- April 18, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Dear Editor:
At the Palm Coast City Council business meeting of Dec. 7, the saltwater canals again were brought up in public comment. On some of the recent occasions that this issue has come forward, one of the sitting councilmen repeatedly refers to the maintenance issue as a boat owners problem and equates the cost to the number of boats thereby tagging the saltwater canal system as an amenity.
The saltwater canals are the oldest, largest and most used amenity in the city. The city hasn’t even created a budget line item for future saltwater canal maintenance.
The reality is that the canals create some of the highest revenue generated via property tax and yet are all but ignored by the city administration. Why is the city guilty of budgeting, building and maintaining new amenities without thought to the oldest, biggest, most profitable and most enjoyed amenity, the saltwater canals?
I believe there are ways to fund this maintenance without a tax increase on residents. Yes, I live on the canals, and I don’t want to see the issues grow so large that we can’t catch up. Preventive maintenance and scheduled routine maintenance should have been initiated from the beginning. If we start planning now, we can catch up at a far less cost than the cost of the current fix-after-failure thought pattern.
Alan Lowe
Palm Coast
Editor’s Note: Lowe is a candidate for City Council, District 2.
Dear Editor:
As I read the comments on the articles about Flagler book censorship, I wonder why some parents send their children to public schools at all. If you distrust the professionals that much, you should probably find a way to homeschool.
Teacher librarians are educated, certified and trained in collection development as part of rigorous masters programs at universities. When hired, they first assess their community. Schools in Flagler serve vastly different communities, and their collections therefore should reflect that. Assessing the economic statistics, minority data, learning levels of the student body, and helping teachers teach are just a few of the considerations.
Forming a committee at the school level helps to identify the needs of that community. Designing a collection development policy for that school to meet those needs is the next step. Prioritizing the needs allows the librarian and the staff to purchase materials needed. Using reputable reviews to locate the best possible selections has never been easier. Reviews are accessible online as opposed to pouring over print journals (yeah, I’m that old).
The policy guides the librarian in removing materials that are obsolete, inaccurate or have never been used. It includes a challenged materials policy so that any parent can ask for a review of materials that they deem offensive or inappropriate. I believe that challenged materials should remain in circulation until the committee has made a determination on the book. Otherwise, there might be nothing left on the shelves.
Parents have every right to determine what is appropriate for their child. No one should have to read something they find offensive. In a free country, however, no one has the right to restrict what others wish to read. Intellectual freedom is a constitutional right.
Trust the pros.
Monica Campana
Palm Coast
Editor’s note: Campana is a retired teacher librarian at Indian Trails Middle School.
Dear Editor:
Rep. Michael Waltz could not be further off base in his criticism of President Joe Biden regarding strength projection. As we have seen, a bellowing and blustering blowhard as president is the worst image America or any country in the “free world” could present.
Rep Waltz speaks of how Iran is now marching forward developing nuclear weapons. If the U.S. had not pulled out of the international agreement limiting their nuclear program which Iran, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Russia and China had all signed on to, they would still be following the verified terms of that treaty right now. But that is not the worst. Rep. Waltz conveniently “forgot” about the complete collapse of the negotiations with North Korea’s Kim Yong Un, so that we now have another ruthless dictator/Hitleresque killer with confirmed nuclear weapons on his watch.
No, Rep. Waltz, America is defined by us. We, the people, by our actions, reveal to the world where we are headed. The great Grand Canyon-sized chasm on display in our values is the Achilles heel of America. And Waltz has had a big part in that.
Initially, Waltz was elected because of his military service. But now he has a record of what he has done in the legislative body of the United States. That is what he should be judged on, and his record is abysmal. The people of his district can look at that record anytime. He has voted to shut down the government more than once, as he had to ruin the credit rating of the U.S. He voted to de-certify the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, after coming out of hiding under his desk.
Perhaps his greatest vote was to approve the massive tax break for the wealthiest Americans of which no more than 10% live in our and his district. This is representative who should be sent home. Will he? Probably not. Which is why we are in the situation he has noted.
Jeffery C. Seib
Palm Coast
