Letters
Letters to the Editor
Highlands Today
Published: February 7, 2012
Look closer at parkway plansPublished: February 7, 2012
Recently, my wife and I dropped our Florida residency to become Hoosiers again, not necessarily because of better government in Indiana.
Although both states have major problems, Florida's government appears to have a stronger hold on absurdity.
For example, Florida has spent millions upon millions of dollars to straighten a river to the Everglades, which was in the process of being drained to create more sugar cane farms, and now that's being reversed with a cost of additional hundreds of millions of tax dollars.
The state has also managed to strip its public teachers of both their dignity and their security with its new approaches to education (being copied in Indiana). Florida seems to be a prime spot for election nightmares, a la 2000. Who knows what 2012 holds?
A few days ago, Highlands Today indicated there was some disagreement about the original plans for the Sebring Parkway design. Mr. Handley suggested that the original plan was to finish by using College Drive to access U.S. 27.
Now the county commission suggests the best plan would be to use College Drive. Where are those original plans and what do they really say? Has anyone bothered to read the Eucalyptus Access Study or the U.S. 27 Corridor Study?
Obviously, SFCC President Stephens is familiar with it. The original plan would take the parkway to Avon Park and then to U.S. 27.
As a former instructor at the college, I shudder to think of the noise and confusion a reconstructed College Drive would create and the dangers to the student body and faculty.
I never heard a single student complain about any difficulty reaching the campus. That will change in a hurry when you have hundreds of trucks every day on the drive along with a lot of dangerous drivers of all ages.
Dr. Stephens made it clear that safety is the main consideration in this matter. That's a sane analysis.
Most every other idea I've heard in this discussion takes us back to the absurd. Is it any wonder that the voting public has grown tired of such nonsense?
Van Young
Sebring
Stop blocking the roadway
As a frequent traveler of Flare Road and U.S. 27, at the intersection of Fountain Plaza between Highlands Today and Alan Jay Automotive, it is so annoying to see that drivers coming out of that plaza block the roadway.
There is a sign on Flare Road that says "Do Not Block Driveway." There should also be a sign that says "Do Not Block Roadway."
Come on, people — show a little patience and common sense.
Gaile Kershner
Sebring