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The oink you hear is Beach Walk project

Re: Developer offers beach parking, article, Sept. 29.

What are we, the stupids of the world? Developer Roland Rogers offers us a parking garage for only $30,000 a car? The city gave away the parking at the library. It gave away various other parking lots, too.

If you're so intent on building a garage on the beach, take the kid's park (at Pier 60) out. Build a round garage, 10 stories high, with ramps coming on and off the roundabout. Make the bottom floor for handicapped parking. Make the tenth floor an observation area for sunsets and the like. Give all vendors on the beach a space on the top floor for selling whatever they like.

The Beach Walk project is "pork" at it's finest. Any hurricane, tropical depression, or even a very windy day will blow sand all over the streets. The taxpayers will have to pay if it's destroyed.

Thomas Caragher, Clearwater

Policy for emergency services needs system of checks and balances

Re: Paramedic ruling questioned, story, Sept. 27.

I was amazed to hear that a person can have emergency services brought to a home on such a call.

Let me see if I get it. I call 911 and say, "Help! I was just raped by George W. Bush and I need assistance!" This will actually force the emergency services out to my house. Is this true?

I find it very hard to believe that this is the procedure in our 911 system. Are there no checks and balances? How many times can a person falsely call 911 before being reprimanded? Is it illegal to call 911 under false pretense? Why is the caller not being held responsible for her abuse of the system? What would the city do if all its citizens did this? The city could not afford the payroll to cover every call it received. Would employees be fired for not responding then?

All I know is, if I need help and I have to wait, only to find out emergency services is out on a known false caller, the chief will be getting calls from many directions. I bet if the general public was informed on the city's policy on this, there would be newly elected officials just around the corner, put in place to fix this.

Sean Johnson, Largo

Actions of Clearwater paramedic deserve applause from residents

Re: Residents won't soon forget how paramedic failed, letter, Oct. 1.

Our 911 system is a most wonderful tool. It must not be abused. It saves countless lives each year. There must be laws against its use for fraud or frivolous situations.

I would think after a certain number of repeated calls by the same person to the emergency number, some sort of investigation should be done and certain penalties be applied if warranted.

I know of no one who would call that number unless it was for a most dire reason generally requiring an ambulance. One hundred and twenty-six times? A little hard to take!

I should like to nominate Clearwater paramedic Trevor Murray as citizen of the year. He obviously has more sense than the Clearwater City Council, which allowed this travesty to occur. The paramedic did not fail, Clearwater failed the paramedic.

Ton Messina, Clearwater

Nurses at Mease Dunedin showed compassion when needed most

I recently spent a week in Mease Dunedin Hospital. When you consider at least one and usually two nurses in three eight-hour shifts tending to my needs daily, you will understand why I can't remember all their names. What I cannot forget is the care and compassion I received from every single one of them, first in the emergency room, then the Intensive Care Unit, and finally the third floor west.

This is a vocation for them, not a job. And they do it every day for people they just met and who are in various stages of sickness. I never saw or heard any of these extraordinary women and men complain. No one. Never.

More remarkably, every one of these nurses maintained a high degree of optimism and cheer. Believe me, that attitude is the only contagious thing that lives in this magnificent hospital.

To all of them, my heartfelt thanks.

Literally.

Jack Bray, Dunedin

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[Last modified October 4, 2006, 07:06:43]