‘Prayer’ should be followed by action
Re: All of the outrage about “thoughts and prayers.” I don’t believe anyone dismisses the value of prayer. The problem is that “thoughts and prayers” are never followed by meaningful problem-solving or action.
The Republicans are in bed with the NRA, and the Democrats are too intimidated by the NRA to do anything. God doesn’t expect to go it alone. He expects help. He probably just rolls his eyes when he hears “thoughts and prayers” – again.
Nancy Bishop
Birchwood, Tenn.
Be sensible: Ditch bike lanes, trails
On behalf of my Hixson friends and neighbors, along with many long-term citizens of Chattanooga, we respectfully request that the city and county drop the plans to construct a horse trail at Enterprise South Nature Park and revisit their decision to construct additional curbed bike lanes in the city.
The city and county need to focus on more important issues. Some of the elementary ideas (i.e. horse trails and bike lanes) that our elected officials continue to come up with are laughably ridiculous. Officials should take time to look at the current community surveys – citizens object to these foolish projects. Let’s renounce throwing good money at bad “feel good” projects. Let us demand that our elected officials refrain from continuing to major in the minors. The citizens have far greater challenges than horse trails and bike lanes for one, Cassandra Smith Road in Hixson.
Johnny Jones
Hixson
TVA urged to keep solar incentives
I write to express the hope that TVA will keep programs in place in 2016 and that it will seek the TVA board’s guidance, based on stakeholder input, to set a policy on solar energy that reflects the true value of solar in the Tennessee Valley. It is regrettable that TVA plans to cut back solar programs significantly.
For example, TVA is cutting the incentive for rooftop solar down to retail cost and is dropping the $1,000 rebate it had paid previously to new solar customers. It appears that these cuts will hurt a booming solar industry that provides high-paying, long-term, local jobs. Our state’s solar industry includes some 151 companies that employ 2,200 people statewide. As I understand it, these significant rollbacks were made without public involvement, which is not the procedure that TVA had promised.
Any decisions about solar policy – for example, the decision to drop a program or to restructure it to benefit distribution-level utilities – need to be taken by the board of directors after the public has had a chance to give comments. I would hope that TVA would listen to citizens of the Tennessee Valley.
Robert Stanley