LETTERS: Kids need your help: Donate to the Imagination Library; plus, letters responding to City Council

What are your neighbors talking about?


  • By
  • | 10:59 p.m. November 23, 2015
  • Palm Coast Observer
  • Opinion
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Support Imagination Library for Flagler

Dear Editor:

Flagler County has been blessed with a wonderful educational tool: The Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Given that 90% of a child’s brain is fully developed by age 5, we all have an obligation to invest in this most important demographic group. 

Many of today’s problems could be greatly reduced if we are proactive and “fertilize” young brains during these decisive first few years.

The Flagler Imagination Library is provided free to all children under age 5 who live in Flagler County. After a child is registered for the program, an age-appropriate book is mailed to the child each month. Currently, almost 1,100 Flagler County children are receiving DPIL books, and the stories that their families tell about reading, bonding and sharing are always filled with happiness and gratitude.

Won’t you please help by supporting The Flagler Imagination Library? Your one-time gift or annual pledge will ensure that books are delivered to every Flagler child for many years to come. 

You can go online to donate at flaglerimaginationlibrary.org or mail your check payable to: “The Flagler County Education Foundation” (write “DPIL” in the memo area), FCEF (DPIL), 1769 E. Moody Blvd. Building 2, Bunnell, Fla., 32110. Or, email [email protected].

John “J.B.” Birney

Board member, Early Learning Coalition of Flagler Volusia

School bus cameras are last things we need

Dear Editor:

Mayor Jon Netts wants to stick us now with school bus cameras. This is the same leadership who has given us the much-hated red light cameras, and the highly unsuccessful enterprise-funded Palm Harbor Golf Club and city tennis center. Oh, did I forget the new City Hall that was built despite previous voter defeat?

Like red light cameras, school bus cameras are yet another fraud designed to enrich a few vendors and governments at the expense of drivers. This is easy to research, so why does the mayor (and, no doubt, others) think they can pull off yet another scam on us?

Did you know that the majority of children hurt/killed in school bus accidents were hit by the actual school buses? Maybe the cameras should be on the school buses themselves via a long “selfie” stick! 

Problems with drivers passing stopped school buses could be lessened by such measures as having school buses pull off main roads to load/unload and to make it clear (and reasonable) when the “no passing” laws on four-lane divided roadways apply.

The last thing we need are more robo-cops that can only make money (at the cost to our citizens and economy) by fleecing motorists a la Boss Hogg and Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane of the “Dukes of Hazard.”

Mike McGuire

Palm Coast

Civility should still apply in letters

Dear Editor:

What ever happened to civility? Three of the five letters printed in the Palm Coast Observer on Nov. 19 were nothing more than personal attacks upon Councilman Steve Nobile. While I personally disagree with “living wages” for council members, I was able to state my opposition in logical fashion without resorting to personal attacks and name-calling.

Is it extremist to care about following the Constitution of the United States (which is the focus of the Tea Party)?

Is it extremist to exercise your Second Amendment rights?

I have spoken to Councilman Nobile on several occasions, and I have found him to be an intelligent, level-headed, hard-working man who sincerely cares about the city of Palm Coast. 

Alice Losasso

Palm Coast

How much should they be earning?

Dear Editor:

According to the letters on Nov. 19, we give the county commissioners $50,000 per year! Please note that I didn’t say “the commissioners earn $50,000” per year. 

They get that much for tuning over a shovel full of dirt occasionally; that’s all I ever see them do. Maybe I’m wrong; they have been known to extort money from people who want to build hotels, and they buy overpriced land for unneeded and unused parks from friends and relatives.

Every corporation that I worked for paid you what they deemed you were worth. You didn’t vote yourself raises, you earned them. As a superintendent, my job was to build the best product at the lowest cost, or else. 

From a consumer’s point of view, I have figured out what our elected officials are actually worth.

The county commissioners: $2,000 per year and a parking place at the county courthouse.

The City Council members: $2,001 per year and a $5 weekly stipend for coffee and donuts.

The mayor: $80,000 per year, because we are going to get rid of the city manager, and the mayor will do the job he was elected to do: run the city!

The sheriff: $40,000 per year, because he won’t have much to do after we get a police chief and police force like a city of this size should have!

The School Board: If they were paid for what they have accomplished, they would owe us about $45,782.50 per month. 

Douglas Glover

Palm Coast

Send letters to [email protected]. Include first and last name, as well as city of residence. Editor may alter the letter for clarity and/or length.

 

 

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