Todays Letters: It's in our back yard, not yours

Developer doles out big money to officials Jan. 20, story

If Bill Bunting, his fiefdom (the Republican Party of Pasco County) and the West Pasco Chamber of Commerce are so enamored of the landfill idea being pushed by Angelo's Aggregate Materials, let them locate it in west Pasco!

I fail to see what concern this is of anyone on the west side of the county as they are not the ones who will have to live with this when it destroys the quality of life here in the Dade City area.

Barbara Eger, Dade City

Costly to recycle, cheaper to bury

I thought curbside recycling was passe. New $100,000 trucks will have to be purchased. We wouldn't want to compact all the newspaper, metal, glass and plastic before it gets to the new, larger recycling center to be sorted. We will require plastic tubs to store these materials until the pickup day. Every can and bottle will need a hot water rinse to keep the odor and pests at bay. The $2 to $4 increase will be tacked on to our property tax. These big trucks crumble our streets, pollute our air and waste precious fuel.

These same county officials set the essential trash pickup rate at $11.24 a month or whatever the haulers want to charge.

If these items were worth anything they would be stolen from our trash. It seems like an upside-down deal; it costs more than it's worth. It's a lot cheaper to build landfills.

Thomas Karcher, New Port Richey

If recycling, all must pitch in

I fail to understand why the county commissioners are not planning on making recycling mandatory, by which I mean that residents of Pasco cannot throw recyclables in the trash.

We are talking about making a positive impact on the environment. And all the commissioners care about is that the fee should be mandatory. And why once-a-week pickup? More trucks on the road are desirable? Seems we are doing okay with every-other-week pickup.

Pasco's Shady Hills incinerator is already over its capacity. Are we waiting for this situation to worsen? If this proposal goes through as described, I will join the ranks of those not recycling as I am tired of carrying the weight of irresponsible neighbors and officials. As for the commissioners, I call them clueless and irresponsible in Pasco.

Rose Kottakis, Trinity

Grand Blvd. site has no city use

Port Richey does not need a plan for the property on Grand Boulevard. The question is, can we afford to purchase it? Do we need another park that is barely used like the ones we have now? Do we need money for the dredging project or this?

Fixing up our beautiful waterfront is far more feasible than wasting it on a useless piece of property. The reason there is no plan for this property is because it can serve no purpose for the city. I can't think of one and neither can anyone else.

Robert Clark, Port Richey

Groups fight tax proposal Jan. 15, story

An insurance solution is simple

Does the Pasco School Board think we voters are fools and are not supposed to know that the School Board was given separate existence from the rest of the county government in the tax proposal? The School Board need not ask the voters' permission to buy land at more than assessed value or build a high school costing millions of tax dollars that will not be needed by the time it is completed due to the rapid exodus of taxpayers from this state because of the price of insurance and the cost of taxes.

We will vote "no" on Amendment 1 not because of the School Board but because it is like tossing a cement block instead of a life preserver to a drowning person. Also, the insurance solution promised by the governor is a sham.

The solution to the insurance problem is simple: a lock safe national disaster insurance policy. Lock safe to keep politicians out of it so they can't IOU it to death like Social Security.

These big insurance companies won't like this, but too bad. They have enough of our money. There have been disasters all over the nation and these insurance companies just keep making more and more money by raising premiums sky high. It's time to crush the head of the snake with your heel.

Write your congressman and senator and ask the candidate for support of a national disaster insurance issued the same as flood insurance.

Jean L. Mielke, Hudson

Mail gets lost in change of address

For 23 years I have had mail temporarily forwarded for two months in the summer. This past summer, mail from the bank, medical centers and Medicare was returned to sender. One medical center turned over my account to a collection agency. It was difficult to find out what those were. On Oct. 22, I sent the collection agency a check to resolve this.

On Jan. 10, I received two notices from the collection agency to settle my account. The envelopes were dated Oct. 19, 2007. My local post office would give no explanation as to why they weren't delivered sooner.

This summer, I will fill out a form for a permanent change of address and change it back when I come home.

B.W. Burnett, Hudson

[Last modified January 21, 2008, 21:07:31]