forest Service. They each sent personnel and apparatus to our city and covered calls for us during the funeral so that each of us could attend and pay our respects to Steve.

Steve had pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed this summer in the middle of the devastating wildfires that occurred in our county. You would never know he had cancer the way he never slowed down or let his illness affect his service. I saw him take chemo in the morning and burn someone’s brush pile for them the same afternoon. He refused to dwell on his illness and instead chose to keep serving in his final hours. I witnessed him  going through fire report books in his hospital bed three days before he died, trying to finish reports that would ensure forest service grant funding would be approved in the future while knowing he wouldn’t be here to see it.

During Steve’s final days it was so evident how many lives he touched by all the calls and visits he received. Members of the fire service, executive board members and members of this community spent so much time with him and made him laugh telling stories on him or vice versa. I can truly say I don’t think there is a county in Texas that Steve had not been to or taught a class in during his years of service as a fire instructor and member of the SFFMA board.

We appreciate so much the staff of the oncology department at Palo Pinto General Hospital. They took such great care of Steve and he always had wonderful things to say about our hospital staff. We especially appreciate Dr. Ed Evans and all he did to make Steve’s last hours comfortable. He allowed us all to be in Steve’s room when a set of wedding rings which was bought for Steve and Carla by all the friends and firefighters visiting was placed on her finger and by her on Steve’s finger. He allowed us to stay with Steve so he would not be alone when he left this world. Dr. Evans stayed himself.

We have lost a dedicated friend and valuable asset to our local fire service. His funeral service was a testimony to how many lives and departments he has touched. I will never forget the endless line of fire apparatus in his funeral procession. Looking at each apparatus I knew they were there because of something Steve had done for them. I hope we can all remember what that means and pass down our knowledge, service and devotion to the service of others wherever we may meet them in this time we are allowed here on Earth.

Sincerely,

Chief Robin Allen, Mineral Wells Fire/EMS