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Ronald Howe Turner

Published: October 20, 2007

I am so glad to hear that yet another individual has "retired" to Highlands County and seeking gainful employment. Your article "Candidate Files for Sheriff" on Oct.18 features Ronald Grimming and after several lengthy careers in law enforcement, retiring from two separate states' highway patrol command positions, as well as retiring from one stint with Miami-Dade College.

At 62, this individual is probably eligible for Social Security and Medicare. Now this individual wants to be our sheriff. I am sure this fine man would do fine, but what is it with this area? Why are so many "retirees" coming to Highlands County to squeeze our small job market? I have never seen so many 60-plus something people who had their union jobs, benefits, retirements from somewhere else, yet "retire" here only to pursue work full time. Especially if those jobs offer "any" benefits. You won't find them working the midnight shift. Or especially difficult or hard work. Or at the Stop-N-Shop.

Those jobs are specifically what Highlands County young folks have to look forward to. I hear a lot of "living on a fixed income" stories that make me want to cry and then I hear them from the 60-something persons with union retirements and private health and dental care, SSI, Medicare, and on and on. What a difference.

Ronald Howe Turner
Sebring

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