DATE: Friday, September 12, 1997            TAG: 9709120010

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letter 

                                            LENGTH:  117 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR -THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

BRIDGE-TUNNEL

No-passing rule

is a big relief

I read in the Sept. 10 Pilot, with great relief, the new no-passing rule that will go into effect on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in about two weeks. My sister lives on the other side of the bridge, and I cannot express the anxiety that both our families go through each time we plan a trip to see each other.

Hopefully, this will make even a small difference. It is too bad it took so long and so many lives to make this change. From two families in Pennsylvania and Virginia, we thank you.

Peggy Militier

Portsmouth, Sept. 10, 1997

BRIDGE-TUNNEL

Make ``lights on''

mandatory for crossing

Your editorials on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel have had great merit. It's also time to make ``lights on'' while crossing mandatory and to add electronic signs before the north- and south-side approaches, stating delay times so people could explore the Eastern Shore or do errands in Virginia Beach instead of waiting in long lines. Perhaps cameras should also monitor speed limits.

Catherine D. Crandall

Eastville, Sept. 4, 1997

The real problem

is the driving

I used to be a policeman on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, and I know for certain that the bridge-tunnel authorities are doing everything humanly possible to create a safer environment for all drivers. The problem is the drivers themselves. They drink and drive, they take chances, they look at the beautiful panorama that is the Chesapeake Bay and they neglect (sometimes for just a second) their good driving habits.

We tell people to drive with their headlights on, we warn them where men are working, where the troubled areas are. If some of the suggestions from readers were followed, the bridge-tunnel commission would be forced to close because of the immense expense to implement them.

Gordy Thornes

Cape Charles, Sept. 7, 1997

VIRGINIA BEACH

Our fine libraries need

funding to keep up

If any commercial business had a customer approval rating as high as the Virginia Beach Public Library system has had in all recent citizen surveys, city officials would be begging for it to move its operations here.

As a customer and volunteer at the Central Branch Library, I see firsthand what a fine job the staff is doing in serving its users. Over the past few years, however, the number of citizens of all ages and needs using the library and its services has crowded present facilities beyond measure. Improvements and expansions are needed immediately.

Do current customers deserve any less? Surely it is time to include our library system's needs in the funding process.

Margaret Proffitt

Virginia Beach, Sept. 1, 1997

NO RAISE

Goodbye, Norfolk,

from a city retiree

You can add two more names to Norfolk's dwindling population. Having been a resident, taxpayer and employee even after the residency requirement was repealed, I finally cut the cord. Norfolk will get no more of my tax money to finance its white elephants.

I retired from the city in 1989 and finally got some crumbs (raise!) in 1996 but received a letter in July saying they were taking it back. It's nice to know the city can just write off hundreds of thousands to a hotel debt and finance such places as Hooters and build shopping centers where retired city employees can't afford to shop because the city feels they don't need a raise.

It's too bad city employees are not allowed to have a union with bargaining powers. Look what happened to UPS.

D. Ray Dorman

Boynton Beach, Fla., Sept. 3, 1997

CAR TAX

League wants to keep

its taxing powers

About the Sept. 4 article, ``Education a smarter buy than a car-tax cut, study says'':

It is no surprise to me that the Virginia Municipal League came up with this opinion. It doesn't want to lose the power to tax, even if the car tax is unfair.

If local, state and federal governments stopped wasting the taxpayers' dollars, they could solve all of their problems and give a tax cut in the process.

In any case, the question of whether the state should return the money to its taxpaying citizens, or invest the bonus in public schools, should be answered by the taxpayers. After all, it is their money.

Melvin Friedman

Suffolk, Sept. 4, 1997

EDUCATION

Lottery perpetuating

a funding myth

The Virginia Lottery ran full-page ads in 158 Virginia newspapers in mid-July proclaiming that the lottery contributed $343 million to the state's public schools last year.

The truth is, the lottery contributed that amount to the general fund.

I highly resent the spending of $225,000 of state money to continue to perpetuate a myth generated by the Democrats in the General Assembly in 1995 to fool the voters into believing they were designating lottery proceeds to education.

Despite the wording that Democrats inserted into the Code of Virginia, not one extra penny has or will go into education as a result of designating lottery money for education.

S. Vance Wilkins Jr.

House of Delegates

Richmond, Aug. 28, 1997

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