Evacuation plan merits consideration
Letters to the EditorPublished September 25, 2005
Re: Council member pushes for bus evacuation plan, by Jon Wilson, Sept. 21.
City Council member John Bryan's plan to evacuate folks who are poor or don't have transportation in the event of a strong hurricane invites consideration. His plan is to utilize the Pinellas County Suncoast Transit Authority's buses to evacuate people. They would be brought to a pickup point (like Williams Park) and then would be brought to safe havens. When it was safe to return, these same buses would return them to Williams Park.
The bottom line is that St. Petersburg must be equal to the situation. The Bryan proposal must be considered. We must work with our National Guard units and consider erecting numerous hurricane-proof shelters in our area (that would also welcome beloved pets - something the Bryan proposal does not include) that would assure the welfare and safety of our residents. To be in tip-top form in the event of a worst-case hurricane scenario demands that we plan ahead and do what is necessary.
On this issue we should also work to obtain federal and state funding to help defray costs. The federal government is coming up with $200-billion to rebuild New Orleans and aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. Wouldn't it be wiser to spend smaller federal allotments over a period of years to save lives via stronger shelters, evacuation procedures, etc., before disaster befalls a community? Perhaps we could set up shelters for pets next to shelters for people.
-- Robert B. Fleming, St. Petersburg
Transit authority botching its job
Coming soon to a bus stop near you (Aug. 27) regarding "improved service" by the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority made me gag with laughter. Let me give you an example of how inept and inadequate PSTA is in providing public transportation to a city of a quarter-million people.
I utilize PSTA four days a week to commute to my job. I take a 7:45 a.m. bus, Route 18, northbound from Williams Park to Clearwater. This is a very busy bus, with people going to work, VA appointments at Bay Pines, school, etc. Three times in one recent week, the 7:45 a.m. bus did not show up, forcing people to wait another half-hour for the next Route 18 bus in the unpleasant environment of Williams Park. Of course, because of so many passengers, the next bus was behind schedule. On one bus, I counted 43 people plus a wheelchair. People were late, crowded and inconvenienced.
I called a PSTA supervisor three times, and three times she politely gave me an inadequate excuse as to why the bus didn't show up. Fortunately, my work hours are flexible, but others are not so lucky. If PSTA cannot run the bus, take it off the schedule.
If we want mass transit to help ease traffic congestion, we certainly won't get it under the current PSTA organization and leadership. It is undependable.
-- R.S. Bernhardt, St. Petersburg
Voters misled about taxes, fire service
Re: Fire board to weigh changes, Sept. 11.
The Pinellas Suncoast Fire & Rescue District is in a bind. For the last couple of weeks we have seen required legal ads from government agencies announcing tax increases. None of these agencies - cities, school board, county - require voters to approve their taxes, mostly from increases in property values (ad valorem). The fire district must try to finance its fire department on a flat fee which cannot be raised without voter approval.
Last year, due to false information peddled by four member municipalities' elected officials, the voters rejected a square-footage formula which would have saved money for thousands of district property owners. They called it a "massive tax increase" as it would have put a higher tax on the most affluent. Should the district wait until a taxpayer-funded "audit" is complete in January, it will be too late for any corrective action. Lack of funding will force the district into default and fire-protection management shifted to nearby city fire departments, all of which charge according to property values. If that happens, million-dollar waterfront homes will be paying thousands of dollars a year instead of much lower amounts being proposed by our board for approval of the Legislature.
We asked the voters last year. They said no, thanks to misinformation spread by those who regularly raise their citizens' property taxes without a vote.
-- Robert G. McEwen, fire commissioner, Pinellas Suncoast Fire & Rescue District, Indian Shores
New crosswalks imperil pedestrians
Whoever thought the crosswalks that have sprouted along 38th Avenue N recently were a good idea needs to rethink them for safety's sake. The newest one by Sixth Street N is accompanied by two small medians complete with planters. The other is on the nearly blind curve where 38th turns into 40th Avenue (at about Second Street N). These crosswalks are ill-conceived and need to be removed at once. They are dangerous to pedestrians as well as motor vehicles. The presence of a pedestrian in these crosswalks is supposed to stop traffic to allow the pedestrian right-of-way. Who are they kidding?
The red lights around town are often disobeyed as are speed limits. For a pedestrian to use these crosswalks is inviting disaster.
Some of our elderly population do not drive and are not often as alert as we'd like them to be. Please don't make them a further target.
To expect drivers to stop when a pedestrian enters a crosswalk is about as realistic as expecting them to obey posted speed limits - ain't happenin'.
Let these crosswalks go the way of the parking meter fiasco downtown.Jay Yardley, St. Petersburg
-- Very glad to be here, thank you
We're patting each other on the back. We recently marked the third anniversary of the day we became Floridians and we're very happy about it.
By giving lots of stuff away, throwing lots of stuff out, and amateurishly packing other stuff, we've managed to translate life in an 11-room city (Chicago) house to live in a two-bedroom condominium apartment here in St. Petersburg, and we love it!
We started our new life by subscribing to the Times (and the Tribune), joining the YMCA, registering to vote, and subscribing to season tickets to the Florida Orchestra and the American Stage.
With champagne we toast wonderful greenery and colorful flowers; we toast the fact that we left behind our snow shovels and ice chippers; we toast the nice people we have come to know; we toast St. Petersburg - it has welcomed us and we are pleased to know that our life is here.
-- Robert and Beryl Kilbride, St. Petersburg