March 19, 2007

Our Readers Speak — March 20, 2007

Fine for bad sticker on car was too high

My son recently got a ticket for a bad sticker on my car.

Back in December, he hit some black ice and damaged the car enough to have it in the shop from Janurary until March. We got the car out on a Friday and he gets the ticket on Saturday. The ticket cost us $170. I don’t know if this is for everyone, I guess it’s standard practice, but don’t that sound a little high for this type of violation? I mean the guys at the regional jail should have golden faucets like Tammy Baker had years ago, instead of stainless steel.

I have no fight with the guys in jail because if I get another fine like that I’ll go to jail before I pay it. Perhaps some of the guys out there in jail think the same way.

There went my vacation money. Whatever happened to $25 fines?

Just think, teachers are demanding a pay raise, which they should, and they say in Charleston there is an excess in money. With fines like this, wherever it goes, someone has very deep pockets and don’t care about our teachers. Bah Humbug



David Cox

Shady Spring

Preserve our resources as a legacy for children

I appreciate very much your paper’s courageous far-sighted championing of our beautiful outdoors. Too few will speak for our forests and streams. Your editorial in support of The Bottle Bill that could reduce littering by over 70 percent, and speaking for water quality protection as you have in your Feb. 24 editorial, are reflections of citizen values today, and the nurturing of them. We can be thankful for your paper, perhaps we will get the Bottle Redemption Bill next year and turn our “throw-away society” toward sustainability.

I appreciate your sending a reporter, Mannix Porterfield, just a dandy fellow, to cover E-Day at the Capitol. He courteously interviewed me about water quality, and the Trout Unlimited organization’s interest in preserving it. The environment underlies the economy and its degradation is very short sighted. Trout presence is rare, and limited to only our purest streams. Their presence defines an unspoiled watershed as nothing else does. Each one of West Virginia’s approximately 500 native brook streams, each perhaps only three miles long, extends a perception of pristineness even beyond the watershed, throughout a region, they are nearby.

Over the years we have seen their quiet and tragic loss. We must preserve what we have left. It is a fine legacy our children will treasure.



Don Gasper

Buckhannon

Western Greenbrier needs recycling effort

I read the article on the Glen Daniel Post Office recycling coming up March 24-31. What a neat idea to come about.

Sherrie Hunter has done so much for Raleigh County on this recycling. Sure wish this western end of Greenbrier County could get something going on this.

Did you know that:

- 9 percent of the average garbage dump consists of cardboard boxes.

- 1 ton of cardboard boxes is the equivalent of 17 trees.

- Recycling 1 ton of cardboard saves over 9 cubic yards of landfill space.

- Recycling is one way of helping the environment.

Just some feedback on this matter.



Bonnie Wallace

Rainelle