Leaky pipes, bully pulpit power, facts vs. 'The Big Lie': Letters, Oct. 16, 2022
More must be done to explore problems with leaking pipes
Thanks for your recent article, "Indian River County plans new water study after copper plumbing leaks continue." Until recently I was president of a 55-member homeowners association at Lake Temple in Citrus Springs off 5th St. SW. In those years several homeowners including me, suffered leaks. Even many in Citrus Springs.
Plumbers tell us it is the county water supply. The county blames federal water regulations. We do know that those homeowners with water filters do not experience this problem. One can not successfully ascertain cause by re-piping permits. The county should set up a hotline for residents to forward their problems and survey plumbing companies in order to ascertain the extent of the problem.
The fact that those with filtration do not have this problem should be explored.
Nick Bianco, Vero Beach
Hospital district needs vibrant, energetic people to cure what ails it
Way down the ballot this November you’ll see the candidates for hospital district representatives. Most voters don’t bother, but regaining control of Cleveland Clinic should be a major issue for Indian River residents.
A couple of years ago, the hospital board made the wrong deal choosing Cleveland over HCA which now administers Lawnwood in Fort Pierce. The new deal strongly favored the "Big Fish." At the time the Indian River County Hospital District could have received one of two up-front lease payments of $75 million or $150 million plus a $2 million tax revenue stream from HCA each year. A 10-year, self-renewable contract was chosen instead as Cleveland Clinic, with its name recognition, won. Now any improvements would be made with too little public input, no rent is being paid, and scant oversight is heard from those on the hospital board. The Teamsters Union leads the nurses who leave continuously, along with doctors not happy with their lack of control.
What the Visiting Nurse Association or the Mental Health Association and others could have done with that money from the HCA choice, we’ll never know. Every time I read of medical emergencies it seems the patients or victims are transported to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center. One stat that shows why is a Google review showing an emergency room rating of 4.0 out of 5.0 and an overall rating of 3.8 while Cleveland tallies only 2.3. Why? Do the candidates running for these seats know these numbers?
It takes more vibrant and energetic people to be responsible for Cleveland Clinic’s duty to our community. We can’t keep a “hands off” attitude and hope for the best. The hospital district was created for a purpose. Let’s do our diligence and get active, interested candidates into those seats.
Norman Grant, Vero Beach
Is it bullying when the columnist gets to speak from the bully pulpit?
(Editor's note: Due to the writer's error, an earlier version of this column incorrectly identified Martin County Commissioner Stacey Hetherington.)
Blake Fontenay has the advantage of having unlimited words for his opinions. I have 300 words, of which I just used up 24.
It appears to me that Mr. Fontenay has a biased view of what occurred at the County Commission meeting when Stacey Hetherington voted for the urban lifestyle text change.
He states she “owes” her constituents an explanation. Commissioner Hetherington can speak for herself. I will offer the following: I believe Commissioner Hetherington’s vote reflected a new set of facts that changed how she viewed the topic.
What changed? Lands affected were reduced from over 130,000 acres to just under 12,000 acres. A PUD will be the tool used to create any project brought forward giving the county far more control over any proposed development. Interestingly, approximately 70% of the land that could possibly be affected by this text change is located west of Hobe Sound. The vast majority of those who spoke in favor of the text change were from the Hobe Sound area. Mr. Fontenay’s article implied Commissioner Hetherington waited until after the election to go along with the “politically rigged game.” I find that offensive. I believe that comment insults her character. He infers that it’s all about the people, what about the people who supported this change? He ends with advocating for an anti-development fund. Kind of lets you know where he stands, doesn’t it.
In the end time will bear out the wisdom of this vote, and I for one believe we will all be the better for it. Bully? Mr. Fontenay infers that most were against the change. This is simply wrong. But he does have the "bully" pulpit.
Michael Dooley, Hobe Sound
Former pilot's time in Ukraine reveals industrial, reliable people
After three loud explosions this morning the reception desk called and told me I had to go down to the bomb shelter. I'm there now along with a Ukrainian soccer team.
I've been traveling the area including the heavily bombed-out towns of Irpen and Bucha where a mass grave was discovered. If the locals are to be believed, the Russian atrocities are far worse and numerous than being reported. The saturation artillery campaign by Russia has totally destroyed about 40 percent of the towns i saw and every other building with blown out windows and bullet holes. Not reported by the media, Russian forces penetrated Kyiv defense positions and reached the downtown area before being expelled. Sand bag and block fighting positions are still on most street corners.
The Ukrainians are industrious, reliable people who are very friendly. I left my cell phone in a gypsy cab with no markings. All my contacts and video were on that phone and I had no way of identifying the cabby except that he drove a black Kia, of which there are thousands. The little girl at the reception, however, took down his plate number. The owner of the Holiday inn arrived shortly thereafter with a colonel in the special operations command who took down the info. Within two hours, the colonel, the cab driver and my cell phone showed up. I asked "How in the world did you find this guy?" With a big smile on his face he replied, "We have our ways."
William Broocke, a former Air Force pilot, founded U.S. Generator in Indian River County and has been living in Ukraine.
Ukraine will not win this war under NATO and the UN philosophy
I reluctantly am compelled to write this letter for history is not on the side of Ukraine. If you look at the last 3,000 years of warfare — whether a country, Greek city state, Rome, region or whatever — a war is never won unless they attack and conquer the land area owned by the other side. At best, without that only a stalemate is reached.
In more modern times WWI was not entirely won; it was a stalemate after millions of deaths because Germany itself was not strongly attacked. This was one of the primary reasons WWII resulted.
WWII was not won because the allies had better weapons and military. It was won because the allies carpet-bombed Germany's manufacturing capabilities and military machines within Germany itself, whereby they could not make enough tanks, planes etc. With Japan we didn't fight a defensive fight but took the war to Japan. We invaded and conquered islands they held and firebombed its main islands, ultimately dropping the two nukes. Without being aggressive that war would have dragged on for decades until everyone was exhausted as in WWI.
With Korea the war was fought to another standstill because the pols wouldn't let MacArthur cross the river. They were afraid of China, which was supplying most of the military to North Korea. That's how we are left with a dictator with nukes. Again with Vietnam, Johnson wouldn't let the military destroy the north, so we lost.
History says Ukraine can't win because NATO won't allow it to attack Russia so this war will drag on for years until the NATO pols get tired of it. Russia will be fine and Ukraine a wasteland. The problem when pols run a war.
Edward Marasi, Port St. Lucie
When your 'truth' is gathered from faulty info, there's a problem
To get Democrats and Independents to agree on anything involving politics is like trying to herd cats, for we are a very diverse group.
Republicans, on the other hand, walk in lockstep with one another and vote unquestioningly and accordingly.
A prime example of this is espoused in an Oct. 6 letter. The writer opined that the Stuart News should nor print letters that disagree with her political beliefs. I couldn't help but notice that she seems to be very sure her "beliefs" are the true ones and those others have can't possibly be true.
News alert: Her "truth" is evidently gleaned from watching certain channels on TV or believing every conspiracy theory on the internet. These sources search out readers and viewers who want to hear information that suits their own skewed ideas. It doesn't seem to matter to these folks that the information is false; they are more than happy to repeat it as factual. This is the current GOP that has, unfortunately, pinned its hopes on a lying criminal.
Donald Trump did not win the last presidential election. No matter how many times his fans repeat what's now known as the "big lie." Democrats did not change any voting rules prior to the last presidential election and that election was said to be one of the fairest in history. Even Gov. DeSantis crowed about the smoothness of the election process here in Florida — until he decided it wasn't and aided the state GOP in changing voting laws. It's actually the GOP, in many states, that is attempting to control the vote in order to dictate who wins elections. It has come to be about attaining or keeping political power and the supreme vice of greed that is the governing force in the GOP.
Facts matter.
Sharon Garland, Hobe Sound
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Leaky pipes, Ukraine war, facts vs. 'Big Lie': Letters, Oct. 16, 2022
