After reading the proposal made by East Liverpool Mayor Ryan Stovall to the TJX corporation this week, and seeing all the incentives the city offered to entice the company to the city, I joked with him that his kids Shaylin and Hayden better be careful, or they might be sacrificed.

But, in all seriousness, this is a city that, let’s face it, needs every single dime it can get from water and sewer customers, tap-in fees and taxes, yet it is offering all of these free — at least for a period of years — to attract a company it needs even worse.

In all my years of covering East Liverpool, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a more serious attempt, not only by city officials but by its residents, to show a company just how it can benefit from locating there. In this politically correct world, I saw the service-safety director ask publicly for prayer, and I saw a man who routinely, actually daily, chastises the administration on Facebook for its actions comment favorably on this movement to attract TJX.

If wishing could make it so, this company would be calling Mayor Stovall Monday to make a deal. Mark Walker, the executive with whom the mayor has been dealing, will be wise to seriously consider locating his company in the kind of community that is waiting with open arms.

— Jo Ann Bobby-Gilbert