ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997 TAG: 9703140003
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
Recreation programs are suffering
I READ your March 9 news article, ``Problems in the parks,'' and applaud it. However, one aspect was overlooked. Staff writer Dan Casey mentioned briefly that the $29.27 per person spent is the entire budget for parks and recreation. This includes salaries, park upkeep and all recreation programs.
It was stated that I and several others went to Roanoke City Council about a short football season. As a director of football, I gave examples about football. However, I was speaking for all youth sports, asking for more money for the entire department. In the 10-plus years I've been involved in recreation sports, I've seen numerous cutbacks affect every program. Each recreation club must then spend more to cover these cuts.
Almost all recreation clubs must now scrape for funding and charge from $30 to $60 for one child to play one sport. Football playoffs were re-instated last year, but it was the only sport to benefit. There used to be city-sponsored playoffs for all, help with equipment costs and properly maintained practice fields (the parks). Salem and Roanoke County provide all this and more for their children.
Everyone at the parks and recreation department, especially youth coordinators, are doing everything they can with the money they are given. It simply is not enough. Many families move to Salem or the county to provide better programs, environment and education for their children. How many more will leave before City Council recognizes that most of us put our children first?
BECKY LEONARD
ROANOKE
The baked spud mustn't be moist
DOLORES Kostelni's Dining Out article (Feb. 28, ``Round up better food - and fast'') aggravated the living daylights out of me.
I am retired from the food and lodging industry and, believe me, it's the hardest way to make a profit. It's also the hardest industry in which to please any of the people some of the time and some of the people any of the time (to rearrange Abraham Lincoln's quote).
Food critics have for many years done a job they are less than qualified to do. If a person has to eat in a restaurant four times to judge it, there is more wrong with the person than there is with the restaurant.
``Wrapped in gold foil, this spud had been baked to perfection and proved delicious and moist.'' Moist! A good baked potato is never, never, baked in foil. A good baked potato is very dry, until you add butter or sour cream.
I've never been to the restaurant in question, nor do I know any of the people involved in it. It's just a question of being fair to everyone.
THADDEUS RIDDLE
BLACKSBURG
Hugs are nice, but decent pay is, too
REGARDING your Feb. 6 news article (``Day care centers turn to candy sales for teacher bonuses'') on Honeytree Early Learning Center selling candy for staff bonuses:
I've been a pre-school teacher for more than 10 years, and the pay has never been anything to boast about. But as any child-care provider will tell you, they're paid on a daily basis with bright eyes, sticky kisses and warm hugs.
However, it does seem that if you're the sole owner of five day-care centers, you should be able to pay qualified staff what they are worth. Parents pay a weekly fee for these services and should not have to work a second job selling candy to give teachers a bonus.
KAREN E. ST. CLAIR
HARDY
Ward system needs fair consideration
MEMBERS OF the Roanoke City Election District Task Force were concerned with the Feb. 2 editorial, "Race and wards in Roanoke.''
The most disturbing and misleading sentence was: `` ... black Roanokers on the task force argued for more mixing of black and white voters in the same district; they were outnumbered by white task force members who insisted on black majority wards ... "
In fact, our Jan. 28 discussion produced consensus among black and white members that we should ask the Fifth Planning District Commission's staff to prepare draft maps with two election districts containing majority black populations. The purpose of these drafts is to show what such districts would look like as we continue to study the issue.
Contrary to what you implied, there has been no racial division on the task force as to whether to create two majority-black wards. When given the chance to share their opinions on whether to use race in drawing boundaries, all members supported the idea of not having race be the dominant issue. We do not want to create racial tensions by this process.
Minority leaders of the community and various task-force members who support the change to a modified ward system feel it is a way to create accountability of City Council members, no matter the race of the person elected.
Your editorial also used the term ``gerrymandering.'' This is an emotionally loaded term that only serves to raise people's fears. The fact that the black population is densely clustered makes it much easier to draw boundary lines keeping neighborhoods intact and also create majority black wards.
The task force hasn't decided on any specific ward boundaries. We will present several options for public consideration and input before a final recommendation is made to City Council in June.
We hope that Roanoke residents will attend one of our public reviews of ward options this month and in April. We invite public opinion on this issue, and hope the public becomes engaged in this process. After all, that is what makes a democracy work.
CLARICE WALKER
BILL BESTPITCH
ROANOKE
Editor's note: This letter was signed by 14 other Roanoke Election District Task Force members.
Taking a life is always wrong
ON FEB. 12, the Montgomery County Circuit Court sentenced Ben Lilly to death for the murder of Alexander DeFilippis.
As a resident of Montgomery County, I ask that he not be killed on my behalf. I would be unwilling to kill him myself, and do not want someone else to do it in my name. I believe it's wrong to kill a person - under any circumstances.
MICHAEL CAFFERATA
BLACKSBURG
Clinton paid tribute to a monster
COUNT THE words that have been spoken or printed about the hellish drama that unfolded in Tiananmen Square 8 years ago since the monster who caused it died. You can see that the silence is deafening.
I cannot keep silent. College students were gunned down while they knelt pleading or running for their lives. Some were crushed to death by tanks, their brains forced out like a bursting blister.
Again, a U.S. president pays tribute to the dead. What a shame it wasn't to those who gave their last full measure of strength in defense of freedom, but rather to the one who required it.
If Chelsea had been among the unsung heroes of democracy who perished at Deng Xiaoping's command, I doubt our president would have considered him a extraordinary figure.
CHARLES A. MEYERS
CHRISTIANSBURG
LENGTH: Long : 136 linesby CNB