In response to St. Clair Township Supervisor Tim Buchanan's letter Dec. 29: I am a minority and I was appalled by Buchanan calling a letter writer a "foreigner."

I recently spoke at a St.Clair Township meeting. It was as if I didn't speak at all. Buchanan just looked at me as if I were a "foreigner."

There are only a handful of full-time supervisors in St. Clair County out of 22 townships. The two people running against Buchanan are running to make the position part-time.

Buchanan was the chairman of the Environmental Committee in Swansea that built the sewer plant and now he is wasting thousands of taxpayers' dollars for attorneys and engineering fees on a plant he built because he has refused to negotiate with Swansea for four years.

Buchanan makes $65,000 plus $25,098 in family health care and $7,011 in paid pension -- more than $97,000 a year. Also he collects a sizable taxpayer-funded teacher's pension that he spiked in his last three years from $79,252 to $102,368.

One of his first acts in office was to authorize spending more than $193,000 to repair the street in front of one of his homes. Buchanan has made his living, living off the taxpayers.

We, as taxpayers, need our elected officials to make some tough cuts just like all households and businesses are doing.

So on April 9 I ask township voters to get rid of the bad cheese.

Cary Lewis V

Belleville