Airline study holds no surprise for travel agent

Airline study holds no surprise for travel agent
EDITOR:
As a travel agent, it was hardly a surprise to me to hear the details of a new study that shows that airline service in the past year has gotten worse, despite promises made a year ago by the airlines that they would do better. I've been hearing horror stories firsthand from my clients.
It is a mystery to me and everyone else who serves as an advocate for the traveling public why Congress allows this deterioration of air passenger service to continue.
Last year, Congress had the opportunity to avert this crisis with passage of passenger rights legislation, only to be swayed at the last moment by the silky talk and, no doubt, massive lobbying dollars of the airline industry. So here we are a year later, the airlines continue to operate with impunity and the pile of passenger complaints grows ever higher.
It is finally time for everyone to realize that the power to effect positive change for the traveling public lies not in the corporate board rooms of the airlines, whose sole interest is their bottom lines. The power lies on Capitol Hill. Is anyone there listening?
CHERYL HUDAK
Travel Dimensions Inc.
Boardman
Robotics coach had heart
EDITOR
Maybe it's not athletics, but no coach worked harder with his kids than Steve Pusztay from Chaney High School.
He stepped into his role as robotics coach part way through this school year and he hasn't disappointed anyone.
Steve, a science and computer teacher at Choffin Vocational School and Chaney High, has been nothing short of phenomenal. He handles his classes, his robotics and coaches track too.
He gave 110 percent to his Chaney Mad Cow Engineers, Team 276, at the National Robotics Competition in Orlando, Fla, April 5-7.
INGE FARRAGHER
Youngstown
X The writer is a teacher at Chaney High School.
Priest's cross-country trip has another epilogue
EDITOR:
Several weeks ago, Dennis Mangan wrote a column about Father William Witt taking a group of boys on a motor trip to California. My aunt, Catherine Demas in Girard, forwarded the article to me in California, where I now live, and I would like to add to the story.
I grew up in Lowellville, and knew Father Witt when he came to Holy Rosary. I graduated from YSU in 1962, and went off to the Army for a 30-year career, retiring in 1992. During those years, Father Witt was always near, baptizing our oldest son in 1963, and being there in time of need to assist and officiate when my mother died in 1978. He also visited our home in Washington, D.C., and gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of the Washington Cathedral concentrating on his special interest in Our Lady of Guadalupe.
I knew about the Reader's Digest story, and had always been proud to know the main character personally. On the Fourth of July, 2000, our phone rang in Yorba Linda, Calif., and it was Father Witt. He was there at the request of the family who hosted the Altar Boys those many years ago. The mother, Mrs. Quinn, was dying, and asked to see him again.
Unfortunately she died as he was landing in California. The family asked that he stay for the funeral. Since he had the day alone, he called and we invited him to share in our holiday picnic with friends.
We were honored to spend the special day with him remembering times past in Lowellville, my mother, his trip with the Altar Boys, and the Youngstown Symphony.
Father William Witt is a special person to many people, and I am proud to be among them.
Col. CHARLES M. ANDREAN (ret)
Yorba Linda, Calif.