On Aug. 21, I had the opportunity to speak at the county commissioners’ meeting. I spoke to the board about the current situation regarding the safety of our citizens of Rowan County.

Our county is at a pivotal point in the coming year. If we do not get off the pot and start doing something about the crime in Salisbury/Rowan County, we will not have a county to call home. Nearly every day there are home invasions, muggings, shootings and drug overdoses in our area. According to a Durham website, HomeSnacks, we are the ninth most dangerous city in the state.

People, we have got to quit talking and start doing, and we have got to do it quickly. People state — myself included — that we need business/industry to bring jobs to our area and that will decrease the crime in our hometown.

Well, we can build big beautiful welcome signs at the county line that make people think we are special, We can run water all over the county and build all the infrastructure needed to bring the industry here. But if the people looking to locate here see the crime statistics and look into what has been going on, they will not come.

As I stated earlier, we are at a pivotal point in our area, and we have got to elect leaders that are willing to make the hard decisions needed to move this city and county forward. We have got to move the people that are our current leadership out of the way because they have had enough time to get things moving, and I don’t see anyone moving forward except some of those leaders. People, it’s time for a change, and only you have the power to put the leaders in office that will make those changes.

— Michael Julian

Salisbury