Roanoke Rapids City Hall appears to be turning into a retirement home, a refuge for retired employees apparently not wanting to let go of the jobs they decided to retire from.

We question city council's intent to indulge them, especially with the debt of the Roanoke Rapids Theatre hanging over their heads like an alien spacecraft ready to attack.

This trend started with the hiring of retired Parks and Recreation Director Chris Wicker to write grants: $25,000 a year.

It continued with the hiring of retired police Detective Ron Baird to be evidence custodian: $25,000 a year.

Tuesday city council added another $29,000 to its "retirement fund" by allowing Jeff Hinton to return as interim police chief.

All this is going on as council debates later today a temporary fix to fill Planning and Development Director Amanda Jarratt's position with a consultant and possibly hire a financial advisory firm to help them restructure and refinance theater debt. It appears city council has forgotten that it must also hire a manager and must consider hiring a public works director with the upcoming retirement of Richard Parnell.

The police department is running smoothly. It has made two multi state arrests, one involving the armed robbery of the Tenth Street Blue Flame and the other involving a child sex offense case.

Its investigation sent a man to life in prison for the Mother's Day murders last year and just this week led to the arrest of a man who was allegedly buying drugs at a known drug house on Maria Avenue which continues to be investigated. These are just the highlights that immediately come to mind.

We understand $29,000 is close to the salary of a starting officer with the police department and we believe the city needs to look closely at all of these retiree positions.

There are capable detectives on the force who can be assigned to log evidence and there are capable department heads who can draft their needs for grant proposals.

This is $79,000 that could be used to offset theater debt because, after the upcoming fiscal year, there is no more reserve fund. This is $79,000 that be could transferred to hire a firefighter, a police officer or fill a frozen position. It is money that could be used to hire a police chief, public works director or planning director.

This smacks of  good old boy cronyism to us and was something we truly believed was going to end when an essentially new city council was elected to right the perceived wrongs of an old council which invited in the demon that has become the theater.

We cynically wonder is this what is going to happen to every person who retires in the city, are they going to be allowed to come back part time to work their 1,000 hours and go home as city business continues while they sleep and collect retirement on top of their part time salary?

We see no where that decisions like these help to make the city more stable. We see it as doing the opposite, promoting instability and, especially in the case of the police department, slapping those who have worked hard after Hinton's departure squarely in the face and saying we don't believe you can do the job.

If the city is so willing to offer its retirees a job, maybe it should extend that privilege to other retirees outside the city because it sure looks like it's becoming a retirement hall, rather than a city hall, to us — Editor.