Letters to the editor for October 3, 2018

County land grab

While Gov. Rick Scott is still in control, the Marion County Commission is trying to tie up 90 acres of the Cross Florida Greenway for future county use. They want 20 acres to use for an aquatic center but are asking for 90 acres to have for future use. This will limit the several of the main purposes of the Greenway in this area.

Yes, the Greenway is for recreation but listed before this are things like an animal corridor (giving wildlife a path to move without coming through neighborhoods) and water recharge and conservation (sandhill habitat).

This area of the Greenway already has Forest High School, the Rotary Sportsplex, the 4-H Center, the Sheriff’s Work Farm and the Baseline Trail Head and Park on it. Now we add an aquatic center. Where are the animals and plants to go?

We need nature. We want to have trails come through this portion of the Greenway in the future. We have already spent a lot to make tunnels under Maricamp and Baseline roads for trails and animals. Let’s have some nature to enjoy along the trails.

Give the county the 20 acres for the aquatic center but that is enough.

Douglas Shearer, Belleview

Destroying reputations

Recently, actions of Democratic U.S. senators implied that a woman who accuses someone of sexual assault without evidence, without memory of when or where this took place, or how she got to or from this place, and whose own witnesses, including her good friend, denied any memory of this incident, is a courageous heroine, and that she “deserves” a hearing before the U.S. Senate, paid for with tax dollars, and she deserves to be believed without evidence.

Ms. Ford had no “right” to be heard, believed or to use tax dollars taking up government time just to destroy Judge Kavanaugh without evidence.

“She sounded credible.” Really? Prior to DNA evidence, many women convincingly tricked men into marrying them by claiming they were pregnant when they weren’t, pregnant girlfriends tricked boyfriends claiming the baby was theirs when it wasn’t, and married women impregnated by a lover pretended their husbands were the fathers. They all sounded credible, but they were lying through their teeth. This is why ALL accusations must provide evidence.

Judge Kavanaugh already had six FBI investigations; none showed any of this. Was the FBI incompetent, or did this not happen? Now, with deserved distrust of FBI higher-ups helping Democrats, we must pay for another investigation, and we’re to believe that the results will be truthful.

Democrats set a frightening precedent allowing a “guilty until proved innocent” policy. Now, anyone can be accused of anything without proof, and the lives of innocent people who have for decades, built honest, and moral reputations, will be completely destroyed.

Sandi Trusso, Ocala

A pollution solution

I have read many articles about two big problems for Ocala, Marion County and Northern Florida.

The first is septic tanks polluting the aquifer, rivers and streams.

During my career, I represented a company that solved this problem. Most applications were in northern Ohio, northern Indiana and northern Michigan lake areas where owners had built summer homes and used septic tanks for waste.

When the started, the septic tanks worked well, but over the years, as their children and friends grew, the septic tanks became overburdened and started leaking the sewage into the lake. The lakes were so polluted that swimming and fishing were prohibited.

The answer to this problem was to put a “grinder pump” in each cottage, home, etc. and run small diameter sewer lines around the lake ending in a sewage treatment plant.

It took a couple of years for the lakes to clear up and provide fish and allow swimming. They have not had a problem since then. Catawba Island in northern Ohio would be a good source of information on this process. There are also applications in Florida.

The second problem is overuse of our groundwater that supplies our aquifer. The answer to me is a desalination plant either in the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. The process is proven not only in Florida but around world.

They both solve problems and are cost effective when managed properly.

Hal Harding, Ocala