|
|
Letters To The Editor
Dear Editor,
Some candidates have stated their plight to increase police protection,
equip the fire station for better fire protection, and offer CPR classes
at the EMS station. How can we offer more police protection when our
city barely pays minimum wage to our police officers?
Currently we have approximately ten employees in city hall and we still
can’t get service in a timely manner, because half of those employees
are planning the Crawfish Festival, another form of wasting taxpayers
money to entertain mostly non-taxpaying citizens, and give the mayor a
going away celebration.
We can’t get our lower income, unemployed citizens to work at the local
Burger King for minimum wage, how do we expect to keep misappropriating
funds during the budget time and allotting these funds to other entities
and still pay our police officers? Every year around this time (election
time) they start making promises they have no intentions of keeping. I
don’t expect to work for minimum wage salaries and I don’t expect to be
protected for minimum wage, especially since I want to truly feel safe.
In order to have more police we have to delegate more funds to that
budget instead of taking away from it every fiscal year. So, as mayoral
candidates are you prepared to decrease the mayor’s current salary, turn
the salaries of city council positions back to their original salary,
especially since I believe the mayor currently makes $40,000 plus or
minus, and some or all city council seats receive $800 a month? Don’t
forget the barely existing youth program coordinators make $17 per hour,
and I think one or two of the city secretaries make about the same
salary as Chief Prejean. Of course not, because if you [mayoral
candidates] were prepared to do so, that would have been your first
selling point.
Oh yea, just something to think about. The fire station has been asking
for a new fire truck for at least the last four years so they can get to
the fire on time without backfiring the whole way there and as of this
month’s meeting I don’t think it was approved, so how can a mayoral
candidate promise to do something they're not willing to do as city
council members? This is when they have more power, especially since a
mayor’s vote only counts during a tie.
And as far as taking CPR classes you may have to go to the next city to
take them because the EMS services may be leaving Brookshire due to a
lack of funding.
The EMS service receives funding from the City through our water bill, a
$1 or so, but their major funding comes from governmental grants which
they will not be receiving anymore because the city did not approve the
vote to have our services incorporated into the Tri-County EMS services.
This is where they would have been allowed to service neighboring cities
and counties, but because the vote wasn’t approved, to my knowledge,
this may cause them to lose government funding.
Also, I am in total agreement with last week’s “pimps and prostitutes”
edition. The city does cater to certain homeowners during enforcement of
the ordinances and rules.
How can the current mayor be the advisor to the Economic Development
Corporation where he receives an additional stipend for doing so?
Being a public servant should be more voluntary, but they have placed so
much emphasis on the monetary value that we can’t possibly know who to
trust as citizens. Make your vote count.
Sincerely,
Quiana Whitaker
Brookshire, Texas
____________________________________________________
Dear Editor,
The “Road to Madrid” (aka Trans-Texas Corridor) is way more than a road.
It’s an attack on a way of life, an attack on private property rights
and a back room scheme by Ricardo Perry that a majority of Texans don’t
want.
The “Road to Madrid” is being paved with Texas souls.
Do you know that Ricardo Perry has given the rights to our Texas roads
to Cintra ( a foreign operation)? Do you know that Ricardo Perry has
signed a 50-year non-competition agreement with Cintra? Texas can’t
build, improve or maintain any roads that compete with these foreign
owned tollroads.
Texans have a proud tradition of paying as we go. Do you know what a
toll road really is? It’s a loan. A loan at a usury interest rate. Our
children and grandchildren will have to pay for these roads, tres,
cuatro or cinco times.
Senator Glenn Hegar, Representative John Zerwas and their State
Legislator buddies make excuses. Senator Hegar, my mother didn’t accept
excuses. And, I’m not accepting any either. I’m asking you, Sen. Hegar,
Representative Zerwas and all you fellow legislators to boycott all
legislation until the “Road to Madrid” is dead.
Craig Dickson
Brookshire, Texas
_______________________________________
Dear Editor,
On the morning of March 12, 2007 around 4:25 in the morning a tornado
swept through the Glenbrook subdivision here in Brookshire. No one was
harmed, but 3 houses (one of them being mine at 412 Hereford) were
affected with extensive damages to trees. One tree limb, in fact, went
sailing through the roof of my neighbor’s house. We all spent parts of
the next 2 days cleaning up.
But the real story is the wonderful service received by the BMWD. Within
hours of the incident they were on the scene, cleaning up the aftermath
of a neighbor’s tree that had blown into the street and carting off any
and all debris that they could locate. They promised that they would
return the next day to finish the job and let us know that any limbs
dragged to the side of the road would be removed. True to their word,
the crew returned the next morning and worked diligently with shovels
and equipment to remove every bit of debris. The men were hard-working,
helpful and friendly. They even helped drag limbs to the curb that were
too big for one man to carry. I remember a time when I lived in Katy and
similar damage had occurred to a tree in my yard that affected traffic
in the street, but was told on the phone that it “was my
responsibility.” How nice that the City of Brookshire does not have such
an attitude. Kudos to all the men and department that worked so hard to
get our sub-division back to normal in record time!
Jeff Shaw
Brookshire, TX
______________________________________________
Dear Editor,
I just read the letter you published from Doug Schulze regarding the
loose dog problem in Waller County and I want to thank that man and let
him know he’s not alone in his problem.
We live in south Waller County and we, too, have neighbors’ dogs that
run in packs in the area. My children can’t even ride their bicycles
because the problem is so severe. There have been two instances and I’ve
tried to take them around the neighborhood and ended up having to defend
them from packs of dogs that had cornered them and were attempting to
attack them. I am thoroughly convinced that if I hadn’t been with them,
my children would have been dragged from their bikes and injured.
My teenage daughter was attacked and her clothes were ripped by a
neighbor’s “pet” that was running the street. Thank goodness she was big
enough to fend it off. However, when we called the Sheriff’s Department
regarding her attack, there was nothing they could do because the dog
didn’t draw blood. I talked to a local official regarding the attacks on
my smaller children and I was informed that since the dogs didn’t
actually harm my children, nothing illegal had happened.
But, I was told that I could’ve gotten into trouble if I had harmed the
dogs that were trying to injure my kids. Was I supposed to have waited
for the dogs to rip my kids up before defending them? Like h&*%.
If a person owns an animal, there should be a reasonable expectation
that the animal is confined to the owner’s property. This applies to
livestock; why not dogs? Why should a person be forced to build a fence
around his home to keep out some irresponsible neighbor’s animal? I
don’t know of a single person who welcomes someone else’s pet to
defecate in his yard, inflict damage, and make a nuisance and threat to
itself. Is it going to take someone getting mauled by one of these packs
before the officials will pay attention to this problem? I doubt even
then much would happen.
I am sorry about your birds, Mr. Schulze, but if the county doesn’t give
a da*& about my children’s safety, what makes you think they’ll do
anything about your ducks?
Kathryn Pyka
Brookshire, Texas
Disclosure: "Letters to the editor are the responsibility and opinion
of the writer(s) and may not reflect the opinion of the Times Tribune."
|
