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+ Old oak falls on 90-year-old woman’s garage; code requires her to replace the tree
Dear Editor:
I get so frustrated sometimes with what goes on in Palm Coast that I want to explode. I loved living here before it before Palm Coast became a city. Now, the code, rules and laws are becoming insane.

Take for example that for years my mother-in-law wanted a menacing tree in the front of her house taken down before it began to do damage to her house. This tree was already cracking the driveway.

But she was denied removing it simply because it was an oak. Trees have more rights than people.

This past fall, after some mighty winds knocked down some rather large branches, this oak did the inevitable: It damaged my mother-in-law’s garage, and she was finally permitted to have this oak removed.

Now we have damage to the house and can get authorization of the removal of this oak tree, but — there is always a but, right? — she has to plant a tree to replace this tree she removed. She was given a list of trees acceptable to the people who created this stupid law.

So my mother-in-law, who is now 90 years old, had to wait for damage to be done to her home to get this tree removed, and now they want her to plant another tree and replace it? Come on, folks. You get trees for this town all the time from grants, you’re constantly mind-boggling the citizens who drive down Belle Terre with a new set of trees and grass and flowers week after week.

You want her to have a tree? Then by all means, plant one for your senior citizen, for heaven’s sakes.

Name it in her honor! Plant it on your bike route for shade; plant it in a sidewalk in Central Park Town Center. Plant a tree for her, let her donate $10 for a tree to be given to a child for free at a school function, but don’t make her plant another tree she has to take care of at 90.

She was given 10 days to plant another tree, or else. Or else what? She will be fined, kicked out of her home? Arrested by the tree cops? Put in a tree for life? What is it you do to 90-year-old people who don’t plant a tree to replace a menacing tree? Just what is it you people at City Hall want from our senior citizens? I know, you’re too busy trying to tell people what color to paint their houses, or taking down garage sales signs.

You’re so busy trying to create an atmosphere to lure people to vacation here? Get with the program: Create a town that the people who already live in want to stay in, not abandon their homes because of by-laws created without merit.

Why do the people who work for Palm Coast treat its citizens with such disdain? This is only one of the many reason living in Palm Coast has become pure hell.

Don’t even get me started on the people who get away with having trailers on their property, or the cameras at our intersections.

Candy Crosson
Palm Coast

+ City government spends unwisely; community policing hasn’t solved anything yet
Dear Editor:
We have a Palm Coast city government that consumed with its power. They come up with brilliant ideas like red light cameras that have no justification other than to make money. They build sidewalks and trails to everywhere that only 10% of the citizens use. They build a tennis complex that is used very little.

They select replacements for their club without a vote by citizens. They tell you how many trees you have to have on your property, if and when you can park your boat on your property, and even what color you can paint your house.

They spend thousands of dollars on trees, shrubs and grass to line Belle Terre and Palm Coast parkways but are unable and unwilling to properly maintain the swales or provide street lighting to neighborhoods that would make a major difference in reducing crime.

On top of this, we get a new sheriff and undersheriff who believe that solving the crime problem can be accomplished with community policing (as if we have no Neighborhood Watch programs, no Citizen Observer Patrol, and no deputies in the neighborhoods already) and best of all midnight basketball to give the kids something to do in the middle of the night, when they should be in bed.

To top it all off, he wants to cut the Sheriff’s Office budget, which is already operating with too little resources and not enough jail space for those midnight basketball players.

Citizens of Palm Coast and Flagler County, we are all to blame for electing incompetent representatives who are susceptible to egocentrism and corruption. For letting a city be governed by a few with nearly unlimited power. For failure to speak up every time one of our representatives tries to take away another of our freedoms. For irresponsible parenting and not disciplining our kids.

Folks, it’s only going to get worse if people don’t start standing up and being heard! I’ll start here!

Gary DeKay
Palm Coast

— The Palm Coast Observer publishes all letters of general interest about local topics, with the right to edit for length. Email editor@palmcoastobserver.com.

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