Re: Recent boating and watercraft accidents on Lake Tarpon.
What a sad and tragic time for the families and friends who recently lost loved ones on Lake Tarpon. The horror of it all is the lack of assistance on the part of other boaters.
First, the unfortunate accident involving the young man who lost his life the first day on his brand new Jet Ski (Family's vigil ends with recovery of body from lake, April 10). How kind of the person to phone and let the authorities know he saw a man fall off a Jet Ski about the time the accident may have occurred. What a shame no one pays attention to people being thrown from personal watercraft or, for that matter, aren't courteous enough to consider taking a moment to make sure they are not injured or in need of assistance. God forbid you take a few moments from your personal playtime!
Second, the misfortune of one young man nearly losing an arm and the tragic death of a man who was known by many to be one of the first on the lake to assist others in trouble (Circling boat, but few stop to help, May 4).
How absolutely appalling to learn that Blake McCollom and Amanda Driggers, exhausted from the rescue efforts to save Isaac Henry, pleaded for assistance from a boat idling no more than 10 feet away from their own and were refused by the two adults (with children on board). There's a lesson in life for those youngsters. Not to mention the curious onlookers who also slowed or stopped just to gawk and not assist.
What a shame there are not more young men such as Ryan Hedstrom, who heard cries for help and without hesitation manned his personal watercraft to come to the aid of total strangers, not knowing what the situation was or the danger that may have been ahead of him.
As it turns out, through his unyielding bravery, Hedstrom was first on the scene to assist in the rescue operation and should be commended as a youth with a conscience.
I have very little experience boating on a lake but have spent years boating on the Gulf of Mexico, and never have we just sailed along, ignoring someone or his or her vessel should it seem as if there were any trouble. And to those of you who stopped when we were in need, I once again say, "Thank you."
Wake up, people. Next time you load your cooler, don't forget to bring your humanity aboard!
-- Cindy Rose, Palm Harbor
"Insane' to use water pipes for anything but pure liquid
Water should be as pure as possible. I find it incredible that the Pinellas County Commission decided to medicate the population of our county by adding fluoride, a toxic substance, to our water supply.
How insane is it to use the water system for any other purpose but to provide good, safe water? Very.
If individuals choose to use medications or to ingest any other kind of chemicals, they have that right. But this choice should not be mandated for the entire population of our county. I want pure, safe water coming though my tap. I do not want any experiments or medications in my glass.
-- Jackie Johnson, Clearwater
Mishap shows Clearwater could use a tickler file
I refer to the May 4 story Delay leaves city with camp bill with several rationalizations in mind.
Such as, "When things go wrong, be a man - blame it on your wife." And so the Juvenile Welfare Board is castigated for being "that strict with the rules" and actually observing the established deadline.
Gee, JWB didn't even maintain a tickler file to remind it to communicate with Clearwater to remind our city that we wanted money from them. How many applications were submitted by the deadline? All of them, I'd bet.
Or such as, "I finally got it all together - but I forgot where I put it." It was carefully explained to us that a city staff member, who knew the deadline and knew that a properly submitted application could mean $52,200 to the taxpayers of Clearwater, "misplaced the grant application under another pile of paperwork." Should the term "tickler file" be introduced into the vocabulary of government employees? My Funk & Wagnall's defines "tickler" as "a memorandum book or file to aid the memory."
Or such as, "Hey, that's close enough for government work." I mean, what a letdown after the May 4 headlined article City polishes its pitch as All-America finalist. We are sending 17 or 18 people to Atlanta, at taxpayer expense, for a three-day event to showcase how our community as a whole works together to solve a problem. Well, hopefully, the team-effort presentation on the revitalization of the North Greenwood area can ignore the "unintentional oversight" in the funding of summer camps for North Greenwood area children. After all, the summer camps did get funded - and "It's not real money - it's only taxes."
-- R.J. Radford, Clearwater
[Last modified May 13, 2004, 02:10:43]
