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Pasco Letters to the Editor

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 14, 2008

Explosive Issues

The concerns expressed by C. Melancon in the Jan. 5 Tribune regarding the effects fireworks have on her dogs, the response by the sheriff and the working of the state's fireworks task force ("Treated To Holiday Noise," letters) bears careful watching because, look out, we are about to be pre-empted again by state law!

The question remains: Who will end up controlling fireworks - our county commissioners by county ordinance or the state Legislature with state statutes, or a combination of both?

If our county commission controls fireworks, we are sure to have county ordinances that will allow law enforcement to control those out of compliance, and we can complain directly to commissioners if we think more control is needed.

If the state pre-empts counties we will end up with a one-size-fits-all solution that will leave all counties frustrated. Rural counties don't have the same fireworks problem as our populous counties. Even worse, shifting decisions from Pasco County to Tallahassee will be another blow to local control.

You can bet the fireworks folks are betting and working furiously on state pre-emption. Why would they want to deal with different ordinances in each county?

They wouldn't have to deal with hundreds of county commissioners at different election times to gain their support. They could just deal with lawmakers in Tallahassee, where they won't be bothered by pesky local residents and local reporters!

When the deal is cut in Tallahassee it probably won't even make the local paper.

And what does our Pasco Legislative Delegation think about state fireworks pre-emption? For them this will create another pre-empted special interest organization in Tallahassee that has already infiltrated the fireworks task force and that they can depend on for financial support at the next election.

These special interest groups in Tallahassee are really milk cows compared with the contributions of local residents. But they are sure to claim their goal is to protect you from these bombs and rockets through state law as county staffs and local law enforcement are not able to deal with the complexity of modern pyrotechnics.

And that's just baloney! Every county has sufficient staff and expertise to deal with fireworks. A state agency to only advise and coordinate would be a great idea. But keep state law out if it!

What about our county commissioners? The state's pre-emption of fireworks regulation would take that monkey off their backs the same way the state's pre-emption of firearms controls in 1985 took that monkey off their backs.

I was astounded back in 1985 because so many county commissions were happy they would no longer have to deal with that divisive issue, and as a result we have little or no county or city gun control laws. We may well end up with no city or county fireworks controls as well.

We didn't elect commissions to have them relinquish local control to the state without even so much as a whimper. One of their primary functions should be to fight to retain local control of any issues affecting Pasco. We also didn't elect state representatives and senators to see them conspire with special interests to destroy local control.

It's time to have a talk with your commissioner and especially with our legislative delegation. Tell them we value local control above all else!

ART HAYHOE

Wesley Chapel

Respect The Heart

After watching the television game show "Deal or No Deal" on Jan. 7, I was in shock to see the Purple Heart displayed as the young man did on the program.

I'm from the Vietnam War era and am a retired American veteran. My buddies, who suffered many times, would not have shown so much disrespect as did this young man. He should hold his head in shame.

Shame on him.

ROBERT E. MORTON JR.

Zephyrhills

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