Letters to the editor

+ Thank you for your support,
Longboat is on the rebound
Dear Editor:
We would like to thank everyone who supported us in our effort to rezone. We believe Longboat Key is going to rebound dramatically in the next few years and we look forward to being here when it happens.
Allan Moore, Paul Moore
and Robert Hicks
Moore’s Stone Crab Restaurant

+ Longboat Key’s fiscal crisis requires immediate change
Dear Editor: 
Individual citizens and taxpayers generally are not expected to know more about running our town than the people we have hired to run our town. Yet the taxpayers do know better when it comes to a benefit plan and budget promises for our community. Our leaders and civil servants have led us down a path to bankruptcy. The town’s benefit plans need to be restructured immediately to reflect the reality of our day.

We can’t wait to see if this works out like the federal government is doing with Social Security and Medicare, which we know won’t work out. We can’t print money in Longboat Key, so we need to determine the best way to restructure the plans and obligations to reflect the current and future economic condition of the town of Longboat Key. Act now, like you would if it were your own budget you were balancing.
Patrick Gaughan
Longboat Key

+ It is preferable to allow
American oil companies to drill
Dear Editor:
Many thanks for your article on the drilling debate sponsored by the Tiger Bay Club, reported in your Nov. 26 issue. It is essential that this subject be discussed in a rational manner. I was, therefore, sorry to see that the anti-drilling faction’s points were both unscientific and emotional: Accusing your opponent of implying you’re un-American hardly furthers the debate. It further lends credence to critics who claim environmentalists have become anti-human religious nuts intolerant of dissent. 

I did not see mentioned in your article that Cuba and China have joined together to drill off our shores, in our waters. With their dismal environmental record (nuclear subs scuttled; polluted rivers), and if, in fact, the American drilling platforms are as safe as experience has led us to believe, would it not be preferable to allow American oil companies — subject to all our hefty laws and regulations — to drill rather than Cuba? 
Meredith Ellsworth
Longboat Key

+ Harry’s outdoor dining ruling is a move in the wrong direction
For years the Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Board has been trying to make it possible for Longboat Key businesses to stay on the island and make a profit.

The closing of service on the patio of Harry’s restaurant has certainly been a negative move and has caused the loss of possible profits to the restaurant and the loss of three jobs there, as well.

This seems, to us, to be a move in the wrong direction. Even if the outdoor-dining situation were a code violation, perhaps the code should be changed in order to improve the Longboat Key business climate.
Robert Gaines and Marjorie Tick
Longboat Key