TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 11, 2008

Commissioners' Actions Show

Fiscal Irresponsibility

Regarding Michael Bates' article in the Friday, June 6 Hernando Today, the "5-year Organization Budget Comparisons," 2003 vs. 2008. This comparison is a glaring indictment of the senior County Commissioners and their fiscal irresponsibility and lack of concern for the citizens of Hernando County. They often show up at such functions as David Hamilton's recent meetings with citizens to show their concerns, but their past actions speak loudly.

A reprint of that comparison with this letter or on the front page might be appropriate.

Ross Keith

Hernando Beach

Oil Crisis Needs

Much Research

Well, my letter about oil prices got a lot of feedback! But, events on Friday, June 7, have confirmed my thesis.

Consider the U.S. Energy Information Administration's May, 2008, report on drilling for oil in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The EIA estimates that, if the oil companies got the go ahead today, production in ANWR would begin within about ten years. About ten years after that, the field would be built out and production would peak at 780,000 barrels per day. If the US used this oil to replace imports barrel per barrel, the price of oil would go down by 75 cents per barrel. 75 cents per barrel, 20 years from now.

Consider that on June 7, the price of oil rose $11 a barrel in one day! What happened? Did environmentalists close all the oil fields? No. Did OPEC suddenly stop shipping oil? No. There was no change whatever in the balance of supply and demand. The only things that happened were that the dollar dropped some more and an Israeli politician opined that a US/Israeli attack on Iran was inevitable.

John Boyle wrote a pretty good analysis of what would happen if the U.S. were to dramatically increase its oil production. Unfortunately, the U.S. does not have, nor are we ever likely to have enough oil to change the price of gasoline by more than a few cents per gallon. But his supply and demand analysis also applies to dollars. The U.S. Administration has been cranking up the production of dollars and the price of the dollar has been heading down.

Cheaper dollars means more expensive oil.

On the futures markets, traders try to guess what the market price of oil will be in the near future. They then bid for contracts based on that future price. Much, if not most, of the run-up in oil prices is due to commodity traders' expectations that the dollar will drop further and that there is a real risk of war and supply disruption in the Mideast.

Mr. Cannariato accuses me of viewing George W. Bush as the font of all our problems. Not true. There are several evil things in the world that aren't Bush's fault. However, I do believe that a one-eyed chicken with a ouija board would have made better decisions than the Bush Administration. After all, who but Bush and his Congressional enablers are to blame for his policy of perpetual deficit spending?

We might have been able to get away with eight years of extravagant borrowing had not the Federal Reserve decided to deal with the credit crunch by creating yet more dollars. Now we are in a process that is on track to reduce the American standard of living by about 40 percent.

What to do about it? Well, the President could assure the world that neither we nor Israel is going to attack Iran. The two major Presidential candidates could present detailed plans to balance the national budget. And, the Federal Reserve Board could make it unmistakably clear that the interest rate cuts are over. Any one of these measures would push the price of oil down.

If Mr. Cannariato or anyone else is interested in researching the oil situation, try www.eia.doe.gov. You'll see that we don't have gazillions of barrels of oil sitting around under Sierra Club guard.

Mr. Cannariato ridiculed my contention that we need a whole new infrastructure. I'll deal with that in another letter. Meanwhile, I'm interested in hearing his plan for coping if the airlines go bankrupt, commuters can't afford to drive to work, and people in the Northeast can't afford to heat their homes.

Dallas Dunlap

Brooksville

Don't Count

On My Vote

I would so like to respond to the rumor that our new gifted center was "poorly thought out and thrown together". (Granted this was said by a person who neither came to our meetings nor communicated via e-mail or phone, so to give this comment the appropriate weight it deserves, we need to get that in the sunshine.)

As chairperson of the gifted task force, I saw all the attendance. There were 18 members of the task force. There were three members who attended irregularly due to circumstances beyond their control. They communicated via messages to our nonvoting members after they read the minutes. The other 15 members spent 2.5 hours every meeting for 13 meetings, then there were the subcommittee meetings which were longer and more frequent.

Let's not forget all the "homework" we did individually so we could bring our information back to the subcommittees, as well as argue our points with some intelligence to the full task force. This "homework" included travel to other school districts in the state, as well as out of state to evaluate program differences and curriculum.

I personally volunteered just at 200 hours over a period of five months on this project alone. All of the task force members were volunteers and none were paid for service rendered. As a parent of two boys, owner of my business and helping my husband with his business, how dare you belittle my contribution to this school? How dare you belittle my family's sacrifices so I could be a part of this task force? You, my friend, are running for the school board so you're trying to make a stand. Please get off my toes! Stand on your own feet and get off mine. A plethora of thought, time and effort was put into this by parents, administrators, business owners, chamber members, teachers, psychologists, and a school board member. There was input from all the parents' aunts, uncles, grandparents and neighbors who attended the meetings and subcommittee meetings. Too bad you weren't that interested in our schools to have attended otherwise your input would have been heard.

Your arrogance offends me and your stand is too late. Find another issue to run on, as it's obvious you lack knowledge on this one. You can personally not count on my vote,

Cindy Hall

Weeki Wachee

This President

Will Do What?

We are convinced that most of us don't have a clue of what our president's job might be after he or she is elected. They pleased us in what they are saying and they sure looked good on TV. Listening to them, one would think they would be in complete control of our government after the election and their job is like being a king and what they want to accomplish will be done or heads will roll!

The truth, of course, is mostly like this. Our new president must make an oath that he will, above all things, protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies. The Constitution covers a lot of ground and the president soon realizes that he or she has in reality become a steward of it and is closely held to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and its many amendments.

No, the presidential hands are not tied, but things can move very slowly in our government and any change is harder than winning the Triple Crown in the horse-racing business.

Thank God we are reasonably safe from radical presidents that might try to seduce us into believing we have been WRONG in our pursuit of democracy and have had choice of religion for the last 200 years!

Earle Perkins

Brooksville

Board Should Do Right Thing

Editor's note: This letter was addressed to the County Commissioners.

I am a home owner in Hernando County, residing on Sorrel Street and I attended your meeting in April 2007, along with many other residents.

At that time, we witnessed discussions and debates on the health and safety of limerock roads. The Commissioners were all alerted to the health issues that limerock roads cause. The board agreed that the health issues were a grave concern and that there were emergency funds that could be utilized to remedy the health and safety issues. The Board addressed Mixson and requested that he investigate the difference in price that he was quoting and the cost factor that another county nearby accomplished of laying down asphalt down on limerock roads. He was given 60 days in order to report back to the Board.

In November 2007, Star Road (top on his list of roads) was paved. There has been no progress made since that date on addressing the additional nine roads listed as roads that were considered collector roads, as apposed to local roads - a list Mixson created in Sept 2007.

My family resides on Sorrel Street, a road that leads from Sunshine Grove Road (a direct route to U.S. 19) and Bailey Hill Road (a direct route to Route 98 and Interstate 75).In May, a traffic counter was put down on Sorrel Street. The residents were satisfied with what we thought that was the start of the process to pave the road. But further telephone conversations with the Department of Public Works assured us that this was not the case and that it was just a program that was scheduled to collect data.

When I purchased my house 3 years ago, I was assured that our road was due to be paved in the following year. Since then, we have realized that Sorrel Street and Bailey Hill Road are no longer local roads but, as Mixson confirmed in Sept 2007, they have be rezoned as collector roads.

It is the Boards mission statement and responsibility to ensure that the residents of Hernando County are represented in all health, safety and quality of life support. I am honorably retired from the U.S. Army.

During my last year in the military, I served in Iraq and Kuwait. The military ensures that if they sent me to a location that may have had health and safety issues, it compensates me medically for the rest of my life.

The Board should be responsible to ensure that residents are supported both morally and financially by fixing these heavily trafficked roads at the county's expense in a timely manner, or be ready to react to numerous lawsuits identifying the county as the responsible party for their medical issues.

I hope you take my letter to you as a signal that one of many taxpayers in Hernando County will not sit back and allow our families to suffer from health issues at the county's expense. There is emergency money available that was publicly admitted during the April 2007 board meeting.

We expect that your response will be addressed at today's meeting on paving of collector roads in Hernando County.

Susan D. Vincent

Brooksville

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT