Letters to the Editors

Reopening Dunedin Pass would help with bad odor

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 11, 2001

If any of our Clearwater commissioners were to travel on Edgewater Drive at low tide with their car windows down, they would swear they were driving past an open sewer or septic tank. The stench is terrible!

It is obvious that the toilet (our beautiful bay) needs flushing, and the only way to do it is to reopen Dunedin Pass at the north end of Clearwater Beach.

Several years ago, I recommended that we kill two birds with one stone and use the sand from Dunedin Pass to replace the sand on Sand Key Beach. Instead, it cost $25-million to haul sand from Ft. DeSoto to Sand Key, and Dunedin Pass remained closed.

Ecologists, boaters and concerned citizens of Clearwater would like Mayor Brian Aungst to address this serious matter.
-- Bob Breslo, Clearwater

Mobbly Bay land should not be used for new homes

Re: Subdivision plans dismay neighbors, story, Aug. 15.

I live on Race Track Road South in Oldsmar. I am writing to you about the land proposed for the Mobbly Bay development.

Vincent Marchetti and Roger Kumar are businessmen. They do not care about the devastating effect that this development will cause.

First, the traffic issue. People have killed animals and hit mailboxes going 65 mph down this street, which has a speed limit of 25 mph and no stop signs for the length of this road. I was run off this narrow road walking my dog and so were other residents in the past. There are no sidewalks. The road is too narrow for all the trucks and cars that will be traveling it. Someday, a person will be run down and killed.

I was a builder in south Florida in the '80s and rebuilt homes after Hurricane Andrew devastated the area. I saw firsthand what damage land-filling caused when the water surge came in. The water had no place to go.

Mobbly Bay is our runoff area; and if the land is filled, we will have raw sewage floating all around. Most all of the homes on and around this bay have septic systems. I got hepatitis C in the '70s from tainted water because someone did not care and poured raw sewage into the Intracoastal Waterway. I was in isolation for four months. More people die from hepatitis C a year than from AIDS.

So this issue of more homes on such a delicate and sensitive wetland is not the best thing for the residents. I feel that we are overdue for a big storm, and the same thing will happen to a lot of people. I do not think Mr. Kumar or Mr. Marchetti have us citizens in mind at all. We will not benefit from this.

This land needs to be a wilderness preserve. Also, where do they think the drinking water will come from? We are in a shortage of water now, and the counties still allow the building to go on. All people think of is money, not the well-being of the people who have been here for years.

I think the county needs to consider all of the lawsuits that will come from this project if and when a major storm hits. The land is not suitable for homes. It is truly a wetland and needs to be left that way.
-- Rev. Raina Hamill, Oldsmar

When showing horse riders, don't forget about helmets

Re: An ounce of equine prevention, story and photos, Sept. 9.

The St. Petersburg Times has done an excellent job in promoting the availability of the vaccine to prevent the West Nile virus; however, a key safety aspect of equine sports is wearing a helmet (preferably one approved by ASTM).

As the owner of Cypress Trails Farm in Odessa and a retired orthopaedic spine surgeon, I am only too aware of the potential injuries that can and do occur to bare-headed riders. As a service to the community I respectfully suggest that you choose to publish photographs of properly attired riders. Thank you.
-- Elizabeth Sirna, M.D., Clearwater

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