opinion

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Don't dump utility, instead negotiate for same benefits
Times-Union editorial staff

Is St. Johns County well-served by having JEA provide electric utilities here?

JEA has about 11,000 electric customers in the county, while FPL serves almost 69,000 customers countywide.

The issue raised by a citizen at a recent county commission meeting is that St. Johns customers wind up contributing revenues to Jacksonville through their municipal utility.

Local Amnesty chapter active in supporting human rights
Now in its seventh year, St. Augustine’s Amnesty International local group meets monthly to support human rights throughout the world.

Recent activities include letter writing to free prisoners of conscience, a candlelight vigil for victims of torture, lobbying to restore the right of habeas corpus, and programs by Rufus Pennington, a pro bono attorney working with Guantanamo detainees, and Dr. Burton Lee, physician to former President George H. W. Bush, an outspoken critic of torture.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, JULY 7

Easy questions, hard answers
Question: Is the car bomb incident in London enough of a wake up call for us, or do we need for a bomb to go off in front of the Capital Building in Washington?

Answer: Probably the bomb in Washington.

Question: If we do wake up, what do we do?

There’s an important message among the tax moans, groans

Times-Union editorial staff

The heat rolling toward state lawmakers these days isn’t just from the 90-degree temperatures.

It’s blowback from St. Johns County officials and others with city and county government across Florida over the Legislature’s revamp of the property tax system that will reduce revenues to local governments — and could do so even more if voters approve other tax reductions in January as part of a constitutional amendment.

EDITORIAL

Call for change is loud and clear for dud noise law

Times-Union editorial staff

Too loud or not?

If only the St. Johns County noise ordinance made it easier to say. But under the current ordinance, sheriff’s deputies who enforce the ordinance have to take their noise meters to make it official. And don’t forget the wind gauge.

And before they whip those out, they are supposed to be certified by Florida Department of Law Enforcement to use them.

Only a few are. And those certified must then use the equipment to catch the offending noise as it happens — provided it hasn’t already disappeared.

LETTERS

Amphitheater upgrade praised

To the editor:

I would like to thank the Saint Johns County Commission for something difficult to describe: a sense of place. As I have watched the new amphitheater go up, I have been impressed by its architecture and aware of its great potential as a theater. But over the past several weeks, prompted by events like EPIC’s Taste of Saint Augustine, those responses deepened. I started to really love the newly renovated amphitheater. I think the difference is because the County Commission so wisely decided to re-establish the amphitheater as a local resource, not merely as a piece of real estate. Over recent years, so many decisions at the county level have had the feel of strategic manipulations of a chess board. But the decision to keep the amphitheater under county management feels like a different kind of move. It is like they have pulled up chairs for me and my family at a table, and I am home. As a long time resident, former EPIC board member, and devotee of the arts in Saint Johns County, I am grateful.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR -- JUNE 2

Nease’s gain is, sadly, Landrum’s loss

Dean Blue’s loss at  Landrum is a sad state of affairs for our middle- school age children. Nease parents and students are celebrating but there will be a huge void for children 11 to 13.
I was Kelvin Blue’s secretary for several years and I observed his interactions with the children of this community first hand. He is, in my opinion, irreplaceable. In a world where everything is measured in money or metrics he is the great intangible. How do you measure or put value on turning a child’s life around, taking young people destined for success and encouraging them to an even higher level, giving a student a sense of self-worth, instilling an attitude of pride and respect, of caring and service done with courtesy and a smile, or teaching that as great as winning is, how you win is more important?
How do we measure the lifelong impact on our young people who have had as a mentor a man who always puts the needs of others before himself or the lessons they have learned about duty to family, community and country? There is no way to measure these things which are Dean Blue.
We are all thankful for the years we had him as part of our lives and the lives of middle school children in their most formative years. 
Dean Blue is beyond special. Thinking of Landrum without him saddens me terribly.

Robert Allten retires this month from his job as principal of Pedro Menendez High School in St. Augustine. Allten has served the St. Johns County School District as an administrator and teacher for 30 years. BILL BAINBRIDGE/Special to My St. Johns Sun 

EDITORIAL 

By WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

If St. Johns County School District were a professional baseball team, they would be losing one of their best “utility men.”

Having performed many positions in his career, Robert Allten is ready to move on to the next stage of his life. Allten has served as principal of Pedro Menendez High School, Landrum Middle School and Ponte Vedra/Palm Valley Elementary School; director for planning and accountability for the county system; administrative roles at Nease High School and as a chemistry and biology teacher.