Friday, August 29, 2003
Renters deserve the rightto vote on Valley tax issues
EDITOR:
This letter is written in response to the Austintown writer who is fed up with his ever-increasing property taxes. There is always a new property or township levy.
One of his solutions to this problem is to deny renters the privilege and right to vote on levies important to them.
I was a homeowner for 35 years after I returned to my home town, 10 in the city and 25 in Boardman. I voted for all school levies long after my children were out of the schools and left our Valley.
I voted for the Boardman park levies, a park I walked many miles in and still consider it an oasis in the congested 224 corridor between Poland and Canfield. I supported all mental-health levies, library levies and, of course, Mill Creek Park levies, for I feel this park is the jewel of our entire area, and to neglect it would be a sin.
As a senior, I have now become a renter and I still vote for the same levies. Not all are of direct benefit to me, but they are all essential to keeping our city and its suburbs vibrant and appealing to any person or company thinking of moving here.
We seniors who have become renters have paid our dues voting and paying for levies that have given the next generation great schools, wonderful libraries free to children and adults and, best of all, to help preserve our wonderful park systems. We must never let them fall apart as we did Idora Park.
I live in a large apartment complex, owned by a company that manages many properties, and I can only hope my yearly rent increase goes toward taxes.
Some day the Austintown writer may, of necessity, opt to become a renter, and I'm sure he would object to the implication that he has become a freeloader and doesn't deserve voting rights.
SALLY WALKER
Boardman
Gasoline prices: the big lie
EDITOR:
Gasoline prices are going up. Why is there never enough gas at $1 a gallon, but there is all the gas we want at $2 a gallon?
The oil companies' excuses would be a little more believable if we see gas lines return. But until I see cars lined up at gas stations with 10 gallon limits, I refuse to accept the fact that there is a gasoline shortage.
What you will see are oil-company profits soaring with this latest gambit to increase prices at the pump. Perhaps if our president and vice president (both have oil-company interests) would quit worrying so much about the people of Liberia, Afghanistan and Iraq and start worrying about what is going on in this country, things might not be as screwed up as they are now!
TOM HALL
Lisbon
Struthers board reactedincorrectly to concerns
EDITOR:
I recently visited family in Struthers and read the papers about the ABC classes that were proposed for Manor Avenue School.
Ninety residents' concerns (so many people that they had to move the meeting) caused the board to back down.
Someone please tell me there is something wrong with that picture. Where were the parents (or guardians) of the 110-145 students? Too bad they missed the meeting. One or two parents per student would have made a crowd that would have outnumbered the concerned residents and represented the students. Did they know this issue would be on the agenda?
Where will these troublemakers be housed now? Did the concerned residents think there was to be an uprising and a coup to take over the town by putting that many in one building?
I am sorry that I am no longer there, because I would be pushing very hard for these students and the money to be saved in the board's coffers. I hope the parents are organizing and recruiting support to force this issue back to the board's court.
DEE CARLSON
Danbury, Conn.