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Pasco Letters to Editor

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 19, 2007

Shame On Sheriff

What was Pasco County Sheriff Bob White going to do with the budget increases he's been seeking the past four years? Pay for all the good old boys who are, were and might be suspended.

Shame on him for not terminating Deputy Robert Gattuso years ago. I would just like to know if the deputy also retained his take-home car while on suspension.

Being a deputy is not as bad as some of us had thought. Let's see, you can get $60,000 a year for not coming to work, plus a take-home car that is maintained and fixed for free, with free gas, tires, oil changes, front-end alignments, tune-ups and so forth. That makes a deputy's annual salary roughly $80,000 or more.

And don't forget they pay no insurance while driving these take-home cars.

Come on, Pasco. We need a better person than Bob White to enforce the laws in Pasco County. He can't or won't see to it that his deputies obey the laws.

RICHARD T. WELCH

Zephyrhills

Keep Decisions Local

After reading several articles and sitting through three presentations on "trash-to-ash" vs. composting, I chose trash-to-ash.

My decision was certainly influenced by the technologies used, but more on who will be converting our trash - county government or a private company. I view this as important as the technologies. The public should be concerned about who controls the process - you or a private company.

To date, our county government has run trash-to-ash with few, if any, complaints from citizens. We can directly contact our county commission about this operation, and I doubt if we would ever see our county commission go to state government and ask that standards be changed so they can reduce costs and increase production from the system.

Trash-to-ash is run in the sunshine. This may well not be the case with composting run by a private company such as Angelo's Aggregate Materials, which wants to develop a composting landfill in east Pasco.

Who would this company be accountable to after approval is given? County commissioners? Pasco's legislative delegation? The Florida Legislature and governor? Or just the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)?

This composting process consists of many standards and conditions this company may want to change as time passes. And who will this company go to if they want to change environmental standards and other conditions? Not to our county commissioners - straight to our Legislature.

Why wouldn't they go directly to the DEP? Because in this state, if a business or special interest group wants to change standards, they first go to our Legislature, which will pass legislation that will be signed by the governor that will tell DEP what standards they are to support.

If you think DEP is the exclusive guardian of clean water and air, you have forgotten about our Legislature, which is famous for changing standards and conditions to please powerful business and special interest groups.

The Legislature forced the DEP to lower standards for lead in the ground and groundwater around gun ranges, a special exemption enjoyed only by the National Rifle Association. If DEP didn't cooperate fully with the NRA, they would be guilty of a felony.

Sen. Victor Crist of Tampa recently realized that the eastern part of Pasco does exist and that Angelo's wants to build a big trash dump southeast of Dade City on the border of the Green Swamp. Upon realizing east Pasco did exist, Crist mounted his steed and became the Don Quixote of trash dumps, waving legislation that he knows this business and special-interest friendly Legislature will never pass.

Keep decisions that affect your pocketbook and environmental safety on the local level. If this company gets this permit, it will open Pandora's box, and in a contest between "we the people" and business interests, we always lose.

ART HAYHOE

Wesley Chapel

Is Anyone Watching?

While driving home on U.S. 301 North near Zephyrhills last week, I couldn't help but notice that a new development, Riverwood, is moving along, full steam ahead. This development is slated for 997 single-family homes.

I also noticed that traffic was crawling along toward Zephyrhills at just under 40 mph, bumper-to-bumper for as far as the eye could see. What's going to happen to Zephyrhills' traffic once this development fills up, especially during the winter months? I foresee traffic backed up daily all the way to Hillsborough River State Park.

There are absolutely no nearby services and shopping for the new residents of Riverwood. They are surrounded by state parkland and a prison. They will be forced to drive north through Zephyrhills for those services.

Is anybody on the Zephyrhills City Council or at the state Department of Transportation addressing this situation? U.S. 301 is my last remaining commute alternative to work, and soon that will be gone, too.

LIZ BABCOCK

Zephyrhills

A Token Price

As an Aloha Utilities customer, I am so frustrated. It seems we're no better off than we were 10 years ago.

I share Sen. Mike Fasano's view that Aloha is detrimental to the health and safety of its customers.

Enough is enough. The county should take over Aloha's area by eminent domain, pay them a couple of million dollars for it, and let Aloha sue on grounds that it's not the "full compensation" mandated by the state constitution.

I think they ought to offer a token $1, but that's probably a little extreme (although the sentiment is correct).

ERNEST LANE

Trinity

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