April 15, 2009 06:29 pm
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Haven House employee defends shelter
Regarding the article about Haven House on April 9, 2009, in The Evening News, I’m curious as to what Ms. Fletcher thinks she has to whine about.
As is the case with most of my fellow employees, my pay has grown to be about a year behind over the last 2 1/2 years. Why would anyone work that long without pay?
Well, why — when he saw a man robbed, beaten and left for dead — did the Samaritan stop to help? Why does a fireman go into a burning building when everyone else is running out? Why do missionaries risk health and life to spread God’s word and be examples of His love?
Because someone has to!
My life today is better because of the presence of this shelter and the (sometimes) tough love displayed by the staff. I know in my heart that divine guidance led me to be here after preparing me for my position here. It was more than just coincidence that led me to receive counselor’s training during the homeless period before I came to the shelter.
I’ve always had a good grasp on numbers and record-keeping, which is part of my duties here. I’m now the third-shift coordinator (in duties, if not by title). I was a resident myself for six months before this job was offered to me.
In that time, I was encouraged to “clean up my act.” As of March 3, I’ve been drug-free for four years! I owe my new beginning to God for touching the hearts that have kept this shelter going for this long in spite of the hardships.
My own personal hardships are: 1. Not having enough money for Christmas and birthday gifts for my children and grandchildren; 2. still being a live-in employee, when I should be in my own home; and 3. not having any sort of social life because I cannot afford to go on dates. However, these concerns are irrelevant compared to my duty to God and my fellow man.
Ms. Fletcher’s actions since the end of her employment here are merely vindictive in nature. She obviously doesn’t care that these actions could cause the shelter to close and leave the homeless people in this area with nowhere to go.
— Thomas G. Risinger Jr., Jeffersonville
Reader: Regulate gun ammo
With gun violence steadily on the rise, our Constitution guarantees our right to keep and bear arms. There are no absolute solutions to the problem. Stiffer laws will never work and only further limit law-abiding citizens. There is, however, a tactic not yet explored that may offer some ray of hope.
Guns don’t kill people, ammunition does. Without ammo, guns or rifles of whatever caliber are nothing more than iron clubs. Without the proper cartridge, they are useless as deadly firearms. Therefore, regulate the sale and manufacture of these ammunitions and you gain some stability over the problem.
Second, ammunition has a shelf life and after a certain age becomes unstable and unreliable; so stockpiling would not be a good option.
There has always been a black market for whatever commodity is lacking and one for viable ammunition would be no exception. Where there is a will, there is a way for the criminal element; nothing can be done about that.
Gun owners and collectors should not be discouraged or fearful that their firearms might be taken away by some new legislation. As I previously stated, regulation of the sale and manufacture of ammunition would be a meaningful start in a right direction.
— Leroy Heil, Jeffersonville
Public option needed for health care in U.S.
If President Barack Obama’s health care plan gets changed to exclude a public option like Medicare, then it is not health care reform.
A public option is the only way to guarantee health care for all Americans. Any legislation without it is just more of the same broken system. Americans deserve a choice.
Let people choose between keeping the for-profit insurance they already have — if they want it — or a public health care option like Medicare. Insurance companies and HMOs are afraid of a public health care option because competition will force them to provide better service at a lower cost. One in six Americans are uninsured and millions more underinsured for the coverage they need.
— John Schmitt, Louisville
Public officials too generous with spending
I recently attended a Floyd County Common Wage Hearing at which time the local committee was to establish the “common wages” that will be paid for a Wastewater Treatment project soon to be constructed in the City of New Albany. The committee is comprised of an appointee from the City, the awarding agency, in this case the Wastewater Department, the County Commissioners’ appointee, the Indiana Department of Labor and the AFL-CIO building trades union. The committee accepted wage rates for the numerous construction classifications from the union representative. The committee also accepted rates for the same classifications from a local contractor whose wages reflected the overwhelming majority of open shop/non-union businesses that provide construction services in and around Floyd County.
After a silent review of the submitted wages, the committee voted 3 to 1 to accept the more expensive wage rates presented by the unions. The City’s appointee as well as the awarding agency’s appointee both voted in favor of the higher AFL-CIO rates. For example, an unskilled laborer would have been paid the fair sum of $13 per hour by local open-shop contractors. By accepting the premium rates, the same unskilled laborer will now be paid a staggering $26.55 per hour. Similarly, a semi-skilled carpenter with some level of experience would earn $20 per hour according to the local contractor rates but by accepting the more generous union scale that very carpenter will be paid $29.22 per hour thanks to the generosity of the Floyd County tax payers.
With these tough economic times, with cut backs and layoffs, most everyone becomes more practical and reserved with their expenses in order to get by. One would think that local government representatives would not be so generous with public funds by accepting the premium wage rates and disregarding the true common wage rates everyone else lives by.
— William Parson, Louisville
Do not make Spring Street two-way
With regards to finding out that Spring Street will become two-way traffic, I am astonished that New Albany Mayor Doug England has made this a priority in his administration. As our city’s neighborhoods continue to decline as a cancer of blight continues to move into the last remaining fair neighborhoods, England is going to spend millions to convert a few streets to two-way traffic. This is England’s plan to help our failing neighborhoods.
I, personally, live in the east end, a block off of Spring Street, and I take my 3-year-old daughter to Bicknell Park to play. This is a two-way section of Spring Street and it is very dangerous. When I do have to cross Spring Street anywhere west of Vincennes Street, it is much safer.
A city official told me that he, personally, is not in support of the mayor’s plan, but that the mayor and a few uniformed business owners are pushing for it. I will tell you now that the speeds at which drivers drive at the two-way section of Spring Street are just as fast as at the one-way sections. This opinion that drivers will drive slower is not true.
There is a better way to make Spring Street safer and more pedestrian-friendly. This official also mentioned that the last predestine fatality was at a two-way section of Main Street. I am dreading this change to Spring Street. I find that the mayor has been hasty in his decision and I implore all members of the City Council to do everything in their power to block Mayor England.
There is a better solution to the city’s traffic and the mayor would have found out other opinions if he took public opinion on the matter, in a public hearing, but we have not had such leadership out of England. I plead to any citizen who has an opinion on the matter to try and cross Spring Street at a two-way section and then cross at a one-way section and find out which is safer. Don’t let the mayor jeopardize our children’s safety or even our own, for political reasons. Please call and object to the Spring Street changing until a better plan is implemented.
— Jameson Bledsoe, New Albany
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