- April 22, 2024
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Dear Editor:
Every day it’s the same thing. Wear masks, masks work. This is usually followed by citing some sort of study. Well, we’ve been in this thing for long enough to have real-world results and data to see if these “studies” have proven correct.
At the end of August, the experts predicted if we didn’t have strict mask mandates at schools, stadiums, etc. we would see a massive outbreak. After a month and a half of mask optional schools, stadiums packed with unmasked students high-fiving each other, and less mask requirements on businesses, the daily case rate in the US is down 55%.
We were told Florida was an anti-science epicenter of a coming COVID apocalypse due to our governor’s reckless decision to let adults make their own decisions regarding masks. During that same time period, the daily case rate dropped 85% and Florida now has one of the lowest rate per population of any state in the country.
Please do as you choose — get vaxxed, wear a mask, stay at home, etc. But, the continuous insistence that you’re doing this based on “science” and those who don’t are being irresponsible just does not stand up to the data.
Tad Durrance
Ormond Beach
Dear Editor:
I don’t know where the mayor lives. In his recent 2021 “State of the City” address, our mayor spun a “tale of two cities” asserting that Ormond Beach is “thriving”. Does he live in the city I know?
Held in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce, the annual luncheon marked another year of misleading self-congratulations. The City Commission video touted a year of accomplishments and new businesses in a “thriving” economy. No mention was made of hundreds of empty storefronts and vacant lots on our main arterial roadways.
At this Oct. 12 luncheon, one of the “Awards for Civic Engagement” went to S.R. Perrott, a beer distributorship that received $180,000 in economic incentives from the city to assist its relocation to north U.S. 1. On the beachside, the city gave $114,000 in grants and incentives to Lucky’s Supermarket, an enterprise that closed its doors after only 10 months.
A “thriving” city does not witness the closing of its two public golf courses and, the loss of its beachside hospital, now gone four years, with no plan for an emergency room replacement. Daytona Beach Shores opened its new emergency room on July 1, in partnership with Halifax Hospital. Ormond Beach cannot be “thriving” when we see ambulances rushing east over the Granada Bridge.
Our “thriving” city just raised our property taxes by 4.7%, and raised water and sewer rates 1.8%. Our road surfaces on North A1A and Nova Road are washboards; City side streets are cracked and crumbling; and Granada Boulevard traffic is frequently gridlocked. Instead of addressing these critical infrastructure issues, our city will now spend $2 million to add decorative pavers to downtown sidewalks that rarely see pedestrians.
Our city “leadership” continues to push, for the benefit and “convenience” of the very few elite, plans for runway extensions for its “never thriving” municipal airport. The Ormond Airport is now carrying a $621,000 debt for funds "borrowed" from the city taxpayer general fund. Extension of airport runways to accommodate larger corporate jets will exacerbate noise issues, air quality, safety and environmental issues that erode the quality of life for residents of the 36 subdivisions in Ormond Beach under its flight overlay.
Lastly, in the context of our lost historical buildings such as our church on North Beach Street, sacrificed for a parking garage, and loss of our environmental greenspace sold for money, Ormond Beach can no longer be considered “thriving.”
Rob Bridger
Ormond Beach
