Turning your building into a billboard just isn't right

Turning your building intoa billboard just isn't right
EDITOR:
I would like to comment on the article in May 2 paper pertaining to Jamie Ludt and his building of many colors. I have looked at this eyesore for as long as I can remember and even wrote a letter about it to no avail, of course. I never said he wasn't right in what he wrote, only the way he was doing it.
City prosecutor Jay Macejko dismissed the charges saying Ludt painted his building in an attempt to bring public attention to the bar after his attempts to bring it to the attention of various public officials went unheeded. Mr. Ludt had four "large" signs on which he told everything he needed to. He needed to be found guilty and fined for what everyone in the area had to look at. Two wrongs never make a right.
Does this mean that anyone that has a problem with the city or one of his neighbors (as long as it's true) can write about it on his house or garage? I certainly hope not. Having a reason to break the law does not make it any less a crime. I hope things like this are stopped as they start, without saying it's his building and he had his own permission to write on it and also it has to do with free speech. This is one of the things Youngstown has to get a grip on, to take care of the problem immediately, or 2010 is just a number.
By the way I love Youngstown, just not the way it's been run in the past.
BETTY FORD
Youngstown
Trumbull career center should be doing better
EDITOR:
Trumbull Career and Technical Center has something no other school system in the county can offer. They have 19 board members who are able to sit on their hands while teachers and administrators fail students and taxpayers. It has become known that more than one program offered to area high school students boasts completion percentages as low as 10 percent.
There are 900 students that attend the TCTC with a budget exceeding $10 million. The TCTC should be boasting higher completion rates than any other school in Trumbull County. Public schools receive a report card from the state; if they are rated low on this report card the school will take measures to fix that. Teachers and administrators at the TCTC have yet to accept that they have a problem.
I believe it's time for local superintendents and boards of education from the 19 Trumbull County schools to take a hard look at the TCTC's report card. The Trumbull Career and Technical Center's budget per student is 2 to 3 times what some local districts is; there is no excuse for these percentages.
Don't be mistaken. There are many good and valuable programs offered at the TCTC, as well as dedicated teachers educating students and helping them reach their goals. The whole concept of a career and technical school is to provide students with the needed curriculum to receive a high school diploma and the skills to provide them a career in the trade chosen, as reflected by the school's "mission statement."
It is unacceptable that only two out of 18 students will complete a program. I have a student in a program at the TCTC that began with 25 students and possibly six students will complete this program in May. I feel TCTC teachers, administration and school board members have failed. They have failed the students, parents and the taxpayers of Trumbull County.
JOHN GATES
Southington