Attention, Hubbard residents

Attention, Hubbard residents

EDITOR:

First of all I am sure Hubbard utility users don’t know that the mayor, board of control and city council have been discussing raising their utility rates.

I am adamantly opposed. I have been attending some of the council meetings the last couple of months and have asked a number of questions to the city council on reasons why they think the utilities should go up. I have personally called every council person to discuss this and even reminded council of the new half-percent income tax increase (which brings in $950,000 plus a year) and the school levy the people are paying on, and told council they should not raise utilities on the suggestions of consultants (who personally could make money on the rate increase).

I thanked our city auditor, Mike Villano, for discussing with me the budget on many occasions. The results are frightening. Do people know we have generators on Myron Street that do not work, and the cost is $2.5 million? Do you know the new city police building (which I believe we needed) was built at a cost of $600,000 over budget?

People of Hubbard, it is up to you to attend the work session on Oct. 2 at 6 p.m. and tell your mayor and elected officials, “No, I don’t want my utilities increased”.

RICK KEENAN

Hubbard

X The writer is a former 4th Ward councilman.

Stop burning hydrocarbons

EDITOR:

The production of bio fuels produces more CO2 than just burning gasoline. It also takes away from the production of food. A byproduct of distilling alcohol is CO2 and methane, a greenhouse gas worse than carbon dioxide. And when you burn alcohol it produces more CO2.

There is no advantage in the use of bio fuels over petroleum. We need to stop relying on fire, as if we just came out of the cave. If we have to use fire as a power source, let it be at our power plants, not in our cars. The burning of all hydrocarbons produces CO2. The only thing that can be burned without producing CO2 is hydrogen, its byproduct is water.

Drilling off our coasts will not help anything or anyone, except to make the oil companies richer. The oil will not be used in our country. It will be sold on the world market. Let’s see if they will pass a bill in Congress that makes this oil only for use in America. That won’t happen. It will go overseas just as the oil in Alaska does.

The only oil we will see from off shore drilling is the oil slick that will be coming onto our beaches on the tide. And just as we had to pay for the cleanup in Alaska, we will shoulder this bill, too. How many times can they fool us? They are betting they can do it again.

To reverse the effects of global warming we would need to stop the burning of all hydrocarbons. To slow it down we need to curtail its use as much as possible. The greedy and the selfish will fight to keep this from happening. Just as they have put an immense debt on our posterity, they have also placed the burden of a world on the edge of disaster. They know they will not be here to reap the bitter harvest they are now sowing, but our children and their children will be.

Nowhere in the Constitution is unbridled capitalism protected above the welfare of the people and no where does it state that those with capital have a greater say in our Government than the individual.

Has the “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” that Lincoln spoke of perished from this earth?

PAUL SHANABARGER

New Springfield