- April 16, 2024
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+ Government should pay for removal of wild animals
Dear Editor:
I live with my husband and two small dachshunds near Palm Harbor Parkway where it crosses the Intracoastal Waterway.
The week of Dec. 5 through Dec. 8, we saw a large, healthy wild bobcat. We saw it several weeks ago only one time, but neighbors have constantly been seeing it roaming through their yards.
Many residents have seen this wild bobcat, and we have heard horror stories of this bobcat killing and eating a neighbor’s cat, killing wildlife in the area, and terrorizing us by disturbing our garbage cans, looking for food.
I learned recently from our city and state government that it is the citizen’s responsibility to pay a private trapper to catch a wild animal that is terrorizing children and small pets and people in general.
I am outraged that our government does not provide a service to capture and relocate wild animals that could cause harm to people and pets. This bobcat is capable of killing a person if it had the opportunity to attack someone, especially a child. We already know it is capable of killing and eating domestic cats. The school bus stops right where the bobcat was seen Dec. 8, at the corner of Crystal Bay Court and Coral Reef Court North, and our government does not care.
Across the street and nearby are the timeshares and condos for vacationers, on Palm Harbor Parkway. Imagine these headlines: “Tourist mauled by wild bobcat,” or “Negligence of county to capture wild bobcat has now taken a life.”
We pay enough in taxes that our government should provide a service to catch a wild animal that is threatening us, and we should not have to bear the cost of trapping a wild animal. Just recently in another nearby county there was a wild monkey roaming their neighborhood, that local county government pursued the capture of the monkey. The cost of the capture did not rest on the citizen that called in the sighting of the monkey or the land where it was captured on; it was the county government that took responsibility.
I was thinking to myself, what if we put a trap in the middle of the street, would the county be liable for the cost of trapping the bobcat then?
Tina Burnham
Palm Coast
+ City of Palm Coast should not use utility bills as campaign fliers
Dear Editor:
I just received my Palm Coast water and sewer bill, and with it my copy of The Palm Coaster, the little newsletter/flier that comes attached monthly.
I was alarmed to see that The Palm Coaster is now being used as a campaign tool for Mayor John Netts and City Councilmen Bill McGuire and Jason DeLorenzo.
Why are we, the taxpayers, paying to promote these people in a publication devoted to talking about utility issues? This makes me wonder if my sewer and water bills would be reduced if I weren’t paying for the political campaigns of our mayor and City Council members. This is truly an outrage!
Karl Bradley
Palm Coast
+ School Board wants ability to tax without referendum? I think not.
Dear Editor:
An article in a recent Palm Coast Observer outlined how Flagler County School Board member Colleen Conklin “wants to lobby the state to restore the local option for capital millage. In other words, the board believes that it should have the authority to levy a critical needs millage without having to go to a referendum.”
This prompted me to examine my current property tax bill. I found that the largest portion of it is already for schools. My homeowners tax exemption was not increased to $50,000 for the schools portion like the other categories were a few years back.
Now they want the ability to levy additional taxes without referendum. Are these people for real?
Making the issue worse for my family is that we are retired and never had children. We’re paying almost $1,200 for something we don’t use. Now imagine how it feels to be our British neighbors who aren’t even citizens and also have no children and aren’t around much of the time. They can’t even take the homeowners exemption because they aren’t citizens. This is a nutty situation.
I think the people who are populating those schools with children ought to pony up more — not the general population, many of whom never use those schools.
We all need to pay some, but users ought to pay more. It’s time that this nutty idea of taxing us for something we’re not using is tested in the courts.
Last week I was trapped on North Belle Terre near the schools while a train of school buses was pulling out of the schoolyard. I noted that most weren’t even half full. Most only had a few kids in them. They looked empty to me. Those buses aren’t free, and the board now wants to sell three old ones to buy three new ones. Drive the old ones until the wheels fall off.
Further, send someone to UPS and Fed-Ex to learn how they have automated their routes so you don’t need as many buses. If a bus isn’t full, use a car or consolidate. Very wasteful. Pretty soon, new school buses will become a “critical need” and we’ll be “levied.”
The School Board is already out of control.
Larry Stencel
Palm Coast
DELIVERANCE
+ Delivery of the Palm Coast Observer is spotty, at best
Dear Editor:
I have written, called, begged and everything else about the delivery of your newspaper to the R-section of Palm Coast. Since you stated the R-section was going to be part of your house delivery, the paper might be delivered once a month, if I am lucky. If it is delivered, it usually arrives on Saturday — too late to use any of your advertisements.
I receive the PennySaver every week on time. If I could make a suggestion, why not hire the same people that make that delivery? They do an excellent job.
If I am going to receive your paper maybe monthly, please do me a favor: Don’t deliver the paper at all.
Frank Mitchell
Palm Coast
+ Why don’t you deliver to my street, in the W-section?
Dear Editor:
My husband, Roy, and I have issues with the lack of delivery of a free copy of the Palm Coast Observer newspaper. We have friends in other sections of Palm Coast, and they receive The Observer at their homes.
You use the name of our city, Palm Coast, but you do not treat all of the neighbors the same. We are over 80 years of age, and it is a hardship to have to go looking for your newspaper at various box locations, including at your office.
I recently read you will increase the delivery of The Observer. We sincerely hope you will include Wendlin Lane and the W-section in your plans.
Gloria L. Benjamin
Palm Coast
Editor’s Note: We take these letters as a great compliment. Demand for the Palm Coast Observer is high.
Unfortunately, we are only able to publish 25,000 copies of the newspaper as yet, and there are about 34,000 homes in Palm Coast. We distribute to some streets in the R-section and some in the W-section, but not all. When we have distribution complaints, we address them with the drivers immediately. By and large, delivery is successful each week, but there are certainly hiccups, and we appreciate your patience.
The full content of the newspaper is available at www.PalmCoastObserver.com and in paper form at many rack locations around the county. Also, for the price of postage, subscriptions are available. Call 447-9723.
