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Wal-Mart will bring crime, more traffic problems

Please do not allow Wal-Mart to build a supercenter on the southeast corner of State Road and Grand Boulevard. We do not need a Wal-Mart every 5 miles.

We do not need the added crime that Wal-Mart will bring. We do not need the added traffic around our already crowded streets. Please do a Web search on "Crime and Wal-Mart" and you will see for yourselves what this will cause.

Trying to turn left onto SR 54 from Pensdale Drive (the entrance to Colonial Hills) is hard enough now let alone adding the number of cars that a Wal-Mart will bring. Turning right will be no picnic either. Turning onto Pensdale Drive from westbound SR 54 will be next to impossible. People will be using Pensdale Drive and Dove Drive as a bypass for the intersection of SR 54 and Grand Boulevard.

Grand Boulevard itself and the intersection of Moog Road will be a nightmare.

Please feel free yourself to attempt to go west on SR 54. Make a left at Grand, right onto Moog Road then get onto or cross U.S. 19 during daylight hours. This will make you see our concerns.

We understand that Wal-Mart will pay for traffic improvements, but their improvements will only maintain the grade level of the traffic in this area, not improve the conditions.

We realize that progress cannot be stopped, but maybe we can at least make the progress a little more tolerable to the people around it.

Bob and Theresa Mulkey, New Port Richey

New Wal-Mart Supercenter might drive away threatened tortoises

I have lived in the Colonial Hills community for over 20 years. Wal-Mart is trying the build a new Wal-Mart Supercenter adjacent to my house. In the past, our community has been rather quiet and crime-free with moderate traffic. The traffic in the community now is very heavy in the early morning and late afternoon to early evening.

There are six to eight threatened gopher tortoises that live in the environment where Wal-Mart plans to build. I see one that occasionally comes to the side of my house for some water. No actions are being taken to move the endangered tortoises. The concrete goes down and the building goes up. No more tortoises? Where did they go?

Is there really a necessity for this Wal-Mart?

Kay Maley, New Port Richey

Area doesn't need more light, noise pollution or mosquitoes

Re: Wal-Mart

The effect on our traffic as well as crime, safety, light and noise pollution and more will be just terrible. The water retention ponds along Grand Boulevard will cause more mosquitoes and bugs than we have now.

Lorraine Streveler, New Port Richey

Commercial property owners have right to develop land as they see fit

Re: Revoke approval for Wal-Mart Supercenter, Aug. 28 letter

Didn't the letter writer know she was buying a home next to commercial property? It is amazing how people think they can buy next to commercial property, which has been there for years, and expect the owners to just leave it vacant for their benefit! Or does she have a problem with Wal-Mart? Would she have still bought her home if the property was still a lumber yard?

I hope this woman never has a problem that requires quick police response, without a sheriff's substation in the area! As for crime, there are a lot of things that could be 10 times worse than Wal-Mart. Just look at what is going on with that area right now. Fences are torn down on a regular basis. Vagrants and other undesirables roam the area and live on that and other abutting property.

Owners of commercial property have a right to use it for what it was intended, the same as homeowners have their rights. Almost every subdivision was designed with commercial property between the homes and the road. So what if Wal-Mart, or any other company, has a store on every corner; that is their right, the same as you have a right to choose not to buy next to commercial property!

Wil Nickerson, Holiday

In the good old days, mercury spill wouldn't cause an evacuation

Re: Mercury spill forces school evacuation, Aug. 23

What a bunch of wimps. So a couple of mercury thermometers broke and a little bit of mercury spilled on the floor and the whole school is evacuated.

Did you know that when we, your grandparents' generation, were young, the breaking of a mercury thermometer was almost a social event. We'd roll the little balls of mercury around on the table top (from which we would later eat) with our fingers. If we were lucky enough to have a copper penny, we would get a droplet of mercury on the surface of the penny and rub it into the surface until we had a silver coin. All of this was done without masks, goggles, gloves or haz-mat suits. None of us suffered any ill effect from playing with mercury. We just had fun.

Now, a mercury thermometer breaks and everyone panics. Wow.

A.J. D'Amario, Hudson

Florida should legalize casinos as a way to bring in more revenue

Re: Casinos can solve insurance troubles, Aug. 28 letter

In response to the letter relating to casinos being legalized in Florida, I totally agree. I think we need to stop spending our money in Biloxi, Atlantic City and Las Vegas.

Let us stay in our state and let our state benefit from casinos. Will it bring crime as so many fear? I really doubt it. Crime is here without it. Did the crime rate increase in Biloxi?

I think we need to wake up and do something to replenish our revenue; if we don't Florida will be a sinking state.

Marie Everhart, Hudson

Hit-and-run driver must be forced to take responsibility for actions

I would like to address this to the guy who hit my son head-on the evening of Sunday, Aug. 27, at the corner of Little Road and Fox Hollow Drive.

You had some nerve to taking off and not facing your responsibility. My 6-year-old grandson was in that car. You drove away doing 80 mph. We have three witnesses and part of your tag number. Also your front bumper. So please if anyone out there sees a white Blazer with front-end damage, please call the Florida Highway Patrol before someone gets killed by this driver.

Dolores Colucci, Port Richey

[Last modified September 5, 2006, 07:18:49]