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Hernando Today

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 26, 2008

Vote No On

Reduced Impact Fees
If the objective of reducing the impact fees is to make it easier for first-time home buyers to get one step closer to realizing the American dream by enabling builders to offer new homes at a lower price, then I can't see how anyone could object.

On the other hand, if the objective is to put more home builders and their crews to work building more homes in developments we don't need, then we have a problem.

Unemployment is high in Hernando County (did we need an expert from out of town to tell us that? Well, duh!) and a good many of the un- or underemployed are carpenters, plumbers, roofers, painters, electricians and any one of a number of skilled trades. Since our economy seems to depend on the constant beat of hammers, the whine of saws and the rumble of concrete trucks, the current silence is truly disquieting. We like our quiet neighborhoods and we cringe when a new parade of trucks starts down our streets, but an old rancher once said "You smell manure. I smell my business."

But just putting people to work building houses when there are 5,000 of them for sale? I must be missing something.

If reduced impact fees mean that builders can offer new houses at lower prices than the new and unsold houses on the market, won't those "older" new houses still be unsold?

If reduced impact fees mean that builders can offer new houses at lower prices than the existing houses on the market, won't those also still stay on the market - maybe still vacant and in foreclosure?

If impact fees are intended to fund essentials like streets, schools, police and fire protection, parks, libraries and the other amenities people move here to get, and we reduce them, where is the funding coming from? Some of the first things people ask when investigating a new location for their families are schools, streets, police and fire protection, parks, libraries - well, surely you've gotten the message by now.

Lowering the impact fees will surely result in fewer funds for the very things we have to offer people to join our community. Putting people to work is commendable, but building houses just for the sake of building houses sounds like the WPA of the depression era or building the Aswan Dam in Egypt using thousands of people with wicker baskets of sand instead of bulldozers just to provide work for the unemployed.

We can do better than that. The only ones who would benefit from lowering the impact fees will be the builders and developers. They're not evil or greedy, but they surely do know a good thing when they see it.

Vote no on reducing impact fees.

Gail B. Leatherwood

Spring Hill

Clinic Staff Deserves Thanks

The free clinic started up by our local Muslim doctors (Crescent of Hernando Inc.) is still in its infancy, but already they have made their mark. I've spoken to several young adults who have been examined and treated by the doctors, and they are pleasantly pleased with the thoroughness and patient care they have received.

The community owes the doctors, technicians and staff a big thank you for all the good they are doing and will continue to do in Hernando County.

Nick Morana

Spring Hill

Lack Of Common Sense

Re: Animal Services to close on Saturdays

I am so very disappointed at the county commissioners' decision to close Animal Services on Saturdays. To close during a weekday would have been a much better decision for county residents and the animals.

Chairman Chris Kingsley was the only one to vote against the measure. I am very surprised at Diane Rowden. I would have expected her to see the total lack of reasonableness in closing on Saturdays.

With the job market like it is today, a worker may hesitate to ask for time off to go to the shelter. No need to give any fuel to the employer to relieve you of your job.

Now the adoption rate, which is not very good, will get only worse. And the lack of Saturday hours just gives another excuse to not get a pet license.

Why does common sense never come into play in these decisions?

Gladys Newton

Hudson

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