Letters to the Editors

Raising tolls on parkway isn't the answer

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 20, 2001

Editor: I have been using the Suncoast Parkway since its opening and have found it to be accommodating.

Now I read that once the tollbooths open, it will cost double to use it.

I don't want to deny anyone any jobs that this may create, but I have a few questions.

First, our tax dollars paid to build it, yet we still have to pay to use it.

Second, why do we need toll collectors to collect money? When there's no one there, the system will still work. I wonder how many cars will have to pass through those tolls just to pay for those collecting the money?

Like I said, I've been using the toll road since its opening, and I don't think there's enough traffic to generate the money they're hoping for. And if tolls continue to rise, it will not accommodate me anymore.
-- Calvin Johnson, New Port Richey

World War II memorial: a good idea, long overdue

Editor: The memorial to World War II veterans is long overdue and should be in place now. I was an 18-year-old boy who fast became a man serving our nation to preserve our way of life and to defeat tyranny.

We have lost many of our veterans. We saved the world back then and deserve the memorial.

The memorial is open and allows full view from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. It will enhance the Mall and pay homage to all our veterans of World War II.

Since we are dying off rapidly, I doubt if I will see a completed memorial in my lifetime.

Your paper should put this tribute to World War II on the front page and silence people with political agendas causing delays of the project.
-- John Marafino, Port Richey

Sprawling housing project is a disaster in the making

Editor: I want to alert the public to the sprawling HUD structure on Alt. U.S. 19 with approximately 280 living units. It is a travesty fathered by greed. How many children will this disaster-in-the-making village cloister?

The critical questions that must be asked are endless.

Whose final approval was needed to construct this nightmare on an already congested two-lane highway just a few hundred yards from the treacherous U.S. 19 intersection?

There is no area for children's recreation. When other multidwellings, under government supervision, are erected throughout the country, they are compelled to provide adequate recreation areas, sometimes consisting of multiple acres. What about this project?

What answer can the state and county traffic divisions give when 280 family vehicles converge on an already jammed two-lane highway? How many more traffic lights will be installed to further this debacle?

Being that the phantom officials have screwed up the location of this monstrous abode, have they screwed up on the sewage disposal? Have they screwed up on the water problems?

Disaster is not far off, and it will be the children who will take the hit, and politics will be the demon.

Unless the citizens take a more active role in governing in Florida, their tax money will continue to be wasted on government-backed boondoggles.
-- Harold A. Biggar, Holiday

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