While you can please some of the people some of the time, you will never please all of the people all of the time. The letter writer who complained of the "snail's pace" on Fort Harrison Avenue in Clearwater is correct.
The traffic on Fort Harrison does not flow as smoothly as it once did because the road has been reconstructed. Left turn lanes have been incorporated on all of the streets from Belleview Boulevard north to Turner Street.
Nevertheless, there is one big positive as an outcome of the reconstructed road. Due to the new lanes, making a left turn is now a pleasure because you can actually see the oncoming traffic. Hopefully, there will now be fewer accidents.
Perhaps the Florida Department of Transportation had this in mind prior to the changes. Anyone who frequents Fort Harrison has to be aware of the numerous accidents due to careless left turns.
By golly, this is an improvement! In spite of all of the discontent being aired, I, for one, am delighted with the new road. I do have one question: What took the FDOT so long?
-- JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater
Reducing lanes won't solve problems
I would have been the first person to agree that Fort Harrison Avenue needed improvements. Paving was desperately needed and extra left (and right) turn lanes to Morton Plant Hospital are long overdue.
But who was the genius who thought that reducing the lanes would solve these problems?
That person should be behind a stop-and-go bus, unable to pass with the traffic backed up for blocks. I really worry about the many people trying to get to the Morton Plant emergency room at a snail's pace.
What were they thinking?
-- Arlene Mather, Clearwater
Become involved in Pinellas politics
Re: A trickle, not a stampede, of leaders in the wings, editorial, Jan. 11.
I continue to be stymied by the lack of political involvement by the residents of our communities in Pinellas County.
Residents turn out by the thousands for events at Largo Central Park and our recreation centers. Everybody wants, wants, wants, but very few want to give back to their community.
It is the same faces at every commission meeting; the same people continually serve on the advisory boards.
While the incumbent commissioners in Largo thought they had opposition, apparently the time and effort involved to carry through with the campaign proved too much and, thus, no politics in Largo this year. Campaigning is hard work; if you are elected, it is hard work and very time-consuming.
But volunteer! There is no better way to find out if you want to move on to the ring of politics than to get involved in your community. Call City Hall and find out when the advisory boards meet. Attend a meeting and see what goes on.
It really can be a rewarding experience.
-- Gigi Arntzen, Largo
Tattered flag a tragedy on display
On Main Street, in our quaint little town of Safety Harbor, there is a time-honored symbol on display whose abject condition nearly brought tears to this Korean War veteran's tired old eyes. I have watched this cherished flag, symbol of our United States of America, slowly deteriorate since this past summer, wrongly assuming that someone else would bring this to a proper authority's attention for appropriate correction.
No one has, so as of today, she is tattered, torn, dirty and full of bullet-like holes. She hangs from a staff attached to the front of a downtown commercial/residential building best unnamed, but looks as if she has waved over many of our country's major battlefields and still wafts proudly in the breeze.
Is it only old soldiers like me who really care anymore about hallowed things, such as duty, honor, God and country?
-- Joseph P. Corell, Safety Harbor
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