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Editor: On Aug. 13, my wife and I had to evacuate our manufactured home because I'm on oxygen, a nebulizer and have a pacemaker. We were directed to the Special Needs Shelter at West Hernando Middle School.
We arrived at 8 a.m. and soon were registered in a very efficient manner. As I needed oxygen, we were given a space along the wall below the stage, which had electrical outlets and oxygen tanks.
All went extremely well, receiving two cots, blankets and chairs, all very well-spaced.
With the number of people in attendance, the shelter personnel did a wonderful job of meeting everyone's needs. We were served breakfast, dinner and supper (warm and filling), and even had some pizza to take the edge off.
My wife and I want to thank the county Emergency Management Office workers for a job well done in the training of those in charge, the Health Department nurses and other volunteers from other organizations who were ever-present in taking care of our needs so professionally.
Emergency Operations, thank you for for keeping Hernando prepared.
Editor: Some $50,000 so far has been given in checks, cash and vouchers to disabled veterans in hurricane-ravished southwestern Florida in cooperation with the National Disabled American Veterans' disaster fund from Cincinnati, and the Florida Department of Disabled American Veterans, along with Andy Marshall's DAV National Service office in St. Petersburg, whose Mobile DAV Van went immediately to disaster locations.
The Brooksville Chapter DAV 67 is proud to be associated with this effort and will ask its membership to add chapter funding to the cause, helping disabled veterans who are victims of Hurricane Charley restore their lives in some measure.
The 87 Florida Disabled American Veterans chapters, their auxiliaries and dugouts for the elite "Trench Rats" throughout our state stand ready to assist veterans with not only claims for benefits of compensation, pension and widow's benefits, volunteers in VA hospitals and clinics and veterans' nursing homes, but also when natural disasters occur to disrupt the lives of disabled veterans suffering events beyond their control.
For those who are not members of Disabled American Veterans, call 796-1679 to join this million-member organization that lobbies Congress for state-of-the-art VA health care and veterans' benefits.
Editor: While our emergency leaders make plans for an emergency operations center, they should make sure that it would only be large enough for the necessary staff and not have room set aside for any of their family, friends or elected officials.
Second, mobile home owners will evacuate when a storm is six hours away, but not 24 hours away. Calling for evacuation of mostly elderly people on Thursday evening, when they did not even know where the storm was coming ashore, has only reinforced the image of someone crying "wolf" when they had no idea of the storm's path. It will only encourage people to disregard their next message and stay in their manufactured homes.
We did go to the special needs shelter and the people in charge were kind, gracious and very helpful in every respect. We went there Friday at 9 a.m. and left at 7:30 p.m., and felt very secure.
Re: Principal at J.D. Floyd taking wrong approach, Aug 24 letter to the editor:
Editor: After reading the letter that referred to J.D. Floyd Elementary School as going from a nurturing student- and parent-friendly environment to a police state, I must defend our principal, Marcia Austin, and our school.
I have been teaching at Floyd since 1993, and the changes that have taken place since Mrs. Austin became principal regarding pick up and drop off of students have been made only for the safety and protection of our students.
Before Marcia became principal, parents were parking all over our campus at drop-off and dismissal. Some children and parents were recklessly crossing our bus loop and parking lot, creating an environment of chaos and potential danger.
Following an appeal from teachers and para-professionals to do something about the potentially dangerous situation, Marcia and our assistant principal, Nancy Kesselring, implemented a drop-off and dismissal procedure that assures the safety of our students. They did not intend to alienate the parents by implementing this procedure. Their intentions were only in the best interest of the safety of our students.
Despite what was said in the letter from Mr. DelGatto, our principals still allow parents to park and walk their students if they wish, but they must park in a parking space and they now must use the crosswalk to cross the parking lot.
Our lunchroom sees more than 1,000 students daily, and it can be difficult for teachers and lunchroom aides to maintain order. The students can get loud and perhaps the teachers have to speak over their chatter, but I have never heard a teacher "scream" at their students in all my experiences at Floyd.
In response to the reference about the screaming child who Mrs. Kesselring carried to class, she was only helping a frustrated parent who didn't know what to do about her kindergartener, who adamantly refused to get out of the car and go to school. After she escorted him out of his car and he began to become very upset, she calmly picked him up and carried him to class. She picked him up because if she didn't, he would have dashed back to mom. The parent was thankful, and when Mrs. Kesselring checked on this little boy later in the day, he was happy.
As for the police officer who has been directing traffic at our school for the past two weeks, his presence is a necessity. Due to the lack of a second needed entrance that has been in debate for the past few years, and because of the extra students who are often dropped off and dismissed because many parents are reluctant to put their children on the bus at the beginning of the year, there is a lot of extra traffic each morning and afternoon. This officer has been at our school to assure that no potential safety hazards arise as a result of all these cars.
Parents must know that any changes that have been made at Floyd have only been in the best interest of our students, and I encourage any parent who might believe that our school is no longer nurturing our students or that we are no longer parent-friendly, please come and volunteer at our school. Then you will soon see that our school is truly all about the kids and their parents, too.
Re: Principal at J.D. Floyd taking wrong approach, Aug. 24 letter to the editor:
Editor: Steve DelGatto should get his facts correct and not pass on hearsay. He stated that parents were stopped from parking and walking their children to the front of the school and that deputies are there almost daily. This is not correct. First, parents can park and walk their children to the front of the school; they only need to park in the assigned parking spots or they can just drive up to the assigned drop-off location and let their children out at the front of the school.
What has changed is that parents cannot park in the drop-off zone, or double- or triple-park in front of the school. That is a fire zone. Parents were double-parking so that no other vehicles could get by, including an ambulance one day.
That is what prompted Principal Marcia Austin to enforce the safety rules. What she has simply asked is that parents not be self-centered and walk 50 feet in the interest of children's safety.
Editor: As a pet owner in Spring Hill, I wonder why are we sending our money for licenses to Texas?
As a taxpayer, why not give this job to someone in Spring Hill? This makes no sense!
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