Water fee serves as insurance policy
With regard to the letter in the May 2 Times Free Press about the $8 wastewater sewer line fee. I too questioned this fee until I had a problem in my sewer line.
When the plumber told me if I had roots/broken tiles that allowed ground water to seep into the lines, Hamilton County would replace my line (about $2,000) at no cost to me. I didn’t know and I don’t think many people do that this is what the $8 is for.
They replaced my line and restored my lawn. Two thousand dollars would have been much more difficult for me to put out than $8 a month, or $96 a year.
Maybe it should be voluntary, but I would recommend it. Not everyone will need it but who knows when someone, like me, will.
LAURA BEAN
East Ridge
Hamill Road a real hazard
There’s a landslide hazard on Hamill Road. That sag in the road is hard to distinguish from the rest of the road from Gann Store Road to the railroad. When the pavement sags into holes so badly our bumpers drag, the city will sometimes add a patch on top.
Just this week we also got a railroad crossing to match the third world quality of the rest of the road. We seem to have been advised by city government to abandon any hope of real improvement. Way back when Mayor Littlefield was Public Works commissioner, he found out that the source of the road’s serious unevenness was cavities under the road and smoothed it out by pumping in grout to fill the caves and support the pavement.
That improvement lasted a long time, but now driving on Hamill feels like a Russian roulette ride at the fair. It’s rough, and you never know when your car might fall through the road — or when the road may slide into the creek. Is this really the best we can hope for?
W. ALLEN MILLER
Hixson
Simple valve can cut oil flow
The latest environmental assault on our country, brought to us by the petroleum industry, is fast moving to engulf our southern coastline with nasty crude oil. 210,000 gallons are spilling into the Gulf daily. A simple “acoustic valve” would have automatically shut off the flow. This safety valve requirement was eliminated in Dick Cheney’s secret energy meetings to deregulate the oil industry when they first took office. Most of the world requires these valves on offshore oil rigs.
All those who were chanting “drill, baby, drill” need to don their work clothes and go to the Gulf and help clean up this mess. Is the average American’s memory so short we have already forgotten the horrific damage caused by the Exxon Valdez in Alaska? Why are we so reluctant to try to find alternate, clean energy sources? I know why big oil spends millions to influence Congress and American citizens to buy their pollutants, but why are we buying their propaganda?
We are losing jobs and innovation to foreign countries because of our backward vision. Wind turbines and solar panels are being built by other, more progressive countries, and we’re still in the “dark ages” with our thinking.
ANN BENTON
Signal Mountain
Constitution focus of Irion campaign
I have been closely following Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional Republican primary. I am concerned that the local media coverage seems to be focused exclusively on fundraising and endorsements.
The winner of the Republican primary will almost certainly be our voice in Washington. So why is Van Irion the only Republican candidate making the Constitution the focus of his campaign? The Constitution imposes strict limits on what the federal government can and cannot do. It is the document that all elected officials are sworn to protect and uphold. Van Irion is the only Republican candidate who is saying this consistently.
He is doing more than just talking about the Constitution too. He is taking action. He filed a constitutional challenge to the ObamaCare legislation in the Chattanooga federal court. The lawsuit has almost 30,000 U.S. citizens from across the country who have signed on as plaintiffs. It has received a lot of national media attention. Restoring the Constitution is more important in this crucial election year than fundraising or endorsements.
Van Irion is the only candidate taking action to impose constitutional limits on the federal government. That is why I want Van Irion to be my voice in Washington.
MILLARD RAMSEY JR.
Show appreciation, elect Tim Gobble
I have never met 3rd District congressional candidate Mr. Tim Gobble. However, I have kept up with his news articles and his willingness to provide information to keep the citizens of Bradley County informed as sheriff.
Mr. Gobble has kept the citizens more informed than any other sheriff in the tri-state area. He is a very effective sheriff.
September 2008, my wife and I were visiting Washington, D.C. A distinguished gentleman commented about my shirt and asked where we were from. I stated we were from Chattanooga; we started talking about our local elected officials. He asked if we knew Tim Gobble, who was now sheriff in Bradley County. I stated I knew of him but had never met him. He stated Mr. Gobble was an outstanding agent and that he would be missed. The gentleman we had been speaking with was Commissioner James Tomsheck with the United States Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. His office is located at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.
District 3 citizens, don’t lose this man; he has your best interest at heart as he has demonstrated in the past. Show him you appreciate his service and his willingness to continue at the polls.
JIM WINTERS
Some questions for you to ponder
If incarceration is the most effective deterrent to crime, shouldn’t we, with the world’s highest percentage of our citizens behind bars, have the world’s lowest crime rate instead of one of the highest? Too much crime and too much punishment?
If less government is better government, as conservatives claim, shouldn’t Somalia be the world’s best-governed nation?
Why is a certain church, whose founding principles included the separation of church and state, today one of our most politicized denominations?
Which is more detrimental to our economic health, “tax-and-spend Democrats” or “borrow-and-spend” Republicans”?
Southern Baptists opposed Harry Truman (his moderate racial views), Jimmy Carter (his views on women’s role in church), Bill Clinton (need we ask?) and Al Gore, a squeaky-clean paragon of virtue and devout Christian. Weren’t all four professing, believing Southern Baptists?
Why do many right-to-lifers support the death penalty? Is life sacred only so long as it remains in the womb? Thou shalt not kill — except by groups of 12?
Has Sarah’s “Drill, baby drill!” become “Spill, baby, Spill!”?
And what ever happened to the Moral Majority, a movement only selectively moral and (thanks be to God!) never even approaching a majority?
GEORGE B. REED JR.
Rossville