Military vehicles given to cities are a burden on budgets
Police are not military
Gifting military vehicles to cities is bad for local budgets. (Aug. 4, 1A, “DFW police detail how they use mine-resistant vehicles”) Your taxes support a bloated military that overspends and then unloads albatrosses on local police departments.
Consider the photo the Star-Telegram published of that $865,000 parade vehicle. Now consider the insurance, training, tires and other maintenance. It’s unreasonable.
- Pat Gentry, Arlington
Not business as usual this year
One would think that in the age of COVID-19, state government agencies would bend over backward to ensure the safety of our most vulnerable citizens. Not so with the Department of Public Safety when it comes to driver license renewals.
DPS will apparently allow no exceptions to “Katie’s Law,” which bars renewal by mail, online or phone for those 79 and older.
My wife requested an exception to renew online. DPS apparently thinks that allowing services only by appointment is good enough.
But people awaiting appointments gather outside the entrance with nary a sign of social distancing and often not wearing masks correctly.
DPS should allow exemptions of one year, or as long as the virus is raging, for seniors to renew online.
- Preston Matthiesen, Fort Worth
Panther Island by any other name
The Editorial Board’s Sunday editorial was headlined, “Why did the Panther Island board reject the feds’ study money?” (4B)
The long editorial ended lugubriously: “Fort Worth will have to wait still longer for leaders from City Hall to the regional water authority to Washington to figure out a way out of this mess.”
Mess may be a shorter word, but it’s still a boondoggle.
- Don Woodard Sr., Fort Worth
What do you not understand?
Former mayor Richard Greene touts the virtues of revoting on term limits in the city of Arlington. (5B, “Why not let Arlington vote on changes to council term limits?”) What he and the rest of the politicians don’t get is that 63% of the people got just what they wanted.
We do not want career politicians in our city, and we do not want politicians running again after their time is up. I find it interesting that the current mayor had already planned for the term-limit challenges by establishing a committee list before we even voted.
The people have spoken. Stop trying to subvert our will with your blatant attempts to renegotiate the issue.
- Frank Antonelli, Arlington
Nursing homes’ responsibility
The Aug. 6 column by nursing home industry executive Ron Payne amounts to an advertisement for the nursing home industry. (“Nursing homes need help, not sniping, amid COVID-19”)
I’m been a certified long-term care advocate for many years. The commentary ignores that more than 40,000 people have needlessly died of COVID-19 in substandard nursing homes and that the industry has received $10 billion in COVID relief funding.
Texas has the worst-rated nursing homes in the United States. They deserve scrutiny and should be held responsible for years of negligence.
- Lydia Nunez, Seabrook