Letters To The Editor

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At the City Council meeting, Tuesday, April 8th, I made an unforgivable mistake. I made false accusations that were extremely hurtful to Jim Moffeit, his wife and family. I had bad information and I said these things without searching out the truth. I wish I could recall these hurtful words so that the citizens present at this public meeting would not have heard me make such an outrageous mistake. I ask that they forgive me for this uncalled for character assassination. If a man makes a mistake he ought to be man enough to admit it.

Dick Jarrett Chandler

To The Editor:

Concerning the matters of Leagueville Water Supply Corporation (LWSC) published in letters to the editor of The Statesman.

LWSC met in its regularly scheduled monthly meeting at 6 PM Tuesday, April 8, 2008. A group of concerned members of LWSC attended the meeting. After much discussion, including healthy input from the concerned group, the members unanimously requested that Sandra Duke resign her position on the LWSC Board of Directors. Ms. Duke did in fact resign her position and leave the meeting.

The Board of Directors wishes to thank those members who attended the meeting and exercised their rights as members of LWSC. To all members who might read this I courteously remind you: It's

your system. We as board members simply try to represent you to the best of our ability.

Finally, in regard to Ms. Dukes' letter that ran in last week's edition of The Statesman: When Ms. Duke left the meeting after resigning she tossed in my direction a printout from an online legal service and said, "You will be hearing from my lawyer." Since than she has spoken with our Board Secretary, Brenda Smith, and assured her that if I simply do not respond to the "Allegations" and "Facts" that she offered to The Statesman that she will in turn not pursue any legal action against LWSC or me.

Although everything within me desires to respond to that letter, I will not. I still stand by all statements made in my letter to the editor of The Statesman in the April 2, 2008 edition. My failure to respond is certainly not because of any potential litigation that might be directed at me. It is rather that I feel it is in LWSC's best interest not to respond and that is my priority. Instead, I am going to drop out of this conversation and adhere to the implied meaning of an old country saying that states, "If you wallow with the hogs you'll end up smellin' like `em."

Respectfully submitted, Conley Owen President, LWSC

Dear Sir:

I have nothing against Mr. Garrett. I am sure he is a very nice man, but his concern about the burning ban and the trash service scares me. I live in a very nice community, but during the fall and early spring months it was impossible to live in my house, much less to go outside. On many occasions the smell of smoke from my neighbor's burning leaves was so overwhelming I had serious difficulties in breathing. I had the house checked and was ensured it was "very tight," but I still had storm windows installed. The smoke outside was so dense that I, truly, could not see out of my back windows. I was at the point of paranoia, believing that my neighbors waited until the wind blew the smoke away from their house toward mine. Thank heavens for the city council; I was on the verge of talking to a lawyer, to see if I had any rights. If cigarette smoke is dangerous, then so is burning leaves.

Now, to those who are unhappy with Sanitation Solutions. When I first moved here I was told to "gift wrap" the newspaper for the trash collector. The first time I placed the trash container outside and it was not picked up because it was not wrapped, I chose another. The second collector scattered trash as they went down the street because they did not have the right equipment. The third trash service was very nice, particularly if you paid them extra for picking up stuff that in any other city would have without additional cost. Again, thank you, members of the City Council. The Sanitation Solutions is doing a good job in keeping Chandler clean. No complaints here, unless Mr. Garrett is elected.

Linda G. Keeling Chandler

Good things are happening in Chandler, Texas

I moved to Chandler in late 1999 and have been regularly attending City Council meetings for about six years. I attend Planning and Zoning irregularly and have attended some Economic Development Corporation meetings. Recently I have been saddened by letters to the editor of The Chandler and Brownsboro Statesman that have left a negative impression with citizens of the area about our City Council and our City. During the last two years I have seen much progress. Our present City Council is a diverse group from different neighborhoods and a wide range of length of residence in Chandler. Thus they bring different perspectives into their deliberations about the decisions that we have elected them to make. Most citizens are unaware of the accomplishments because we do not attend City Council meetings and do not hear first hand what is happening and because we only see what is happening in our own area.

From my perspective as one who attends Council meetings regularly, I would like to share with you some of the good things that have happened in Chandler in the last two years. Recently, for those of you who have natural gas at your home, the Council refused to accept a rate hike that Atmos Energy wanted. Because of their refusal, Atmos came back with a lower rate which will save you money. Our City tax rate has been kept among the lowest of municipalities in our area. The Code Red alert system where all of us can be reached in minutes in case of emergency or in case there is something we should all know about enhances our safety as well as mass communication. An ordinance requiring swimming pools to be fenced has greatly improved the safety of our children. The burn ordinance has improved air quality and has been a health boost for those with breathing difficulties and has strengthened fire prevention and safety.

City wide trash pickup was something I did not understand until I learned that some of our city streets had pickup on them every workday of the week. Now we all have large trash pickup and do not have trash trucks on our streets every day. This has improved safety and beauty. One bonus we have is that our City is receiving substantial revenue from the trash pickup that will help to keep our taxes down. Destruction of old, abandoned buildings has begun. This is beautifying our city and removing places where vermin can live and is also removing dangerous places for our youth to go. We have two new City employees. One works in the City office and is bilingual which means that communication with some citizens has improved. The second is a new police officer who has the duties of court bailiff, working with County trustees on projects in the City, and code enforcement.

Depending on where you live and drive, you may not have noticed all the streets that have been improved. Martin Street has been completely redone with new, wider pavement and gutters and curbs. This has improved safety for the children being transported to the middle school.

Davis, Second, Dobbs and Old Tyler to the cemetery have had resurfacing or repairing. Seal coating and crack seal have been applied to all the streets of McFarland Addition. Portions of Cedar Lane and Susie have been totally removed and concreted to solve some drainage problems. Susie has been resurfaced. Winchester, Phoenix West, Cade, Crestview and Pine Ridge neighborhoods have had their streets resurfaced.

Individual streets that have been resurfaced are Third, Cherry, Hilltop, Pine, Edger, Hamilton, Jackson, Noonday from 315 to the sewer plant and Cade's Cove Road. Barron Road has been repaired and chip sealed which will help it not deteriorate rapidly from the heavy volume of cars and buses going to the middle school. At present,

Adams Lane is being raised and stabilized. Improvements have been made at Winchester Park that provide our youth with better recreational facilities and make it a nicer place to take our families. Parking lots at McCain Park and City Hall have been resurfaced. The City sewer and water systems have been improved by raising the water tower to State standards which has helped with water pressure, adding sewer to Ellis Addition, and retiring three old lift stations.

Last June when we had the flooding rains FEMA immediately declared us a disaster area. Unfortunately one of our City Council had his home flooded. Since then numerous rumors have surfaced about why the City needs to pay for the restoration of this home and why they have not. The Mayor, City Administrator and City Council cannot discuss this issue due to the fact that the matter is under litigation which is being handled by the Texas Municipal League. Each of the members of our City government has been hurting in this because this Councilman is a friend and colleague. If they had generously decided to pay for the restoration, it would have cost about 20 percent of the budget for the City for the year and they have the responsibility of doing what is best for the citizens as a whole. This would have impacted our tax rate negatively. Hopefully, the matter can be settled soon. In the meantime we as citizens would better serve our community by not being involved in the rumors.

I have chosen to write this letter to show you some of the good things that are happening in Chandler because I want us to truly be a City with a Heart full of pride and joy. Because I feel that our City is moving positively toward the future with the present Council, I am asking you to support Ann Hall and Gene Giger for re-election. I am also asking you to learn for yourself what each of the four write-in candidates wishes to see happening in Chandler. Then, vote for Ann Hall, Gene Giger and the one write-in candidate that you feel will best lead our City into the future.

Janeice Lunsford Chandler, TX

Citizens of Chandler: Dick Jarrett stated in last week's Statesman that he believed that the people of Chandler were unhappy with the city's solid waste pickup. What does he recommend? Should we go back to having a dozen or so individuals pick up trash as they did before using everything from pickups and open trailers to trash trucks?

Before the City contracted with Sanitation Solutions to collect our solid waste, our city was often littered with papers, bags, etc. that fell off during the pickup. The City did not receive any permit fees from these individuals, there was no assurance that they had adequate insurance, and our streets were being over-used by potentially over-weight vehicles.

I know one street where there were 8 or 9 collections a week by the different individuals. With our contract with Sanitation Solutions the City receives substantial revenue, get our streets swept every 3 months, get two scholarships for Brownsboro High students from Chandler, tears down and hauls off up to 5 abandoned structures a year, and Sanitation Solutions provides 4 large dumpsters for our area-wide cleanup. All City facilities, the park, the fire department, the library and the cemetery all receive free solid waste pickup with this contract. The revenue received from this helps the City to upgrade and repair streets, pay salaries for city employees, and helps keep property taxes down.

Eliminate the city solid waste contract and the City will likely have to raise property taxes to pay for these benefits we are currently enjoying. Are you ready to do this, or would you like to keep the solid waste contract and the benefits it affords? If so, please vote to keep Gene Giger and Ann Hall on City Council.

Helen Giger Chandler, Texas