Today's Letters: School bus policy endangers kids

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published October 7, 2007

I was a resident of Northeast Philadelphia for 48 years, my three children all attended the Anne Frank School and I felt with the precautions the School District had in place, they were safe. Rules were enforced pretty much so in the classroom, mothers waited on neighborhood corners with their children, waiting for the school bus to take them to school. Cooperation from the children was expected on the school bus and high-security measures were in place to escort the children from school bus to schoolyard, with monitors carrying walkie-talkies and ensuring the kids got on their buses safely to return home.

My children lived a mile from the school. Children were not permitted to ride their bikes as the city of Philadelphia thought that would be too dangerous for children to be riding in the streets along with traffic at the busiest time of the day when people were en route to work, and then there was always the possibility of a kidnapping.

I moved to Holiday a year ago. We now live 1.8 miles from the school, and there are no buses for the children. Here, they have to live 2 miles from the school in order to qualify to get on a bus. In my ZIP code alone, there are 59 registered sex offenders; 59 offenders who live in the homes en route to the school. Our children here ride bikes; it is amazing as you drive to the school all the little kids riding bikes alone that distance with 59 sex offenders nearby.

Kids in my neighborhood don't play outside at all, never. They don't ride their bikes for fun, they don't shoot baskets or kick a football around. I questioned this; I was told it was because of the sex offenders. Florida parents are too frightened to give the freedom of the outdoors to their children but the state expects the children to travel up to 2 miles to school on roads that house sex offenders.

Barbara O'Donnell, Holiday

We need a break from rising fees

How exactly do the Pasco commissioners expect this county to grow? We just got hit, yet again, with tripling transportation impact fees, then the school impact fee increase, and now Pasco utility fees go up. It costs a builder in most cases $20,000 before the lot is even touched, while we are all struggling to build affordable housing.

On Oct. 1, some ridiculous new water rates went into effect. For a single-family home, the application fee for a new meter increased nearly $800 without warning. If you want to conserve and have reuse water, new surprises are in store for you, too: $241 for a meter and $260 for your reuse charge.

In these difficult times, our commissioners do not have the residents or business owners in their best interests. We are all struggling to keep jobs, pay bills with the high gas rates, not to mention groceries and the other increased fees all over. Our commissioners just seem to think we can pay for their inconsistencies.

I think they need to take off their blinders and get out and talk to people to see what they can do for us. Do we not pay their ridiculous salaries? Do they not work for us? Maybe we should bring in some new commissioners that have the public in their best interest. I think it's time, don't you?

Terri Conroy,New Port Richey

Send your letter to Pasco Times, 11321 U.S. 19, Port Richey, FL 34668, or by fax to 727-869-6233 or go to www.tampabay.com/letters/.

[Last modified October 7, 2007, 00:28:49]