THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510140097
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Thanks to the Virginia General Assembly, who recently amended the State Code to authorize localities to adopt ordinances such as the bicycle helmet ordinance, the city of Chesapeake was given an opportunity to enact this ordinance.
The Chesapeake Transportation and Safety Commission unanimously endorsed the bicycle helmet ordinance, which would require bicycle riders who are 14 years of age or younger to wear safety helmets while on public rights of way.
Council member and liaison for the Chesapeake Transportation and Safety Commission W. Joe Newman requested this ordinance be considered at the Sept. 12 meeting.
Unfortunately, five City Council members missed our point.
It is not our intention to add an unnecessary law, to give our government more control, to give our police officials more work, to tell people how to raise their kids or to inflict a financial burden on parents of children who ride bicycles.
We are simply looking for support from our government to protect Chesapeake's greatest resource, our children, our future!
Aldree T. Tyler
Chairperson
Transportation Safety Commission Effect of showers?
I hope I am not the only person who is asking, ``What are the effects of high sodium chloride levels on people?
I have started having a salty taste in my mouth without even touching a glass of Chesapeake water. My wife buys purified water.
I wonder what effect showering with water that has a high sodium chloride content has on our bodies. Since the skin is porous, there must be some sodium chloride entering our skin. There has to be some effect from this.
I have yet to see, unless I missed it, anything in the paper concerning the effects of the water other than from drinking it.
Because I lived in several cities that were near large bodies of water and saw how salt air affects the metal on cars, I'm sure that there must be some effect on people who shower in high concentrations of sodium chloride.
I am also concerned for those persons who do not have the funds and transportation to get purified water. What is being done for them?
Sherney W. Alexander
Saddleback Trail Road City is declining
Nothing else so indicates the misuse of public policy as the proposal to put a bank and a drugstore - both with drive-through windows - at the junction of two streets that are almost perpetually gridlocked.
With Cedar Road and Battlefield Boulevard already saturated with traffic, City Council members - instead of laughing hysterically at such a suggestion before rejecting it - are actually considering approving it.
Never mind the loss of a historical property. Never mind there's a bank and a pharmacy across the street and three more banks and another drugstore within spitting distance. Council members cling doggedly to the theory that more is better.
So Great Bridge and other city commercial areas have become one big food court. Did it ever cross their minds to put a limit on car washes, auto parts stores, gas stations, convenience stores and, yes, banks and drugstores?
Look at us, crows the mayor and his minions. We're the fastest-growing city in Virginia, as if by any stretch of the imagination that is an accolade.
Twenty years ago, a drive from Great Bridge to downtown Norfolk took 15 minutes over twisting, narrow, two-lane roads. Now, it takes 30 minutes just to get out of Great Bridge over four- and six-lane divided highways.
Is the quality of life in Chesapeake declining? You bet it is. Council members think if they issue enough use permits they'll get an All-America City award.
Carl Cahill
Old Drive by CNB