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Letter to the Editor
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Dear Editor, I had a similar situation that was no accident. The City of Sugar Land should be held accountable for their “lack of communication”. My ex-husband turned over my dog to the City of Sugar Land. Even at my request, they would not return the dog to me. They too, told me that they would keep in touch with me with the upcoming decisions about the dog. I saw the dog the next day at the kennel in which they saw how the dog responded to me. They never called me back to tell me that they put the dog to sleep. Dear Fort Bend Star, I think you should write a story about how school districts want to make school year-round. School should not be year-round because kids need a break from school and summer is needed. If we had to go to school year-round, I would feel overworked and sad. Teachers also need the break from teaching and students to be better teachers. The summer gives them time to come up with new ideas and methods of teaching. Summer is important because kids need a time for themselves and need the time to relax. School can be stressful. People get vacations from their jobs and summer is a child’s vacation from school. Without summer, I would not try as hard in school because I know I would be there all the time. My grades would be lower. I also think kids would pay less attention in class too. Sincerely, Editor’s note: I am writing this letter in response to Elsa Maxey’s article in the July 14 edition of the Star referencing Parks Youth Ranch. The Fred and Mabel R. Parks Youth Ranch when completed will co-locate a 20 bed emergency shelter and counseling center for abused, at-risk and homeless youth from our community, ages 13 to 17. Currently, there is no emergency shelter for youth in Fort Bend County. Tom and Christine DeLay’s facility, Rio Bend, is a long-term residential foster care facility for children referred through CPS. We intend to serve three youth populations at the ranch, children in the custody of CPS, youth referred from Juvenile Probation, and homeless youth. The incidence of youth homelessness in Fort Bend County is no less acute than that of other counties.... When the 2009-2010 school year ended there were 109 youngsters registered with Fort Bend ISD as unaccompanied/homeless. These are youth who are homeless and on their own, not youth who are homeless with a parent or guardian. I agree with Ms. Maxey’s concern about the duplication of programs. But, as I stated earlier, we are not duplicating existing services to children but rather filling a serious gap in services in Fort Bend County for homeless and at-risk youth. In the future should Ms. Maxey have any questions about the ranch I would be more than happy for her to call and interview me prior to writing the article. Linda Shultz Dear Elsa Maxey, I was very pleased to read your article in the Fort Bend Star tonight regarding the FCCA Amenities Plan. We, at Crescent Lakes, feel the plan is misguided and removes an asset in our neighborhood. As such, we are organizing a neighborhood group to voice our displeasure to FCCA. It is apparent from FCCA’s response to the efforts of the citizens of Lakes of Edgewater that they intend to “plow” ahead. This is in disregard to their own survey response noting that removal of pools was the least desirable of the options. I hope later to provide you with a detailed written response but want to have consensus within our group. Again, I want to thank you and your paper for your article and look forward to future articles regarding this matter. Kermit Pittman Dear Editor, Thanks very much for all who made a generous donation to assist Missouri City Police Officer Chris Vargas and his wife, Heather. Over $15,000 has been raised and put toward their growing medical bills. The baby, Christian Troy Vargas, is still in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and has had three surgeries. He now weighs 6 lbs. and is growing stronger every day. Christian is not expected to go home for another two to three months. Your support and generosity is greatly appreciated. Additional donations may be sent to MCPOA, 3849 Cartwright Rd. Missouri City, TX 77459. Sincerely, Dear Bev, I wanted to express my gratitute to Detective Vanessa Lucio Brady for her heroism in May while on vacation (again after Vegas). I know I had my doubts about her ability to do her job as a detective. It was difficult for me when the deputy sheriff’s mis .... girlfriend... had been given a detective job despite having no training other than being a jailer. She got the detective job while so many other hardworking, long time sheriff’s deputies, dedicated to serving Fort Bend County were overlooked. I must say that she has proven the old motto of “on the job training”. I’m sure the family of that young girl is greatful that she was at least able to learn CPR on the job. My faith in the “Brady” campaign has been restored with this month’s attention to them by local Channel 13 (who seem to be big contributors with all the publicity). I hope they both keep up the good work and that all of their good deeds don’t end once the campaigning is over. Sincerely, Dear Editor, Reflecting on this year's election in Missouri City I seem to always come back to the sidewalk issue which has really never been resolved.. Residents still have responsibility to mitigate tree damage before the city will repair the sidewalk which is clearly city right of way. I come back to this issue often because I have a son who is in a wheel chair. He is virtually a prisoner in his own home because the sidewalks are so bad in our neighborhood, he can't go very far before he has to go into the street. He is legally blind and the option of entering the street is really not the smartest choice, so his only option is to stay in the house. Our current administration has ignored my request for repair for over 3 years. I have contacted public works and filled out online request forms with no luck. They have fixed several problems close to my house but he is still limited to the distance that he can travel because of the uneven sidewalks in our small neighborhood. I am for the purchasing of the golf course but not at the expense of city infrastructure and the rights of the disabled to do what the rest of us take for granted. We must have priorities and public safety and infrastructure, in my opinion this takes precedent over the few in our city who play golf. I know that our leaders cry "we must maintain property values" but isn't city infrastructure maintaining property value? Don't we have the same rights as those who live close to the golf course? Don't those in wheelchairs and the elderly have the right to walk down a sidewalk and not worry about tripping or having to go into the street? The current administration has had over 3 years to come to a good solution for this problem, how long does it take? Name withheld by request Dear Editor, If you drive along Highway 6 through Sugar Land and Missouri City you undoubtedly have seen the street signs for University Blvd. It intersects Highway 6 near Highway 90 in Sugar Land and again near FM 1092 in Missouri City. Construction of University has been going on for several years now. It runs through the new subdivisions of Telfair at one end and Riverstone on the other. Construction is about to begin to connect the two ends that will run through the Commonwealth, Avalon and Brazos Landing subdivisions. The stretch of University that is slated to run through Brazos Landing is causing major concerns to the residents. When the Board of Directors of the Brazos Landing Home Owners Association were informed of the City’s plans for University through their area they were needless to say shocked. It wasn’t a surprise that University was coming through their neighborhood. What was a surprise was the original City plan for the road was a 4-way intersection at University and Monarch which has now been eliminated by the City’s Engineer. They plan to make an extended median at that intersection which the residents feel is a major safety issue limiting access to emergency vehicles and limiting the subdivision of over 200 homes with only one 4-way intersection as well as it will prohibit them from exiting their community to the south. The City’s Engineer has also planned for a 45 mph speed limit along this stretch of the thoroughfare, which is adjacent to Fort Settlement Middle School, with no prevision for a school zone when it runs adjacent to Fort Settlement Middle School. The board and concerned residents are canvassing the neighborhood to inform all residents of the City’s plans for their neighborhood. A meeting has been scheduled for the residents of Brazos Landing on Thursday, May 6th at 6:00pm at City Hall with City Council Members Mrs. Jacqueline Chaumette and Mr. Michael Schiff to discuss their concerns. “We are gearing up for the residents to attend the meeting in full force,” said Brazos Landing Board Member Dr. Michael Tran” and I am especially interested in the answers to the questions of safety and fairness that I asked since January 2010.” If their concerns are not addressed satisfactorily then the residents plan to continue their effort at the next City Council Meeting. University Blvd. through Riverstone could have had the same issue but the City of Missouri City addressed this issue in a different way with varying speed limits and median crossovers. One Brazos Landing resident said, “It seems like the City of Sugar Land is taking the cheapest way out at the expense of our safety. We are a small subdivision and they are ignoring us. Missouri City did a better job.” Sincerely, Dear Editor, I am responding to Michael Fredrickson’s recent column regarding people who pay no income taxes. According to the figures he cited, “In 2009 around 47 percent of earners will pay no federal income taxes according to the Washington research organization - the Tax Policy Center.” He then went on to rant and rave about things like a “fair tax,” “simple tax” and “VAT.” But I’m really shocked, shocked I tell you, that he made NO MENTION of all the ginornous corporations that pay no income tax. Take General Electric for example. They collected $139 billion in FDIC guarantees and used the Federal Reserve program to support their finance division. And after getting bailed out by the American taxpayer, GE went on to post profits of over $10 billion. Trouble is, that profit was all “overseas.” According to their domestic balance sheet, they lost over $400 million. So they were spared the burden of having to pay any income taxes in 2009 on the $10 billion. Yeah, that’s right. Billion. And GE is not alone. According the the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), two-thirds of U.S. corporations avoided taxes between 1998 and 2005. Why aren’t you sick and tired of that, Michael? I guess because Rush didn’t tell you to be. Sincerely, Greetings, My name is David Lantz and I am a Meadows Place home owner since 2007, previously a resident for the first 20 years of my life, leaving only for a few years for school and having moved back as soon as I could afford to. My parents bought their first home in Meadows Place in 1969, and mine is the fourth home our family has lived in here. I am writing to express concern over the traffic situation in Meadows Place and the City’s plan to address this problem. Living on Meadow Crest I frequently enter and exit the neighborhood via either Meadow Valley or Amblewood from West Airport. As you all know, turning out onto West Airport during most times of the day is now a challenge. However I have been told repeatedly the city will not consider puttinga traffic light at either intersection, but instead wants to put one in between the two, for the sake of the Senior Village on the opposite side of West Airport. This will do nothing to help residents get in and out of the neighborhood. In fact, it will make things more difficult for us. It seems the city has prioritized its corporate resident over its home owners in this regard. Of even greater concern is the newly announced plan to install roundabouts on Kirkwood at four intersections all within a half mile of each other. This will create long-term gridlock, and force morning and evening commuters who do not live in Meadows Place but choose to drive through here, to find alternate routes. I suspect those routes will often be through our neighborhood streets rather than around them. For instance, many will turn onto Scottsdale and try to cut through the neighborhood on Meadow Valley or Amblewood. The chaos caused by the initial construction will create a dangerous situation on our streets, with cars and trucks belonging to non-residents cutting through to find a way around the mess. While this would be excusable if the plan itself made sense and would solve problems for the long-term, it is clear to many of us who live here that the roundabouts will make this chaos permanent. If the city’s intention by installing roundabouts is to limit traffic on Kirkwood, I must say, be careful what you wish for! Traffic on Kirkwood will decrease. But, commuters will find other ways to get where they are going, and there will be unintended consequences! When I moved back to Meadows Place in 2007 I saw some things that had changed for the better, and some for the worse. The improvements at the However, it now seems the city government has begun to lose sight of what really matters to most of the residents, and instead is pushing it’s own agenda without our approval. As crime in Meadows Place rises, we make due with fewer police officers than in the past, ostensibly because hiring more officers is not in the budget. But funding for projects dear to city government seems to be plentiful. A major change to our neighborhood such as the installing of roundabouts is, in the very least, something that should be voted on by the city’s residents, not only discussed in a couple public hearings which are hardly publicized, and then forced upon us. I believe strongly our money can be spent more wisely, there are other ways to improve the traffic situation that focus on making life easier for those who live here, and that if put to a vote, this plan will be struck down by a significant majority. Ask your neighbors! Talk to long-time residents. You will find this is not a popular plan, and I hope, you will consider some alternatives. Respectfully, Dear Editor: I am writing on behalf of all the concerned citizens who’d like to see their kids use their bikes to get to Dulles school, instead of clogging Dulles Ave. with their four wheelers. In the AM especially, I, along with other parents who drive with guilt for adding to the pollution with huge four wheelers just to get their high schoolers to school. These “independent minded” kids would otherwise ride their own bikes if only there was a sidewalk along Dulles Ave. It’s a simple solution to a long standing traffic problem on this busy road. Has the Stafford Mayor ever driven by this important link to Hwy 90 & 59 around 7:00 a.m.? If so, he’d have done something to construct a pavement all the way along, a long time ago. The kids would enjoy the morning breeze on their face (also called new found freedom to get to school) while their driving counterparts are stuck on the congested Dulles Ave., if there was a safe sidewalk to ride their bikes. I hope my fellow environmentally conscious drivers would strongly agree & sign a petition if needed. Hope the Stafford city would listen to the readers’ suggestion on this issue. Thank you. Sincerely, Dear Ms. Carter, Can you imagine if everyone in the state of Maryland walked around with a disease called "the silent killer" ... and didn’t know it? Or if every single resident in New York and California were at high risk for developing this "silent killer?" Nearly six million Americans are unaware they have diabetes. Look around you. One in five Americans is at risk for type 2 diabetes. Could one of them be someone you love? For many people with type 2 diabetes, diagnosis may come years after onset. Yet, early diagnosis is critical to delay or prevent the debilitating complications such as heart disease, blindness, kidney disease, stroke and amputation. What can you do to stop diabetes? Know your risk. Tuesday, March 23 is American Diabetes Association Alert Day. Discover your risk for type 2 diabetes and join the movement to stop this terrible disease by visiting stopdiabetes.com or 800-DIABETES. It’s time to stop this silent killer once and for all. Unless you have been out of the country for the last few months, you are aware that our school district is eighteen million dollars in the red. I remember not too many years ago we were an excellent school district. That was then, and now we are going down the tubes. How did this happen you ask? Our esteemed board president said the State of Texas was to blame. Let’s ask districts like Katy, Stafford, Lamar, Alief and many many more and see how these districts landed on their feet. Our board president’s assessment of the problem is “hogwash.” When I first got married , my dad told me, “son, never spend more than you make.” Our Board and superintendent missed Economics 101. This extreme spending is going to cost many innocent teachers and staff their jobs. The innocent will have to pay for what the guilty did! What is the answer to this very serious problem? We, as concerned citizens, must weed out these bad apples. We can begin this in earnest on May 8th when we go to the polls to vote for new board members. A New school board that cares about our kids, and a new superintendent who knows the meaning of wise spending will go a long way in healing the wound. Thanks, Dear Editor, This article interested me because I knew a person who went through a similar problem around 4 or 5 years ago. This incident happened over MySpace and some people that did not like this person made a fake user name that had a couple extra letters and told people to look at this MySpace page instead of the real one. They put false and revealing information about this person and threatened and intimidated this person over MySpace. It is too bad that this law was not in place before this happened because the victim could not do anything about it at the time. I’m glad that this law is now in place. Dear Editor The time is 9:36 PM, Tuesday March 2, 2010. Why are ALL the 8 tower lights still lighting the baseball field? There are no vehicles in the parking lot. There is not a person in sight. Is this physical and fiscal responsibility for my dollars given in FBISD taxes? Dear Editor Election day was Tuesday and I have a request for the Fort Bend County Bar Association. Please conduct a judicial poll for the 2012 Primary Election. Why 2012 you say? Because it is too late for this election season, but this poll is a valuable service to all voters, especially the majority of us who do not have constant contact with the judicial system. All voters should immediately check out the Houston Bar Association Judicial Poll at HBA.ORG. What you will find are 2,202 opinions of attorneys who have indicated No Opinion, Not Qualified, Qualified, or Well Qualified for all candidates in all judicial races in the Houston area. Some races cross over into Fort Bend County such as the various Supreme Court or Texas, Court of Criminal Appeals, Court of Appeals, and Attorney General positions. Now, back to the FB Bar. Cost is not an issue. If you search ‘free online survey’ you will find many options to survey your members. And please, don’t decline because your membership numbers don’t rival those of HBA. Let the voters decide how to interpret your results. You could team up with HBA, or Houston and all bordering counties, or even all 13 HGAC counties and make one big survey. Attorneys cross county lines and many of you already participate in the HBA poll. I want to know your opinions of our Fort Bend candidates for DA, District, County and JP courts! Thank you. FBISD Board President Bob Broxson was recently quoted by a media source as saying: “It bothers me when people come up and give misleading information about how this board does its business. To hear people say that we are recklessly spending money is not true.” This statement appears to be in defense of his behavior during a contentious February 8, 2010 Board meeting. This is Mr. Broxon’s opinion, to which he has a right. However, the citizens have a right to express their opinions as well. The tensions appear to have occurred when Mr. Broxon took exception to speakers exercising their right to express an opinion that was contrary to his own and, to be fair, critical of the board. After attending numerous board meetings, I have become disheartened by the level of discourtesy and animosity shown toward some community speakers, by members of this board. From scolding the audience, as if they were misbehaving children, to being disrespectful to the speakers (rolling their eyes and other impolite facial responses, exiting & re-entering the room while a speaker addresses them etc.), this collective board does not, in my opinion, provide an inviting forum for parents and taxpayers to express their concerns, seek action or information. I do not want this to be perceived as a “Bash the Board” article. I sincerely appreciate those who volunteer their time to serve our community and our children. It is important to remember that when we elect someone to serve on the Board of Trustees, we are in essence hiring them to represent the concerns, the values and the interests of our community. Hence, they should welcome reasonable, warranted and civil scrutiny of their performance.
Fort Bend ISD is the 7th largest school district in Texas, and we continue to grow. If we do not get funding help, and soon, we will face very serious financial constraints in the future, and the delivery approach we will be forced to take will be much different than what we have become accustomed to in Fort Bend ISD. I would like to take this opportunity to invite all of our state legislators, local government officials, and you to a Budget Workshop that will precede our next regularly scheduled Business Meeting on February 22, 2010, at 5:00 p.m. If these legislators and local government officials would attend this session they would hear firsthand the issues we face and the proposed actions that the administration recommends and the Board is considering. I hope you will join me in challenging these legislators to attend this vitally important session. Sincerely, Bob, I know what funding problems you are having and I will be there. I will also be taking names of all the officials who are there and those who are not. Most of our local state legislators have opponents this year so it might be incumbent upon the board to also invite those who are running. I'll take their names also. And to our other letter writer, Mr. Babb, complaining about the lack of civility from the board, he should attend also to get a sense of what the board goes through. And Bob, if rumors are true that the district has already hired an architect for the global science center monument, now might be the time to put all those rumors to rest. A "broke" school district shouldn't be building a global science center even if private business is willing to pay for it. Maybe those same businesses could forego their sweet tax deals and pay their fair share and relieve the burden we all feel. If we are going to be operating our school district on a "back to the basics" budget for the next several years, then we don't have the money to pay for transporting teachers and students to a monument to the superintendent. Just get that completely off the agenda and tell everyone it's on permanent hold. BKC To the Editor: Mr. Oldham, the election administrator was less than accurate in his comments concerning Ms. Bishop’s, “dirty trick” with her opponent’s name on the ballot. First, the day before my meeting with Mr. Oldham, I had called letting him know we would seek judicial relief if the mess wasn’t corrected. Contrary to his statements, I had to set 3 deadlines and threats of a lawsuit to get him and Ms. Bishop to comply with the Election Code to send corrected ballots to our servicemen and women fighting overseas. In fact, he told me the reason he finally agreed was County Attorney Cordes told him it was likely a judge would rule in our favor. To this day, I cannot understand why he and Ms. Bishop opposed sending corrected ballots to air troops in Iraq and elsewhere. What Mr. Oldham and Ms. Bishop don’t understand is someone must be held accountable for her “dirty trick.” This is not the first time she and the elections office have had errors on candidates names. It’s bad enough for Ms. Bishop to ignore local candidates and Barack Obama’s campaign efforts, it is intolerable to have such indifference in our electoral process. Donald W. Bankston I totally agree with Dillon, a student who wrote a letter that was published in last week’s paper. Drivers in Fort Bend are totally irresponsible in school zones and where students cross. I am a crossing guard at a Ft Bend school in Missouri City. Daily I witness cell phone use (some by teachers) illegal u turns, failure to stop at stop signs, turning right on red while school zone is in effect and countless speeding violations. One major contributor is the lack of police presence in the school zones. Since the start of school in May, I have not seen one Missouri City police officer in our school zone. I feel that this is one reason that people have become so complacent in school zones. When we have rainy day dismissal, I try to get the kids across and sometimes the cars (who are warm and dry) may have to wait an extra 30 seconds. This does not sit well with them. They honk, curse, and as I have heard by another guard, even try to become physically abusive. If one of you careless drivers ever hits a child, it will ruin your life forever, not to mention the life of the child. Give these kids a break, give them a chance to grow up and live their life to its fullest. T.J. Dear Editor, As a student at Fort Settlement Middle School, this has come to my concern. Every morning I walk to school and cross at the crosswalk at Commonwealth and Elkins. Some days I cross ok, but other days not so much. Many drivers are very impatient and don’t wait for me to cross, even though the light tells me to. They either ignore me and go through, sometimes almost hitting me, or they blare their horn at me to run across. This has been happening a lot more lately, and I don’t want to end up run over. I want people to realize that just because they’re late or in a bad mood, doesn’t mean they fly through the intersection and have it be okay. They need to watch for kids and adults at every crosswalk so pedestrians can be safe. Dillon K. Editor’s Note: I totally agree with you. Nothing could be that important to risk the life of an individual at a crosswalk. Bev, All past great civilizations have collapsed from within. How would we feel if America did the same? If it became the England of the 21st century? For generations we have offered our resources to the world’s poor, the starving, the ill, the oppressed. When we turn to our own we get caught in our greed. Health care insurance is not available to millions of our brothers and sisters. The rising cost of health care is crippling our economy. The insurance companies are spending millions to shackle reform. The Democrats are fighting among themselves. The Republicans stand silent. Our congressman is a no show. All this as our poor and infirm die and others lose their life savings to illness. Will we overcome our greed, regain our moral footing and care for our own? We should. We can. The Rev. Jim Alcorn |
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