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

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.

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