Letters to the Editors

Proposed cat, dog license fees are unreasonable

Editor: Today the Hernando County Commission is scheduled to vote on an ordinance setting license fees for dogs and cats. The current proposal calls for a minimum fee of $10. This is much too high and is part of the reason why so many people violate the ordinance by not buying licenses. Hernando's fees are at least twice as expensive as those of our eight neighboring counties, excluding Hillsborough. Levy and Sumter counties require no licenses at all.

Even worse than the high cost is how our license money will be spent. Only $3.50 will go to the county. The rest will be paid to a private enforcement company whose job it is to track down people without licenses and force them to comply. Noncompliance can result in high fines and an arrest warrant.

The county should forgo hiring an enforcement company and just charge the people less to buy a license. If a license just cost $3.50 in the first place, most people would buy one as a cheap insurance policy, to keep Animal Services off their backs and avoid the risk of fines and arrest. Since $3.50 is all the county keeps anyway, does it make any sense to force the people to pay an extra $6.50 for an enforcement company?

Voice your support to the commissioners for a $3.50 license fee at the meeting at 1:30 p.m. If we don't make an input, we deserve to be stuck with these unreasonable fees.
-- Richard L. Silvani, president
PetLuv Nonprofit Spay and Neuter Clinic
Brooksville

Respect, compassion are essential in any endeavor

Editor: A couple of years ago I started Compassion Spay/Neuter Inc., but that didn't mean no one else could use that word or even feel it.

My phone rings for different kinds of help, even as one person said, "Please just listen to me for a second." I hear things from people, like when they call an animal shelter to say an animal has been hurt and the answer is "You found it, you take care of it." Or the different reasons that are given for not allowing you to adopt an animal. A little common sense would say, "If I didn't want to take care of this animal, why would I pay that price? I could go find one behind almost any trash yard or look in the newspaper in the ads."

Why can't we look for the best in people? You might find it. A man has a cat that sleeps under his car at night and during the day he follows his master around and sits by him on the stoop. Is he mistreated? No. Other people give their animals everything -- food, bed, toys -- and don't give the amount of love the first cat gives and gets.

Now I just read that women at a shelter are very particular about "their" cats and, of course, boys don't have pink blankets. Males get red or green, females get soft pastels and the cages must be color-coordinated with blankets matching litter pans. I remember reading an article a while back that said you should never give the adoptees' names, as if then they plan to keep them.

All charities need help, and many of us will keep asking for it. But shame on us for not treating the public with respect. How do we expect to teach love and responsibility and even compassion if we don't show we are capable of the same?

There will always be a difference of opinions and ideas in any field of endeavor. The people who accomplish great things are smart enough to put aside their differences and pool their ideas into a well-organized and successful organization.
-- Virginia Denton, Brooksville

Sheriff's Office failed to act on sex offender notification

Editor: Recent stories about the sex offender who moved into the Spring Hill Elementary School area:

I have several blistering comments. As the mother of three students at this school, this concerns me tremendously. Where is the Hernando County Sheriff's Office? Are they not aware it is their responsibility to notify the school and the surrounding neighborhood that a registered sex offender has moved in?

As of the writing of this letter, the Sheriff's Office has yet to move on this issue. The sheriff and his staff should evaluate their practices concerning such issues, since it is the safety of our most precious resource -- our children -- at stake.

It would seem that something like this, when it slips through the cracks, could have the potential for devastation. Would the Sheriff's Office send a written apology to the parents of a child who fell victim to such a person after the fact? Would they take any responsibility at all that the shoddy police protection that has been evident since Richard Nugent's term began was to blame? I doubt it, as the Sheriff's Office has yet to do the job we pay them to do.

Notifying the public that a registered sex offender has moved into an area is now a law, is it not? Whom do we talk to about policing our police?

Instead of buying Mr. Nugent a 1,500-plus-square-foot portable office building to make room for more office staff, maybe we should insist Nugent use that $40,000 to train his personnel properly about their responsibility to this community. That money would be better spent putting another officer or two on the street rather than making more room for desks that will only take officers off the streets.

I can honestly say that I miss former Sheriff Tom Mylander and the way he chose to run his office and to protect and serve this county. It is only because a grandmother was concerned enough to let the school know about Gerald Collins that they knew at all. It is only because the principal, John DiRienzo, acted so quickly that the children's safety was ensured.

Neither of these people wear a uniform or a badge. Either could have waited for the proper authorities to do their jobs. I thank heaven they did not.

If this is the kind of protection and service we can expect from the current administration in the Sheriff's Office, I think we, as a community, should start recruiting another candidate for the 2004 election. I cannot imagine re-electing a sheriff who does not hold our children's safety higher than anything else, and that is the issue today.

They are safe, for now, because a grandmother and a principal didn't wait, but moved to do what could be done, and what the Sheriff's Office didn't do.

My vote may have been the one to put Mr. Nugent over the top in the 2000 election. He should not count on my vote in 2004. I am a mother, and I will always side with my children. There should be no other way, and I cannot, in all good conscience, cast my next vote for an officer who does not hold the same ideals in that area.
-- Kelly Cherubino, Spring Hill

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Send your letter to Hernando Times, 161 E Jefferson St., Brooksville, FL 34601. To fax a letter call 754-6133. Send letters by e-mail (in text-only format) to hernando@sptimes.com

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