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Letter to the editor

Today's Letters: Consolidate all fire service in the county

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published June 3, 2007

Fire chiefs brace for property tax cuts May 27, story

This article was most revealing as to the parochial thinking of the fire chiefs you quoted. Each of the chiefs lamented the probable need to reduce personnel and reciprocal service provided to other fire jurisdictions if property tax cuts are forced by the state.

Why not consolidate all fire departments countywide into a single unit as we've done with ambulance service? There would be better allocation of resources and elimination of redundancies. I'm sure that when the quoted fire chiefs warned of personnel cuts, they didn't mean their jobs - but with consolidation, we certainly wouldn't need so many chiefs, would we? Administrative costs could be substantially reduced with consolidation, without reducing service levels.

So long as we have parochial thinking and turf guarding as practiced by the municipalities and fire districts, we will never be able to truly resolve our property tax crisis. And as long as we continue to act as we always have, we'll continue to get the same results that we always have gotten. It's time for change.

Charles Peters, Seminole

In no way anti-Semitic 

More important issues May 30, letter

I am outraged that you would print a letter accusing the Presbyterian Church of "unmitigated, unabashed anti-Semitism."

The irony of printing this letter is that last month members of Woodlawn Presbyterian Church attended the Jewish National Fund annual dinner in which their pastor, Doug McMahon, was honored with their annual "Tree of Life" award for improving relations and dialogue between Christians and Jews.

Likewise, that you would allow the reader to cite an unsanctioned meeting with Hezbollah when the Presbyterian Church USA repudiated such and fired the participants who organized this meeting is tragic. Lastly, is the fact the church rejected the use of divestment as a policy statement at its last annual meeting.

The hurt and mistrust that you have promulgated between religions is disgusting.

Evan R. Jones, St. Petersburg

Seek ways to limit waste

I went out to lunch with my daughter the other day, taking with me my lunch bag and several plastic containers. When we were through eating, I brought out my containers (recycled from a Chinese restaurant) and packaged up our leftovers for my evening meal. I ate less, and there were two less plastic containers and one less plastic bag that could have ended up in Clam Bayou.

Yes, the city should clean up, but we need to look for ways to produce less trash!

Travis Sherman, St. Petersburg

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[Last modified June 2, 2007, 19:29:21]