5 letters: on FiberNET, mayor race, and 2 on the commercial vehicle debate — and Alan Lowe | Observer Local News | Palm Coast Observer and Ormond Beach Observer

Palm Coast Observer
Opinion

Danko's FiberNET vote shows lack of understanding

Dear Editor:

At the July 6 City Council meeting, Ed Danko argued and voted against renewing the maintenance contract for the high speed fiber optic network, the FiberNET system. He referred to it as a "boondoggle" that "the city should not be wasting money on."

Mayoral election

Veteran to veterans: Don't vote for Lowe

Dear Editor:

I am a veteran, the father of an active-duty serviceman in harm's way, and I'm the son and nephew of World War II veterans. I see what I gave in service to my country as far less than what my country gave me. I do not normally use these facts as a soapbox, but I must make this exception.

Alan Lowe, candidate for mayor of Palm Coast, renounced his citizenship to the United States of America in September 1933, at about 31 years of age. This is not a rumor; this is by his own hand in documents filed with the Flagler County clerk of courts.

Whether this act was, as he once declared, due to some spiritual awakening is irrelevant.

But, for the record, the timing did coincide with an IRS tax lien and failure to pay federal income tax and a messy foreclosure indicating some interesting property ownership gymnastics.

Those of us who took the oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, should never consider supporting this candidate who so blithely drapes himself in the flag of our nation.

Veterans, I ask you to vote for any of the three candidates with the records and temperaments to serve our community — and that ain't Lowe.

John S. Mills

Palm Coast

The FiberNET system is an enterprise fund and as such uses no tax dollars to run or be maintained. He clearly doesn't know how an enterprise fund runs in Palm Coast. (An enterprise fund is a service that receives funding from fees, permits and other user paid charges. No tax money is used for funding.) Similarly, our utility bills and impact fees fund our water/sewage/ trash services.

The FiberNET system has, in fact, paid back the money used to install the fiber network, and the city continues to make money on the system from fees that Flagler Schools, the Flagler County Sheriff's Office, and now some new commercial customers, have paid.

He also does not seem to understand how contracts work. If the FiberNET goes down and we don't maintain it, that is a breach of our contracts with customers that are served by the FiberNET, opening the city to lawsuits.

I don't understand how anyone would complain about a service that doesn't cost the taxpayers a dime, saves the city expenses on its operating budget, while at the same time, gives money to the city treasury.

Nick Krimm

Palm Coast

Do we really need a mayor?

Dear Editor:

For some unknown reason the city of Palm Coast is having an election to replace the mayor who happened to quit for some unknown reason. We also had a city manager who quit for some unknown reason; this leaves us with a four-member City Council.

If the remaining four council members choose to quit, the citizens of Palm Coast will gladly supply reasons for them to do so. Maybe we should vote in a dictator and give him, her or it, absolute, unrestricted control of the city government; trust me, it won't be any worse than what we have had since we became a city. We have a mayor whose sole duties seems to be cutting ribbons, turning over shovels of dirt and building parks. The city manager runs the city government; we don't need both of these people, do we?

Douglas R. Glover

Palm Coast

Commercial vehicle survey is a mockery

Dear Editor:

The so called "survey" on commercial vehicle parking is a mockery. I and a trusted source participated in this "survey" only to discover that one could "vote" as many times as one chose to at their tech screens.

Now our council members suggest that the power to make "those tough decisions" should be held by them and them alone. A decision this important to the community as a whole cannot be left in the hands of political powers. If the council members push this through, we, and our neighbors, should be allowed to park our motorhomes and boats in our driveways as well as their commercial vehicles. Fair is fair.

This must be a decision made using one vote per voter, not some feel-good, spin the wheel "survey" that reflects nothing of the truth which at best tricks the few who did hear of this and participate and cheats those who did not have access.

Germaine St. Laurent

Palm Coast

Keep rules regarding commercial vehicles

Dear Editor:

Palm Coast has restricted signs on commercial vehicles for many years. If the owners of these commercial vehicles knew the rules, why would they label their vehicle from practically the front all the way to the back?

So now all of a sudden, the city is going to think of changing the code because of the people who have their businesses plastered all over their truck/Jeep/van.

In my opinion, if the city changes the code, it’s just so that the burden is lessened for the code enforcement office. We need more code enforcement officers; it’s going to be worse with all the houses going up. In two years, Palm Coast will be a mess. What happened to the motto “Keep Palm Coast Beautiful"?

We also have the problem that the real estate agents are not telling new residents about the restrictions of Palm Coast, so that is another big issue.

Let’s hope the new mayor votes to keep the restrictions we have!

Pat Barile

Palm Coast