TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 24, 2008

Commissioners Should

Fix, Not Kill, THE Bus

Re: David Russell and THE Bus.

Here we go again. Rumblings to "Kill THE Bus." A meeting is scheduled today to debate killing it off and to say that there aren't enough riders. There are people who ride The Bus.

I have a vehicle, but I choose to ride THE Bus. I have been riding THE Bus to work in Brooksville, Monday through Friday for more than two years. I have seen many regular riders. Perhaps the commissioners should ride more often - not just for one day to get press coverage.

I say, don't kill THE Bus, expand the service. Make it more convenient by re-introducing the 6 p.m. buses on the red and blue routes. Give us Saturday service. Give us service along Spring Hill Drive from U.S. 19 to U.S. 41. Maybe people who work at the Airport Industrial Park would like to ride to work?

For all of the non-riders in the Spring Hill area, if you lived in another city that had bus service or subway service, didn't you have to walk a few blocks to the bus or the subway station? You probably didn't have a bus stop right in front of your door, but you rode the buses or subways anyway, and you didn't think they should do away with them because the stop wasn't within 100 yards of your door.

Try the park and ride method. Drive to one of the transfer stations and park your car and ride the bus the rest of the way. That is what I do. You may have to pay for the gas to the transfer station, but it will most likely be a lot less than driving all of the way from Spring Hill to Brooksville or from State Road 50 to Spring Hill Drive via U.S 19. Or walk a few blocks from your door to the nearest bus stop. A monthly bus pass is only $15, $7.50 for senior citizens and students.

For all of the non-riders unfortunate enough to live in eastern Hernando County keep on pushing for service. Shame on the commission for not providing it.

People who do ride THE Bus should not be dismissed as "second-class citizens." I ride THE Bus. I have a full-time job. I own a vehicle. I vote for commissioners. I pay taxes, and I would like to see my taxes used for THE Bus.

Melinda Bullough

Spring Hill

Give Issue A Rest

John Herbert wrote: "Give THE Bus A Rest for Now" on June 22.

Considering the editorial page is frequently filled with "anti-bus," me, me people, I thought he was going to say let's move on to a different topic. Instead he's sounding a three-year moratorium for public transportation in Hernando.

So I put down my rainy day funny papers and read the whole thing. And then I read a couple more anti-bus people's comments, too, on the same page.

OK. I have never ridden any bus or taxi in three years here. I am aware that it costs each of the 100,000 citizens $6 per year to have public transportation available if needed. That currently is only .4 percent of what I give the county in reduced taxes for "no services" every year or 1.5 gallons of gas for my car.

I will go out on a limb and guess if people can't afford the expense of a car they probably don't subscribe to any paper either? Food probably is higher on their list of expenses. I note that Hernando is the leader in food stamps this year with a doubling of expenses.

When you have a single source economy of new housing you are going to collapse when that source dries up. The "other" two sources of income in Hernando are 30 percent retirees and transient snow birds of significant number so far.

Personally, it's money well spent of $6/year for THE Bus. Even though we have yet to ride one, it's nice to know it's there if needed just one day.

The other option is to make all the school kids ride public transportation instead of the yellow boxes the school board can't afford and is considering a four-day school week. Poor parents. One half of the parents are driving their kids to school. What if they all rode a school bus at once? Would the superintendent of schools propose a three-day school week?

In the years I have lived here and watched THE Bus drive by my house at the speed limit and safely, I wish I could say the same of the yellow school buses and the deputies. I read/hear of more scandals with sheriff's deputies and school bus drivers' poor driving than any other group. I have yet to hear a single criticism of THE Bus drivers. I hope I haven't put the mockers on them in writing that but it certainly appears they have a great service record.

I want to give $6 or $20, whatever it takes, out of my useless taxes to THE Bus. Any candidate who advocates deleting funding for public transportation I will vote against forever.

Perhaps the sheriff can provide rides for all of us? They drive around a lot with no one in the car but an officer. That would be cool: A free ride in a police car without having to shoplift first.

Must be a lot of opera singers in Hernando with all the "me, me, me's" I'm reading on the editorial pages. "Give THE Bus A Rest!" Please.

Doug Adams

Spring Hill

We Do Have Friends

This is a reply to Mr. Carles' letter to the editor of June 21, titled, "Where's The Help?"

While I also wonder why we continue to send billions and billions of money overseas when it could, and I feel should, be used here first, I nevertheless take issue to Mr. Carles' statement that "when disasters hit our nation (that) not one foreign nation comes to our aid." This could not be farther from the truth.

In the aftermath of Katrina more than 117 countries offered aid. Some we took, some we did not. Mexico even sent - and we accepted - cooks who set up kitchens and fed some of the rescue workers and homeless. Bangladesh, surely one of the poorest countries, offered the United States one million dollars!

After 9/11 many countries offered aid, money, workers and anything else they could do to help. The list could go on and on.

Sometimes when a disaster hits so much bad happens that the good either gets ignored or quickly forgotten, but everyone does not hate us, and everyone does not stand around with their hand out all the time. We Americans do have friends around the world who are willing to help us when we need it the most. To not acknowledge their kindness and help is something we as Americans should not, and cannot afford, to do.

Pat Faucett

Brooksville

Soft Spot For Canada

I need to respond to Vernon Carles' letter "Where's the Help?" I agree that the time is overdue for Congress to start putting our nation and its citizens first and stop giving foreign aid to the countries that show nothing but disdain for us.

I disagree with the sentence "not one foreign nation comes to our aid."

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was flying home to Chicago from Germany, but ended up spending four days in Toronto. I was overwhelmed by the kindness and sympathy we received from every single person we encountered - desk clerks, waitresses, etc. The local restaurant fed us every day without charge and was not reimbursed by the airlines, saying "It's our way of trying to help." That very night, it was announced on their TV the locations of emergency blood banks being opened to aid America, and where to send donations to aid America.

It was very humbling to ride in the early dawn on a bus to the airport and see all the neon signs "God Bless America," "God, watch over our neighbors," "U.S. our prayers are with you," etc. throughout the city. We still couldn't believe America was on the receiving end of needing aid.

I was also very humiliated to be an American there, accepting their wonderful hospitality, when on the third day it was announced on all their TV news channels that Bush had publicly named and thanked all the countries that had offered support and how slighted they felt that he never mentioned Canada!

I don't care what is claimed about the Canadian border at that time, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for Canada and her people, and I would give them help whenever they would need it - as they did to us.

Ruth Stillo

Weeki Wachee

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT