That road to nowhere as stated in your article the other night will take me home and make it a lot safer trip. Not only will it take me home but it will take a lot of other people that live out in Friendship and over toward Able home too. The county had no interest in fixing the road or bridge that is one-lane and very dangerous. The county came out and installed stop signs that very few people stop at.
The truth of the matter is that the city of Anniston is just a little jealous because our mayor can get things done down here in Oxford.
The state is going to build a new road, which is going to benefit not only the people who live in Oxford but also the people who travel this road such as your paper women who deliver the paper to my house every morning.
So instead of bad mouthing our mayor maybe the county and your city council should thank our mayor.
Barry Adams
Oxford
Distrusting the Army
The Star’s recent article, “Depot Ground Water Studies Continue,” describes how the Army routinely dumped an industrial degreaser called trichloroethylene (TCE) in ditches and lagoons at the Anniston Army Depot for many years. TCE is a highly toxic substance, which causes liver disease and can also cause cancer. The Army says it is “attempting to determine” whether the TCE in our drinking water came from the Depot. (Where else would it have come from?) However, the real question is why the Army is being allowed to lead this inquiry into its own misdeeds.
The article also says that the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) will not conduct a health affects study based on TCE being in our drinking water unless the EPA finally lowers the acceptable standard for TCE from five parts per billion to one part per billion.
This should come as no surprise. ATSDR is a federal agency, which has done little to root out the causes of any of our pressing environmental problems. In fact, although TCE has been found in local private wells near the depot in an amount of 190 parts per billion-38 times greater than the current limit — The Star reports that these public health officials have “determined that eating fish from these lakes is fine.”
The citizens of Calhoun County must ask themselves the following questions:
1) How many chemical discharges must be uncovered before our community receives a comprehensive environmental and health study?
2) If the Army dumped TCE into lagoons and ditches at the depot, what does that say about the Army’s respect for our citizens and our environment?
3) If the Army has been cavalier in its disposal of TCE, what does that say about the Army’s planned destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile in an open combustion incinerator?
The Chamber of Commerce has taken out a full-page ad extolling the virtues of incineration and urging us to trust the federal government.
Our citizens only need to look at the Army’s behavior that led to the TCE contamination of our water to realize that we must secure a safer, more environmentally friendly method of destroying the stockpile: neutralization.
Don Patterson
Pell City
Landscaping
I was raised in Anniston but now live in Cleburne County, so I do not get down Quintard as often as I used to. But recently, as I rode down Quintard, I was astonished at the beauty of the landscaping in the median of Quintard Avenue.
Then I rode over to Noble Street and saw the same thing, and also the same at all the city of Anniston buildings.
I would like to thank the city of Anniston, the Parks and Recreation Department, Tammy, Chris, and all the men and women who do the work by the sweat of their brow to make this landscape such a beauty to behold.
I do not know what the workers are paid to do the landscape, but I’m sure it’s not enough, as it is a priceless site us citizens are able to behold.
Chuck Alexander
Delta
Honoring Hugo Black
In regard to the statues in Washington D.C., $80,000 is a drop in the bucket when you add up all the problems Alabama has. I think one of the statues should be that of Hugo Black, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
He is from Ashland in Clay County and practiced law there before his appointment by Franklin Roosevelt.
Michael Anderson
Ohatchee
Books for kids
My name is Tracey Beavers and I am a volunteer coordinator for a program called America Reads. I recruit volunteers here in Calhoun County to go into our public and county schools to tutor children in reading. There have been very few things that have upset me so far. Please allow me to tell you of the one thing I’m having trouble dealing with.
While searching the Internet recently I came across something that truly bothered me. My quest was to find free books for children.
Searching through 200 sites, I found not one that offered what I was looking for. I did however find information about getting books to prisoners.
I just don’t understand why it is so easy to find information on books for the incarcerated and so difficult to find ways to get children free books.
Wouldn’t it make sense to get books to children first and maybe avoid them becoming prisoners?
By the way, I’m still looking for free books for our children. Should you know of any books or want information about America Reads, please contact me at 435-5091 or at calhounamreads@cableone.net
Tracey Beavers, America Reads
Jacksonville
A fable?
Once there lived a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Parent-Wanna-Be. They could not have a baby of their own so they searched for a child. One day they found a mother, distraught and poor, who was willing to give them her newborn son. The couple promised, but never bothered to ask about Mr. Father and what he wanted. Several months later, Mr. Father found out that his son had not died at birth as he was told. He was overjoyed and set out to find his son.
When Mr. and Mrs. Parent-Wanna-Be found out that Mr. Father was in their land, they devised a plan to keep the babe in their castle.
First, they called the magician Mediator and his assistant. Then, they went from place to place and told the good people of Dixie what a horrid man Mr. Father was.
For five years Mr. Father tried to get his son, but to no avail. His son did not know Mr. Father.
Mediator and Legalese had done the magic; the son believes Mr. and Mrs. Parent-Wanna-Be are his parents.
To make sure that Mr. Father doesn’t cause them any more trouble, the magicians have forced him to pay the Parent-Wanna-Bes five bags of gold for the next 13 years.
J.C. Elliott
Alexandria
