- April 24, 2024
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+ Educate people about turtles; don’t ban bonfires on beach
Dear Editor:
I was appalled to read in your story, “Turtles aside, bonfires legal at Flagler Beach,” the statement by Lori Ottlein. She stated: “Everyone else does not care about saving an endangered species or keeping our beaches safe.”
That’s a ridiculous statement to make because you didn’t get your way regarding a bonfire ban. Beach bonfires are an important part of summer festivities.
Public education of endangered species is the key to their survival, not banning bonfires.
As for Commissioner Kim Carney, I thought she was a public servant. Her statement in the article about “beginning to work with an attorney” has upset me a great deal. Does she plan on suing Flagler Beach to get her bonfire ban approved? If I lived in Flagler Beach I would rally the public to start an impeachment process against her.
Trudy Manen
Palm Coast
+ Please take me off the delivery list if you support DeLorenzo
Dear Editor:
I am in full agreement with Edith Campins’ letter regarding Waste Pro and a candidate taking money during negotiations for a $35 million account for the city.
If your paper does indeed think this is good policy for government, it smells like garbage to me, as well. This contract belongs in the hands of the State Attorney’s Office.
Please take me off your delivery list until another newspaper with some sense comes to Palm Coast.
Linda J. Hansen
Palm Coast
+ Thanks to everyone who helped with the VFW Poppy Drive
Dear Editor:
The VFW Post 8696 Poppy Drive was held Nov. 4 and Nov. 5. As commander of the Palm Coast VFW, I wish to extend my appreciation to the businesses who granted us permission to stand at their store fronts.
On behalf of the local veterans, may I say thank you to the Palm Coast Observer, to the residents who donated, and to the members who volunteered.
Terry Howard
Commander, VFW Post 8696
+ Dirty beaches hurt tourism; find public funds for cleaning
Dear Editor:
If we are going to market Flagler County and our beaches for tourism, here are a few ideas that need to be considered first:
Let’s clean things up and make it worth visiting to Mr. and Mrs. Vacationer.
Why do we have a department marketing the dirtiest beaches in the area? If we want tourists to come here and spend their money rather than go somewhere else, let’s clean up our beaches. I have never seen such uncaring beachgoers than the ones here. They leave trash, water bottles, baby diapers, food scraps — you name it, and you will find it on Flagler beaches.
There are not enough trashcans, nor any enforcement, for the litterers who deface our shoreline.
And how about “cleaning” the beach sand? The dirty sand should be raked and sifted at least semi-regularly as they do in most other places, e.g., Panama City Beach, St. Augustine, Pensacola.
Let’s spend a little taxpayer money, grant money, or funds we can appropriate from possibly another division for the beaches and clean up our most prized attribute — our beaches and boardwalk.
Make the visitors comfortable. How about some portable toilets? During most occasions when there is a special event, such as Bike Week, the only bathrooms on the pier are conveniently or inconveniently closed. I saw only two portable units on the boardwalk for hundreds of visitors. Really?
We moved here because Palm Coast and Flagler County are beautiful areas and honestly had not even visited the beaches until after we moved here. It was, to say the least, very disappointing and also embarrassing to take visiting family to such a trash-covered dirty beach.
Please, elected officials, find some funds and start taking pride in what our beaches and boardwalk look like so we can proudly solicit tourists.
Jan Adams
Palm Coast
UNIFORM THIS!
+ Uniforms survey not conducted effectively
Dear Editor:
The recent so-called survey is a huge joke! Only a select few parents were even notified, and the whole thing is starting to smell like a fix.
There was no mention of the survey on the individual school websites, no mention of it on the School Board website, and no letters sent home with the students, when they send letters home for much less important things all the time.
We parents get automated phone calls from the schools and School Board several times a week to announce everything, yet there were no automated phone calls to inform parents of the survey.
Only parents who had specifically signed up to receive the automated messages via email even received the survey. Out of my family members alone, I am the only one who received it. Tell me how these results are accurate or even fair.
The School Board should have put forth much more effort to get the survey out there; they surely do it when funding is on the line.
Keri Crider
Palm Coast
Editor’s Note: There will be a meeting 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the Government Services Building, where parents can voice their opinions on uniforms.
+ Enforce the current dress code; no uniforms!
(Editor’s Note: This letter was also sent to the Flagler County School Board.)
Dear Editor:
I am writing this letter in response the article that stated that 64% of parents are in support of the mandatory uniform policies at the public schools. I am outraged that they claiming that the majority of parents are in favor of the changes.
This survey obviously was not conducted properly. After talking to all of the parents I know, not one was even surveyed. I, for one, was waiting for the survey after reading they would be conducting one.
I am a parent of four children, and have had children in the Flagler school system for 13 years. This is not the first time that the issue has come up. I have always been against it.
I don’t think that people are thinking of the financial implications. The younger kids may not care, but the older kids will not be seen out of school in those uniforms, so now I will be responsible for providing two wardrobes for each of my children.
On top of that, I will have to launder two outfits per day. As far as the claim that you can just buy a couple of uniforms and keep washing them: Wow, doing laundry every night — I have no desire to do that. What about the people who go to the Laundromat?
It is ridiculous that they are trying to add this burden to a county that is struggling and has been for several years.
The administrators want a uniform policy because they think that it will reduce bullying and will blur the economic divide. Really? Kids will always find something to bully people about: their hair color, their freckles, their weight or their personality.
The administrators think if you make people wear uniforms they will be more appropriately dressed. I am sure the girls will hike up the skirts and find ways to make the uniforms sexy, and the boys will wear larger pants and use a belt.
The school system has a dress code in place. Enforce it. There are private schools and magnet schools in the county that wear uniforms; if parents want their kids to wear them, their kids can go to one of those schools. Uniforms do not belong in public schools.
I find it amusing that the staff at the schools want to take away the students’ rights to be individuals, but are not willing to give up their own.
I think that for whatever reason, a couple of people on the School Board are pushing their agenda and being irresponsible to the people that will be affected. If they want to do a survey, it should be run by a third party and be mailed to each parent in the school system, with a postage-paid response envelope. The survey should explain the reality of the uniform policy. How do you run a survey if they don’t educate people and only the people that are available on the spot are allowed to participate?
Michelle Myrick
Palm Coast
