Our Town Page 8 C www.sunnewspapers.net The Sun ISunday, February 16, 2014 VIEWPOINT Derek Dunn-Rankin Chairman David Dunn-Rankin Publisher Chris Porter Executive Editor Brian Gleason Editorial page editor Stephen Baumann Editorial writer Email letters to letters@sun-herald.com I OUR VIEW Airport traffic numbers hit stratosphere OUR POSITION: Airport, tour- ism numbers point to high-flying future for Charlotte County. oise complaints and weather-related delays and cancellations haven't put a dent in the Punta Gorda Airport's growing popularity with travelers to and from Charlotte County. A 113 percent spike in pas- sengers coincided with the expansion of destinations served byAllegiant Air, the airport's only carrier, which now flies to and from 23 cities in the United States. Passenger count grew to 47,091 in January 2014 from 19,225 the same period last year, according to airport Executive Director Gary Quill. The boom in airport traffic also has had an impact on overall tourism, and likely contributes to rising home sales and home prices in recent months. In December 2013, home prices were up 18 percent over the year-earlier period. Bed tax collections, which are levied at 5 percent for hotel rooms and short-term home rentals, rose to a record $2.53 million during fiscal year 2013, up 6 percent from the previous year. Charlotte Harbor & the Gulf Islands Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Lorah Steiner said this year's collections are already outstripping the 2012-13 pace. The passenger numbers are a credit to both Allegiant and the airport's staff and authority directors. The airline astutely identifies underserved second- ary or terciary markets with tens of millions of potential fliers. Focused mainly on the Midwest and Northeast, the carrier also offers flights to southern destinations in North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. The airport authority has successfully navigated a thorny public relations problem aris- ing from landing and take-off patterns that some residents of Punta Gorda have protested. Knowing they can't please every- one, the airport has nonetheless been accessible and responsive to concerns. Allegient's success is likely to attract additional car- riers in the future, so getting the right mix of noise abatement, safety and scheduling right is critical to the airport's continued growth. The number of flights isn't the only reason air traffic has grown. The authority has partnered with the Punta Gorda and Charlotte County chambers of commerce and the tourism bureau to target potential travelers in cities where Allegiant flies. An expanded terminal (with further expansion planned), free short-term park- ing, its central location to several major Southwest Florida cities and shorter security lines than at major airports makes flying into and out of Punta Gorda a convenient alternative. While the airline lacks the daily service to most destinations that bigger airlines offer, it is an attractive option for travelers with flexible arrival and departure schedules. Charlotte County's growing reputation as a vacation desti- nation is also a factor. The travel website Trivago recently named Port Charlotte the country's top value destination and tourism bureau writer recruiting efforts have translated in scores of articles and photos featuring Charlotte Harbor and other area attractions in publications around the U.S. and abroad. For example, the Boston Globe re- cently published a feature about Placida and The Fishery restau- rant. The opening of Tampa Bay Rays spring training will expose television and newspaper audiences to the county, even more eyes and ears. There's no doubt the future for the airport and the county are looking up. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Inhuman treatment in Lee County Editor: I was shocked to read in the "The Wire" on the front page that a Lee County sheriff's detective physically dropped off a registered sex offender in the woods to live there in Fort Myers. Is this human? Being a sex offender is a sickness. The government should try to cure this man. If I would drop a cat or a dog in the woods, I am sure that I would be arrested for cruelty to animals by the same sheriff. Shame on Florida that there are no shelters for homeless people in Lee County. Are we civilized? Is this democracy? Sometimes I really wonder. Peter Jacynicz North Port Administrator should be fired Editor: The Tea Party of Punta Gorda has completed in- vestigating cyanobacteria growth in Parkside's Sunrise Waterway/Sunshine Lake, which over three years has spread rapidly to an algae mat 10 feet in height with highly obnoxious odors emanating. In 2009, residents began warning the administration of such disturbing, visual conditions. TPPG interviewed several Parkside residents, reviewed scientific reports and re- corded conduct exhibited by administration leaders after learning of, responding to and addressing the prob- lem, which commenced in late 2012. The extensive evidence assembled clearly demon- strates administrative malfeasance. A long series of errors by administrative personnel assigned to identify the mat's nutrient source (s) and fix the problem, caused remedial costs to explode to $4 million and elimination of the problem continuing long beyond reason. Based on irrefutable evidence, we advised county commissioners Jan. 28. The county administrator is cul- pable for this out-of-control environmental disaster and he should resign, and if he does not commissioners must terminate him. Taxpayers, since it is your money at risk, we ask you to review the content of papers posted on www.pgteaparty. org, which provide a compre- hensive history of the prob- lem and identify the slipshod nature of administrative actions. TPPG believes taxpayers must be represented by competent leaders, adept at quickly solving significant problems and in the process judiciously safeguarding the money entrusted to them. In this case, no such attributes have been demonstrated. Given facts presented, if the commissioners don't replace the administrator, they become direct participants in this major problem. William Bigelow Port Charlotte Super speeder in Georgia Editor: I read with interest the letter in today's Sun from the "super speeder." I, too, am a designated super speeder in the state of Georgia. I was ticketed in February 2013, deservedly so. I paid the $200 county fine, then received notice of the additional state fee of $200. I paid it also and waited to see if they were going to send a bumper sticker that I would be required to use, notifying all that I am a designated super speeder. No 'war on w in Israe Republicans argue their denial of choice to women is a principled position and since money is easily diverted (fun- gible), any dollar for Planned Parenthood is a dollar toward paying for abortions. This is pure hypocrisy since the billions sent to Israel championed by Republicans are just as fungible. Could it be Republicans only choose to wage war on America's women? Subjecting American women to a government- mandated intrusive ultra- sound is fine; Israeli women, well, that's different. Really! Sure doesn't seem like a principled or consistent position to the majority of Americans. Douglas Kennedy Punta Gorda Reconsider vet service Editor: On Jan. 14 at 7:30 a.m., we called a veterinary emergen- cy service which several local vets, including our own, refer clients to for emergencies be- fore and after regular hours. Our pregnant female need- ed an emergency C-section. The "emergency vet" said, "We are closing in 30 min- utes. Sorry, you'll have to go to your own vet." He was heading home even after we explained that our own vet would not be in until 9 a.m. We ended up driving down Tamiami Trail toward our own vet and called one we Linda Smith drove by whose doctors were Punta Gorda coming in at 8:20 a.m. So we stopped there and the S surgery was done by doctors fomIen we'd never met. Fortunately, Women are essential to the survival of Israel. The Israeli government doesn't have a "war on women." It is the opposite. They need their women in war. The Israelis respect a woman's right to choose and provide government money for abortions. The U.S. provides billions in financial aid to Israel. Republicans have supported aiding Israel but not American Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is for women's health and, yes, that at times includes paying for abortions, since like the Israelis, Planned Parenthood believes in a woman's right to choose. they were excellent doctors and our girl lived to bark about this experience. But this is a flawed arrange- ment: to have a time period uncovered by anyone. We could have lost the mother and the entire litter. This local veterinary emergency arrangement needs to be reconsidered and reconfigured by the owners and financial backers of this "emergency vet." Michele Matto, Jennifer Young Port Charlotte GI Bill was very successful Editor: The GI Bill is one of the most successful bills that Congress has passed. I went to college after the Korean War on the GI Bill. We had a large contingent of veterans. I would not have been able to afford college without the GI Bill. The difference in perfor- mance of students out of high school and the veterans was like night and day. The veterans performed better in every way. The dropout rate of high schoolers at the end of the first semester was 25 percent. The dropout rate of the vets was zero. The vets were more mature and had learned discipline, plus they felt they had earned it and wanted to get the most out of the program. If a professor gave an assign- ment that was due in a week or two, the vets had it in on time, the high schoolers maybe. While working on my mas- ter's degree at the George Washington University one evening, the professor stated that the government could afford to give the vets a free education as the recipients would earn enough extra money and pay more extra money in taxes than the education cost. I can personally attest to this fact. The GI Bill is a win- win program for the country. William Nurse North Port Eliminate real Parkside problems Editor: Via media pressure on commissioners, community activists are now actively attempting to feast on $9 million of taxpayer money the commission has dedicated to the Parkside renovation project, which has a price tag of $35 million. The project's only solid funding source, which represents only about 25 percent of total project cost, represents taxpayers' money commitments and per usual taxpayers have been given no vote in the matter. When activists, who are rarely private-sector oriented or fiscally responsible, see other people's money they attack like piranha, coming forth with projects which usually are "feel-good" in nature or ill-timed. On Feb. 4,in a Sun front- page article, the activists cited as their immediate pri- orities several such projects. Three are Elkham Boulevard renovations ($652,000), land purchase on which a band shell will be constructed (no amount cited) and McGuire Park rebuild (no amount mentioned). Before any of the taxpayers' $9 million is spent on the ac- tivist priority list, it is manda- tory three "real" problems in the immediate area be elim- inated. These are: Polluted waters in Sunrise Waterway/ Sunshine Lake, where during the past three years poor administrative management has needlessly wasted mil- lions of taxpayer dollars with significantly more remedial expenditures expected in the future; hundreds of dilapidated and abandoned houses; and high crime rate incidence. The proposed projects cited above will be a total waste of money unless these three critical and systemic problems in Parkside are first resolved. Taxpayers demand clear and logically thinking, fiscally conservative leaders take control of this situation. Carl Rehm Punta Gorda I LETTER SUBMISSION POLICY Letters are welcome on virtually any subject, but we do have some rules. Please keep them to the Editor section is designed as a public forum for community discourse, and the opinions to less than 250 words. Letters will be edited to length as well as for grammar and spelling. All and statements made in letters are solely those of the individual writers. The newspaper takes letters must be signed with full name not initials. An address and telephone number must be no responsibility for the content of these letters. Please send or bring correspondence to the Sun, included. The phone number and address are not for publication, but must be provided. Due to the Letters to the Editor, 23170 Harborview Road, Charlotte Harbor, FL 33980, or fax to 941-629-2085. number of letters received, we are able to run only one letter per person per month. The Letters Readers with access to the Internet may email Letters to the Editor at letters@sun-herald.com. OurTown Page 8 C www.sunnewspapers.net The Sun/Sunday, February 16, 2014 ?I