Editor: On March 14, Kay, a 15-month-old Jack Russell terrier was stolen from her owner, Lanny Kress. Lanny got Kay when she was a month old, bottle-fed her and she was his constant companion. She was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed with a large knife. Lanny contacted every shelter and put out fliers called the Pasco County Sheriff's Office trying to find her. Kay was found four day's later by Lanny and his friend, Paul Fleming, after they saw buzzards circling the field where suspect Billy Dean Jones lived.
Two witness went to the State Attorney and testified under oath that they saw Kay stolen and beaten to death. They were too afraid to stop him but are brave enough to stand up to see that Jones is prosecuted. Thanks to them and to Deputy Tom Hendrickson of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office and the State Attorney's Office, Jones is now in jail charged with felony animal abuse.
We have to write letters to the State Attorney, Bernie McCabe, P.O. Box 5028, Clearwater, FL. 33758, to make sure that Jones is prosecuted and sentenced to the maximum sentence allowed by law.
As president of Pet Aid Service Society Inc. PASS I am contacted daily on our Web site, www.petaidservicesoc.org by people all over the country seeking help for animals that are being abused.
PASS is now trying to help six dogs that are chained out in the snow in Baldwin, Mich., with hardly any shelter, laying in the snow and ice, very little food and no water. With the help of PASS and Elayne Boosler we now have the local sheriff's office involved and people from all over the country writing letters and calling demanding these animals be treated more humanely and this woman prosecuted for animal abuse. We must do all we can to help these helpless creatures. For more information, call (727) 817-1812.
-- Marj McConkey, President, Pet Aid Service Society
Letter carriers should not be forced to walk
Re: Letter carriers.
Editor: In the Postal Service there is the right way, the wrong way and the postal way. Not only is it stupid to have the carriers walking, it is wrong!
After carrying mail for 17 years in Port Richey, I speak with a little experience. I was made to not only walk, but to crisscross in the street, which added even more time to delivering. Management makes decisions that insult the integrity of the carriers. Common sense is out the window.
Maybe, just maybe, the walking will end before a carrier succumbs to the unbearable heat of summer in Florida. Park and loop delivery rather than two-step delivery is just another way of harassing the letter carriers by post office management.
-- Joseph Alvi, New Port Richey
The wrong people are making mail decisions
Editor: I am a recently retired letter carrier, I had to retire due to my back, most likely from carrying a 50-pound bag of mail for 20 years.
When making route adjustments, more likely than not, a management team comes in with no experience in delivery and their main goal is to get rid of established routes and have other routes absorb the deliveries.
It doesn't make sense to get rid of routes and overload the rest. Management's position is just pick it up and go. Now we have to work with a computer to tell us how to do our job and how long it takes. Again, the computer does not include traffic, people asking directions or other instances that pop up.
-- James M. Higginbotham, Spring Hill
Who can postal customers turn to for help?
Editor: Will responsible leaders listen to the plea of the citizens in Pasco County and insist that the United States Postal Service return to the services that letter carriers formerly performed?
It is frustrating to have to wait for the mail to be delivered sometimes after 6 p.m. It does not make sense to have our mail picked up and then, after a few hours have passed, delivery takes place.
There is a great amount of concern for the well being of the mail carriers who now have to walk in deep puddles at times and also try to keep the mail from getting wet.
As citizens, most people including yours truly, do not know where to turn in order to get some relief from this antagonizing situation. I hope that some authority will express the concerns of the public.
-- Joseph E. Schoener, Port Richey
Thanks to Vietnam veterans who were overlooked before
Editor: I am 46 years old and I am looking forward to my first visit to Washington, D.C. I grew up in the 1960s, an era filled with racial conflict and plagued by the Vietnam War.
I pray for the families and loved ones of the people lost in the Vietnam War and in all the conflicts since then. They are also my heroes, for they have suffered greatly. God bless the people on this wall and their families and loved ones.
For the troops who survived and came back and received no thanks, I say thank you. Thank you for all you did. Thank you and God bless. You went through hell and got no credit and no recognition and no congratulations. You deserved better. I look up to you with respect and I salute you.
-- Barbara Denicola, New Port Richey
EDITOR'S NOTE: The above is excerpted from a four-page letter the author plans to leave at the Vietnam War memorial in Washington D.C. this weekend.
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Send your letter to Pasco Times, 11321 U.S. 19, Port Richey, FL 34668.
