Reduce Bradley Commissioners and other letters to the editors

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Reduce Bradley commissioners

Bradley County currently has 14 county commissioners, but according to Tennessee Code 5-5-102 (a) (1) Bradley County is only required to have nine commissioners. I am proposing we reduce the number of commissioners to the minimum. One commissioner per district and two who serve at large. I have spoken by phone with a few of he commissioners and I also brought it up at a recent commission meeting, but it was quickly dismissed. I am asking that citizens be allowed to vote by ballot if they would like to reduce the number of commissioners.

I am also proposing that we stop funding health care, life insurance, and retirement for the Bradley County commissioners. This is part-time work, but they are receiving full-time benefits. This costs the taxpayers of Bradley County $69,859 a year. If you live in the city you are also paying the same benefits for the city council. There is absolutely no reason the county commissioners should be receiving these benefits for part-time service in a position that should not turn into a career.

If you agree contact your commissioner.

THOMAS LYNN, Cleveland, Tenn.


Energy efficiency creates more jobs

Nuclear plants lock TVA into the highest capital cost and most inflexible source of centralized electricity generation. TVA has taken a decade to build new reactors with old designs. This cost billions of dollars which are paid for in our monthly bills. The costs keep going up to complete reactors like Watts Bar 2 and to obey Nuclear Regulatory Commission safety rules.

A better solution for TVA is energy efficiency.

TVA should look to Chattanooga's Electric Power Board for guidance. The EPB is weatherizing homes and businesses, and replacing inefficient lighting, appliances and HVAC systems. This work is creating jobs, cutting air pollution and lowering utility bills.

TVA suspended its commercial and industrial energy efficiency program that helped Valley businesses use less electricity and save money. This program, by TVA's own reports, saved 900 megawatts compared to the $1 billion TVA is spending for the 1100-megawatt Watts Bar 2 reactor.

The EPB programs can be adopted everywhere. TVA energy efficiency programs can be rolled out if the board chooses the least expensive, most effective route to lower bills and reduce TVA expenditures. Redirecting from nuclear to efficiency should be mandated at a future TVA board meeting.

BRIAN PADDOCK, Cookeville, Tenn.


Korea vet urges action

A few countries mixed with their insanity could destroy all living beings. It's difficult to think about something so horrible, but when you hear and see what the new young leader of North Korea is planning, the word "insanity" is the one and only word to describe him.

I joined the military in 1950 at the start of the first Korean Conflict -- Police Action -- and then the Korean War. Now, here we go again not knowing just how or what Kim Jong Un is up to and what he is capable of.

There are also other countries that seem to be out to destroy our planet Earth. To name a few: Iran, Syria, Pakistan, China and Russia seem to be supporters of these maniac countries. Our country came very close to a nuclear war with Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Just how close? Close enough that we were building fallout shelters and big banks were constructing underground vaults.

Maybe its time to be thinking about a first strike against North Korea before the beginning of what would be a nuclear holocaust. We all know what that means? Goodbye, world!

RICHARD D. BLOOD, Ringgold, Ga.


Congress owes U.S. veterans

Sen. Corker, retired generals Bell and Woods, Rep. Fleischman and Rep. DesJarlais, and retired Marine Staff Sergeant Joey Jones all have different views of Syria because they will have, or did have, different roles in war.

War is not easily defined. For some, war has a line of departure, phase lines and an objective. Conflicts have no-fire zones, free-fire zones, and green zones, where soldiers own no ground. In war, you own the ground, and there is a rear.

I observed congressional hearings on steroids in baseball that lasted over a week. Before Congress votes on Syria, it would be right to have a hearing about the created backlog at the V.A.

PHILLIP PRUITT