In a letter dated October 2002, Florida Water Services assured "the customers" of the following, and I am quoting directly from that letter:
- The sale price was structured to provide stable rates for at least three years, with the exception of the annual minimal cost of living increases, and;
- The cost of operations will be significantly lower because of government ownership.
Obviously, the Hernando County commissioners cannot count to three, as in years, and they just don't know how to read.
They have already violated customers' trust by blatantly ignoring the assurances as provided in the October 2002 letter. I don't think that raising basic service 50 cents and 12 cents per 1,000 gallons can be considered minimal cost of living increases. My view is that they will try to pay off a $36-million debt quicker, which shouldn't have been incurred in the first place.
Show me the significantly lower costs because of government ownership, not higher.
-- William H. Schreiber, Spring Hill
Water rate rollback? What rollback?
Editor: I recently received a letter from the Utilities Department of our Board of County Commissioners regarding rates for our newly purchased county water division. The text of the brief letter excited me because it announced that the cost of my water usage was reverting back to "1992 approved rates."
Almost every day, your newspaper runs ads heralding a "rollback" in prices. Such things as new cars, bananas, carpeting, etc., and upon seeing these ads, I am sometimes motivated to look for a good deal on a purchase.
In all the excitement derived from reading this letter, I shouted to my wife, "Ma, we can now use more water because the managers of our water department, which, by the way, we own, are rolling back the prices."
Guess what? I checked my last bill and found that my meter charge will go from $4.35 to $4.85, and the gallon usage will go from $1 to $1.12. Do I detect a little yellow here? Maybe the letter should have been written on yellow paper.
Come on, folks. Tell it like it is.
-- Joseph Walsh, Spring Hill
Join together to stop spread of drugs
Editor: We were impressed by the recent memorial for Martha S. Smith. The service was a judicious mix of Bible verses, music and personal accounts by family and friends from the West Hernando Christian School.
As friends of Martha in a business venture with World Book Encyclopedia, we found her honest and dedicated, and through the years, she became a dear friend. Attending this memorial service gave us closure to the realization that Martha not only had died, but had been allegedly murdered by her son.
Martha's 50-plus years' dedication to family, education and her church certainly should be commemorated by a scholarship in her name (we understand one has been started). However, something more could and should be done.
We hope personal and church friends will start a brainstorming group to help stop the spread of illegal drugs, such as crack cocaine, heroin and ecstasy, in our county. What a sad event that a person so dedicated to society should die at the hands of a son allegedly addicted to drugs. We will pray with her family and church for the soul of this family member.
Perhaps this tragedy can help save other young people tempted to experiment with illegal drugs or substances they bought from dealers or prescription drugs they stole from unsuspecting parties.
Private citizens should do more to assist police and sheriff's deputies who are risking their lives to catch drug dealers. Parent groups and PTAs should have programs to point out to children of all ages how dangerous it is to experiment with drugs and alcohol. Perhaps the new child advocacy group recently formed to bring together the child support agencies in the county could include a new subgroup: MAIL - Mother's Against Illegal Drugs.
-- Carol and Bill Newell, Spring Hill
Clean up debris-filled roads, intersections
Editor: All the major road intersections, and a lot of the minor ones, are becoming debris fields. You must follow in everyone else's tracks or risk a skid or flat. A real hazard for pedestrians, bicycles and motorcycles. We have sand, gravel, broken glass, shards of plastic and metal, and even an occasional 2-by-4.
When some lawyer determines an accident was caused by the debris and the county gets sued, maybe they'll clean up the mess.
-- Charles Misamore, Spring Hill
Growth good, but must be kept in check
Editor: I've been in Spring Hill since 1982. I originally came to visit my parents and, at that time, I thought how lovely this place was.
Since I've been here, the county has grown tremendously. I've seen stores open and others close. It saddens me that a lot of our shopping plazas sit empty. It looks like a ghost town in some places, and it also makes the area look shabby.
I've seen utility rates rise and cable bills escalate.
Growth is good, but not as fast as it is going in our county.
I've been noticing something lately that has me concerned. A particular builder is buying up lots and apparently building spec homes. My concern is that these homes are going up at a very quick pace. I'm wondering if they're being adequately inspected, though. I truly don't think they are. Most of these homes look identical, so we know it has to be one builder.
Someone needs to question who is pulling all these permits.
Hernando County used to be a great place to live. It's not the same anymore.
Also, the County Commission is a joke. Things that should concern them don't. They get more pleasure going after the little guy. Examples include people having yard sales, how many cans are in a driveway and having a boat in your yard. Nonsense.
When people come here, I welcome them to downtown Spring Hill. A once beautiful area is now as bad as some cities. What a shame.
-- Dorothy R. Rockwell, Spring Hill
Recycling law a form of extortion
Re: Cameras at red lights bad enforcement, March 28 letter to the editor:
Editor: You published an excellent letter written by Stephen R. Donaldson about zero tolerance of red light violations via camera enforcement through a private company. Mr. Donaldson pointed out that: "You have a private company enforcing the law... "
I wholeheartedly agree with the writer about empowering private companies to enforce the law. Take the case of our trash collection and, lately, the mandatory (but discriminate) enforcement of recycling laws, limited only to a certain section of Spring Hill. In my household, we produce little, if no trash or recyclables, and we always bring our trash and one or two recyclable items per week directly to the county transfer station off U.S. 19. Yet, our erstwhile trash company has rattled the law at me, a homeowner, and said I must capitulate to its demands for payment, even though it collects nothing from me, or else it will have to enforce certain statutes to punish me.
I do pay my share of the collection fees, even though I don't use the services. But of the recycling fee? I join with so many others from our section of Spring Hill in saying we are being discriminated against and being coerced into paying for a so-called benefit to the environment.
There is not a commercial business being required to obey these laws or being threatened by any trash collection companies for not following the law. The same with other sections of the county. This law is discriminately being imposed upon a very few taxpayers by a privately owned company. What happens to all the recyclables from the fair, our local parks, our many restaurants and business, our many fast food stores, etc.?
The last time I was forced to pay trash never generated by me was when I ran a small business in a very large city. That private trash collection company was owned and operated by people who used extortion as a way to make a living. And that is what this recycling law forces us to submit to, extortion.
-- Henry DeVito, Spring Hill
[Last modified April 8, 2004, 01:35:43]
