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Work together for happily ever after

Editor's note: The following letter was presented to the Citrus County Task Force of the Citrus/Hernando Water Restoration Council on Feb. 12 and is being reprinted at the author's request.

Once upon a time in a beautiful country kingdom, a wise legislator realized that the Royal Technical Agencies who were skilled and educated did not serve the wants and needs of the people. With growth, private misdeeds and errors by the Royal Engineers the lakes became clogged, fouled and were emptying.

The wise legislator worked to gather and appoint a council that included common persons and Royal Technical Agencies. The wisdom of the common people could be combined with the education and knowledge of the Royal Technical Agencies. Working together would achieve serendipity and restore the waters to clean and plentiful beauty. In the wisdom of the legislator, the common people would speak of the problems and needs followed by the technical agencies proposing solutions and recommendations.

But, alas, it did not work. Royal Technical Agencies rarely suggested anything but ignored or found fault with the ideas of the common people. The Royal Technical Agencies proposed that vast riches be spent on studies. Work was rarely started because studies were rarely finished. If a study was finished and ended with alternatives, discussion could go on forever. The common people begged for help and the Royal Technical Agencies picked at ideas and offered useless trials and more study.

Will the kingdom suffer a revolt?

Will the commoners march on local palaces?

Will the commoners march on the Flying Eagle lowlands with saws and pruning hooks to allow wet season waters to flow into the lakes?

Will the commoners march to stop scheduled releases of water from the lakes?

Or will the kingdom live happily ever after with citizens, Royal Technical Agencies and legislators working together?

Al Grubman, Inverness, president, TOO FAR

Re: Construction company, widow agree to settlement Feb. 15, story

We all pay for big settlements

In what was described as "a pounding rain," Frances Siko drove down a boat ramp, drowning a passenger, Robert Romaine.

Wife, now widow, Josephine Romaine, states, "We thought we were just turning onto a road," giving the impression that they were all very alert!

First, they were driving in a "pounding" rain. Laws state that one must drive according to the conditions. Rational people have been known to pull off the road in blizzards or "pounding rain."

Second, they passed a sign reading, "Dead End 250 Feet." When conditions are so bad that driver Siko cannot see that sign or the body of water, it is dead certain that driver Siko should have parked the vehicle.

However, widow Romaine sued Lester's Construction, settling for an undisclosed sum in excess of $100,000. She also settled with Citrus County for another $100,000.

I fail to see any litigation against the negligent driver, or any civil or criminal action in the drowning death.

Naturally, attorneys (the plague of our nation) go for the deep pockets. However, what is forgotten in all of this lunatic generosity is that the deep pockets are in the trousers of taxpayers, clients and customers. Also known as "rational" suckers.

Citrus County paid from the "county property and casualty claims budget," subsidized by taxes.

Lester's Construction pays with funds from clients and customers, also known as taxpayers, because businesses and government do not pay taxes, insurance fees, claims. The above cited rational suckers pay, as everything in business and government is passed on to them as part of the cost of doing business by simply raising the prices and taxes.

We live in a sadly warped nation, where "justice" has been perverted in politics, business and everyday life. The one (highly successful) aim has been to fatten the pockets of lawyers and the judges (also lawyers).

During a lengthy life of watching a once great and just nation sink to the gutter, I observe that the myriad causes can be traced back to those practitioners of justice, lawyers and judges.

Fred Miller, Hernando

County road projects to cost $14-million per mile

Roads cost $220 per inch? No way

I read an article that a road contractor was charging $14-million for 1 mile of road work. I know nothing from Shinola about road building but I wondered if a homeowners insurance company had gone into road building.

If my calculations are correct, that is $2,651.52 per foot, which may be no wonder when one watches the crews standing around with or without a shovel to lean on, basically doing nothing. If I had known it cost that much, I might have been more reverent when I drove on it. By the way, that's $220.96 per inch.

To put in another perspective, a $17,000 impact fee would pay for only 76 inches of new roadway. Of course that is not going to happen as long as three commissioners are influenced by contractors.

So, who is going to pay for it? The property owners of Citrus County. You can count on Commissioners Dennis Damato and John Thrumston rubber-stamping it along with the Taj Mahal Emergency Operations Center that went from $5-million to $20-million.

Do I hear a groundswell of resentment from the electorate? Nah, it's only tax money and the government has carte blanche to soak us for whatever they deem they want.

Wonder if we might contract with a South American company to build our roads.

Frank B. Hill, Homosassa

[Last modified February 22, 2007, 06:26:23]