Letters to the Editors

Toll road plans could endanger wildlife area

Editor: The Department of Transportation's Suncoast Parkway group insists that the advisory committee study the same old map and make a decision as to where the toll road should go through Citrus County.

This map study area is Inglis on the north of Highway 40. The southern boundary is State Road 98 where Citrus and Hernando counties meet. The eastern boundary is the middle of the Withlacoochee State Forest and the western boundary is right through Chassahowitzka, Homosassa Wildlife Park and Crystal River Buffer Preserve.

Would anyone in the whole county consider going through any of the above-mentioned areas for the toll road?

Well, what about the one-mile corridor surrounding County Road 491 going north and south? This is Conservation and Recreation Land Trust Fund property -- the Lecanto Sandhills and the Annutteliga Hammock including the Sugarmill tract going down to County Road 480 and County Road 491. Across the highway is the Withlacoochee State Forest.

Get a map out and follow along. This is important land. Go on up north on County Road 491 and there are the Lecanto Sandhills. There is no way to build a toll road through this ecological jewel. This is a unique environment of longleaf pines, turkey oaks, wiregrass, gopher tortoises, indigo snakes, kestrels and red cockaded woodpeckers. In Florida this land is critical because water passes quickly through the sandy soil and into the aquifer, making the area significant for its recharge ability.

Controlled burns maintain this land. This ensures the growth of green eyes and wiregrass and the pines. Do you want to stop on a toll road because of smoke? Then don't build it here. We've already paid $4.5-million for this land. Don't ruin it. There is no way to mitigate such a unique land.
-- Teddi Bierly, Sugarmill Woods, Homosassa

Until public outcry grows, care for veterans won't improve

Editor: Re: Veterans service office wins praise, May 15 letter to editor:

Neither the letter's writer, Mr. Catala, nor any other veteran, should have to receive such poor treatment or service from Veterans Affairs, formerly the Veterans Administration. However, it is a fact of life the average veteran will not receive the services, with any degree of dignity or speed, he or she is entitled to.

Just prior to his letter appearing in print, I had an appointment for a hearing. I had waited 16 months for it. The hearing materialized only after my primary care doctor received my letter protesting such delays and vowing I was through with the VA and an attorney would be found to do my talking from here on out because the government is bound to pay for any treatment associated with my hearing. I have roughly 53 percent of my hearing ability remaining.

The doctor called me on receipt of my letter, and the same day the VA called with the phone number of a civilian provider in Inverness, who saw me the following day.

We should not be put through the hoops for service and it is inappropriate we are forced to go to such lengths. In my case, it solved nothing, only jumped me ahead of someone else, which isn't right.

As if this isn't enough, the VA recently jacked up prices on prescription drugs. That is not serving the veterans.

Just two of the prescriptions I take increased $18 each for 90 days. As a military retiree I can turn to the Department of Defense mail order pharmacy and continue to pay only $3 per prescription, but what does this do to other veterans who are not retired?

It requires at least a year for a new applicant to gain acceptance at local VA clinics, and while you may be seen earlier by the clinic at a hospital, it is not immediate and even then only to see a primary care doctor who sets up initial lab appointments and arranges referrals for appointments at individual departments.

It's all about money and overcrowding created by the influx of snowbirds that overwhelmed the systems, both at the VA and military bases for retirees. This condition existed, to my knowledge, as early as 1985.

Until people take an interest in what is happening to veterans and bring pressure on the politicians, it will only grow worse for those who come behind us.

For those of us who date back to World War II, and the Korean War, for that matter, we are history and that is where we're forced to remain. We remember because our disabilities and pains won't allow us to forget. As far back as 1930, veterans were denied. There has never been a role of advocate by either VA or its unofficial forerunner.
-- Albert Johnson, Dunnellon

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