Voices From The Readers

Voices From The Readers
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Step Up Highway Safety In Wake Of Tragedy

Editor:

Our daughter Kristen was killed on June 23 on Costal Highway and 33rd Street.

Our grief, as you can imagine, is beyond belief. We are very concerned about the safety of your area and continue to wonder why the safety measures have not been stepped up in accordance to your ever-growing population explosion during the tourist season.

Perhaps you should consider pedestrian bridges over Coastal Highway, and other such congested areas, so that loved ones on foot or on bike do not have to compete with the tonage of motor vehicles.

Karen and John Stormer

Hollidaysburg, Pa.

Drawbridge Must Go

Editor:

Why would the County Commissioners favor a proposal to replace the Route 50 bridge with its faulty drawbridge which backs up traffic for miles on Route 50 on busy weekends with a new bridge with another drawbridge?

We need a bridge with a high enough span for the boat traffic to pass underneath without interrupting the traffic on Route 50. I’ve read that a span that high would have to "land" further in town and cause a lot of property seizures. I have a solution, relocate the main channel to the middle of the span, that way the highest point of the span would be further out from the town, making the "landing" of the bridge basically in the same area that it is now, causing less disruption of home’s and business’s. Why couldn’t the main channel be dredged westward?

Also, on an unrelated topic, the Town of Ocean City was reported to be looking into the property next to the public work’ building, that would be a win-win for the town. We do not need any more hotels, which by the way are half empty most of the time, nor condos. We have way too many since the town let the developers run amuck. What we do need is a new boat launch facility, with ample trailer parking. Being a boater makes me realize just how unfriendly this town is to us. You have to pay 50 dollar’s a week to park your trailer in the public lot, while the park and ride lot is empty all of the time, which by the way I used to park my trailer there for free, until people started to sleep in their campers in the lot. I wish you would reconsider letting boat trailers park for free again with restriction’s on how long they could remain there, possibly two weeks maximum, with no camper parking allowed, after all they are the one’s who screwed it up for us boaters.  Bob Lemon

Collegeville, Pa.

Apply Helmet Law To All

Editor:

It seems to me that the proposed ordinance regarding helmets for scooter riders is seriously flawed.

Whether rented or owned, riding a scooter without a helmet in Ocean City or anywhere for that matter represents a serious safety issue. I’m a scooter owner in OC and believe the proposed ordinance should apply to all.

Mike Jacobs
Ocean City

Seizing Private Land

Is Abuse Of Power

Editor:

All property owners should highly commend Ocean City Council member Margaret Pillas’ sole vote opposing Ocean City’s use of eminent domain to obtain the old Slide and Ride property located on 64th Street.

Under eminent domain, the government takes property from an owner even if the owner does not want to sell. The owners of the 64th Street property are planning to build a 100-room hotel on the property.

However, six Ocean City Council members have decided to use eminent domain to obtain the property for possible future expansion for the wastewater plant. Of course, these six council members overlooked the fact that most of Ocean City is already developed with little vacant land, thereby shooting down their argument for the need to expand the wastewater plant. They also say the land could be used for parking for employees using the public safety building. Anyone passing the current parking lot for the public safety building will readily see that the lot is generally never filled to more than 50 percent of its capacity. In my view, any good bureaucrat will be able to come up with a justification to support an elected official’s decision to use eminent domain.

The six Ocean City Council members said that with the use of eminent domain they will have to pay market value for the land. Of course, these council members failed to mention that land values in Ocean City are severely depressed so that they will be seizing the property at a bargain rate market value. Ocean City’s use of eminent domain is just another example of big government squeezing out property owners who want to make the most effective use of their land. The next step could be those Boardwalk businesses that Ocean City officials believe are not consistent with the family value image they attempt to portray. These Boardwalk businesses could be classified as “blighted” so that eminent domain could be used by the Ocean City Council to condemn their property and put these people out of business.

Action is needed to stop the use of eminent domain in Ocean City. I urge all Ocean City property owners to go to the Castle Coalition website to learn more about government’s abuse of eminent domain to seize private property. The use of eminent domain by Ocean City Council members to take the 64th Street property is as naked an abuse of government power as can be imagined.

Veronica Potter

Ocean City

Obama’s Birth Place

Discourse Irrelevant

Editor:
This is just nonsense about the President Obama’s place of birth. His

mother was a citizen. What if his mother was an astronaut and he was born on the Space Station or even Mars. Would he be a citizen of the United States of America? Of course he would. Put on your thinking caps people.

Alice Hanke
Milton, Del.

Questionable Judgment

Editor:

President Obama has confirmed my fear of having a president with terrible judgment.

His recent accusation that the Cambridge, Mass. police “acted stupidly” in the arrest of a black college professor shows Obama makes decisions without gathering all the facts and analyzing the situation. He automatically took the side of a fellow black, and berated the police, without any knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the event. He should not be commenting on local police matters. This only weakens the office of President of the United States.

President Obama has trouble thinking correctly and makes poor decisions when he is away from his aides, is not reading from a prepared speech and does not have a teleprompter in front of him. Also, he has exhibited a tendency to “shoot from the hip”. Do you trust him to take the 3 a.m. call? I don’t.

Donald A. Moskowitz

Londonderry, N.H.