The Franklin Board of Aldermen turned down a chance to get $100,000 of free money from the US Department of Commerce. Funds would have supported the construction of a hospice house to serve Western North Carolina. Board members feared the strings, which are never attached, among which made the town responsible for paying back the funds in the event that construction was not completed in eighteen months and six new employees hired during that time failed to remain on the payroll for six months. Hospice House is not moving along at a good clip with its fundraising, and so the commissioners who voted against the project were nervous. The vote was split, though the article does give details. Presumably the notion that government can be cavalier with other peoples’ money and still enjoy uninterrupted flows of revenue, is still embraceable.