Community trash
Dear Editor:
In times past I have complained of my neighbors using my property and everybody else’s in the community for an ash tray and waste paper basket. Sixteen years later, after moving to this community, I am still picking cigarette buts, beer cans, fast food wrappers, and other trash from my yard. Apparently, respect for other peoples’ lives and property is not, and will not be, an important consideration for Switzerland County residents.
But, today, I would like to address a more important health issue. I am retired and my wife is eligible for social security benefits. We, frequently, care for our grandchildren whose parents are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. When I open my windows on a spring, summer, or fall evening, we have to breathe in burning trash. My neighbors, in Mount Sterling, burn paper, plastic, and whatever debris 365 days a year.
I do not understand the need to burn trash. I subscribe to a garbage collection service that is available to the entire community. This daily burning is not necessary, and is extremely vexing to elderly and young lungs. Does anybody in this county believe in community or societal values?
Now, months before local elections are held, I am besieged with posters and candidates wanting my support. I think that this is one of those years. If the local politicians want my support, they need to contact me quickly. I will be contacting them, but if they contact me first, they may get my vote.
I would be interested in learning if anybody else in this community is concerned with environmental issues in this county.
Robert D. Hatchett
Mount Sterling
Abandoned puppies
To the Editor:
Mike Cooney’s column about the seven abandoned puppies was sad and heartwarming. Sad because there are such cruel and heartless people who do such awful things. Heartwarming because there are kind and caring people like Deputy Sheriff Jay Thomas and the Swiss Friends of Animals.
As Pat Thomas said in her column this week, “SFA is a wonderful and much needed group.”
I am glad that I am a member of the SFA that has done so much good for the animals in Switzerland County.
I wonder what sort of care and treatment the mother of those seven puppies receives?
Jeannette (Searcy) Diehl
Cincinnati, Ohio
Road to recovery
Dear Editor:
This year more than 30,000 Hoosiers will be diagnosed with cancer. They will find themselves needing chemotherapy, radiation and other medical care, and they won’t be able to do it alone. They will need support, educational resources and rides to and from their treatments. The American Cancer Society works within local communities to supply these resources, but we know we can’t make it happen without a large driving force of volunteers.
Your American Cancer Society is in need of local volunteer drivers to participate in our Road to Recovery program, a service which pairs up volunteer drivers with local cancer patients to provide them with free transportation to and from their cancer treatments. There may be cancer patients within your community who are not going to their cancer treatment, a treatment that could save their lives, simply because they have no way to get there. Your American Cancer Society has the program to make this happen, but we need the world of the cancer patient and the world of the volunteer to collide. This is where we look to your support.
Through Road to Recovery, you can make a tangible difference in the lives of local cancer patients. Please call your American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 to sign up as a volunteer or to receive more information on the program.
Tricia Bock
Community Program Representative
American Cancer Society