THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701220150
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 72 lines
Model representative
It is not often that I feel the need to respond to a letter to the editor, but I am moved to do so at this time. I refer to the letter from R.A. Roundtree concerning City Councilman John M. de Triquet that was published in The Clipper on Jan. 17.
Dr. de Triquet is a solid conservative who has consistently voted to reduce or eliminate taxes and has voted against new taxes proposed and passed by others on the City Council. Perhaps Mr. Roundtree could tell us how the more than $12 million of revenue would be made up if the BPOL tax was immediately withdrawn. Dr. de Triquet would dearly love to rid Chesapeake of the oppressive BPOL tax, but he is not a rash man who would cut $12 million out of the heart of our strained budget without finding other non-tax revenue sources or spending reductions to replace that money.
Dr. John de Triquet has provided strong, ethical and moral leadership to the city since his election to the City Council in 1993. His steadfast and constant adherence to representing the citizens of Chesapeake is unequaled and his ability to vote in the interests and desires of the citizens of our city has been especially evident in the last year.
He voted against the dubious Convention Center, against an increase in meals and lodging taxes, against an almost 100 per cent pay raise for the City Council, against additional development that would drastically impact Kempsville Road (Williamson Planned Urban Development), and voted for a managed growth referendum that was sought by the voters of our city. He has been a true representative of the people, and he is much appreciated by the vast majority of Chesapeake.
Mr. Roundtree seems to have a problem with Dr. de Triquet's income as a physician, as he mentioned it twice in his letter. Class envy is a sad and unattractive attribute! Maybe he is not aware that Dr. de Triquet worked his way through college and medical school with the help of his wife, Carole, who worked as a teacher to help sustain them on a hamburger budget. Maybe he is not aware that Dr. de Triquet is the leading expert in this region on child abuse cases at Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. Maybe he is not aware of Carole de Triquet's vast amounts of work with the Parent-Teacher Association at Western Branch and her community service.
I'm sure it is evident that I think very highly of Dr./Cmdr./Councilman John de Triquet. He is the model representative on the City Council. He is a loving husband a father. He is a gifted and compassionate healer. I am honored to call him my good friend. Mr. Roundtree need not worry that about his assertion that John de Triquet might hurt his own arm patting himself on the back. Thousands of grateful Chesapeake working men and women will pat his back and say
thank you for representing us on the City Council.
John A. Cosgrove
Amy Marie Lane
Thoughtless motorists
People can be so uncaring about those of us with disabilities. A couple of days ago my son was driving my van (which has handicapped plates on it) and it cut off on him in the middle of Lynnhaven Parkway and Princess Anne Road in Virginia Beach. He turned on the emergency lights to let motorists know he had trouble.
Immediately behind him, a man started blowing his horn. When he came around him he gave him an obscene gesture. Other drivers did the same.
My son said not one person offered to stop to see if he needed help. I'm sorry that the van stopped on him, but I don't know what his mother and I would have done if it had been us. We go out in it by ourselves and do not have a cellular phone.
I would like to thank all of those uncaring people for their obscene gestures and their unwillingness to help.
I have, on occasion, stopped on the road and helped stranded motorists. I was a service technician and crisscrossed Tidewater every day before I became disabled. May I never see you broken down on the road!
Warren Rumpf
Downing Drive