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Editor: I am a homeowner and live in the next subdivision that our lovely county wants to force to pave the streets. My street is in great shape. They want to charge not $600 a home, but $800. Doesn't sound fair.
What's going to happen when they decide to put sewers in and what about sidewalks? Why can't they give us sidewalks first? Children have to ride the main road, Moog Road, on bikes. Moms push strollers just so they can get to the store. My children can't enjoy what a lot of kids do because they aren't allowed to do things in the streets.
Basically, the Indy 500 gets run on my road on a daily basis. I kind of wish I had potholes, maybe one or two of the cars might bottom out on their way through.
Take five minutes out to think about it and take a look. Not all these roads need to be paved.
I have a disabled child, and the county won't even put a sign up on my street for that. Then they want me to pay for a repaved street that doesn't even need it? How many commissioners live or even drive these roads to have the right to say they will be paved?
Editor: I do not live in your area, but am concerned about the unbridled powers claimed by homeowners associations. I wonder what right the HOA has to confiscate private property.
In Anne Broache's article, animal control says "Pasco County has no leash law for cats, but homeowners associations and municipalities can establish their own rules."
Does that mean the homeowner associations have police powers to confiscate private property and to deprive a citizen of his property, the cat, by killing it, without a due process hearing by the courts?
If so, this would mean that the association is acting as an agent of the state and would be an unconstitutional delegation of governmental powers as the states of Rhode Island and Virginia have ruled.
Re: Cat safe after trapping mix-up, June 17.
Editor: The article seems to express sympathy for the family of the trapped cat. This sympathy is dramatically misplaced. This family continues to break a county ordinance, and your coverage seems to condone these actions.
Those cats must be confined to the owner's property unless leashed or tethered. This is not an impossible feat but requires patience, which a good owner is always willing to give his or her pets. These folks are breaking the law that all responsible pet owners observe.
Additionally, the mention of kittens suggests that despite recommendations by all veterinarians and the ASPCA, these creatures have not been neutered.
Bottom line, the homeowners association is within its rights and is acting within the law. I hope, at the very least, they make that family pay the trapper's fee on top of the county fine.
Re: Make recycling easy, free, June 17 letter.
Editor: The writer is a lazy penny-pincher. He states he recycled religiously in Safety Harbor. Now he lives in Trinity and does not recycle. Why?
"In Pasco, the trash haulers take everything but paper unsorted.... I would have to buy the blue plastic bags myself," he wrote.
Blue bags cost a couple bucks for 100, and you get them free if you shop at Wal-Mart. Call around and find out where the nearest recycling bin is for newspaper.
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