Leave Brice alone
Regarding “Hardin: Close speed trap ‘loophole'” (July 18): The Columbus City Council needs to mind its own business about the village of Brice or any other area in Columbus. Do not speed through Brice, and you will not get a ticket.
Councilman Hardin got a ticket and now is wasting his professional time on his personal problem. If Brice is breaking a rule about speed traps, that is not for the Columbus City Council to spend one minute of their salaried time and resources to intervene. That is the county or the state’s area of responsibility.
However, to the extent that Franklin County’s Municipal Clerk is billing the city of Columbus for the excess costs of processing Brice’s tickets, as is stated in the same article, then that is very much the business of Columbus City Council and Shannon Hardin and the Columbus City Council have a very good beef with Franklin County and need to direct their efforts at the County Municipal Clerk’s Office.
No matter what the reason for the overruns, there is no reason for Columbus residents to be paying the cost overruns of any city or town in Franklin County other than Columbus. The Franklin County Municipal Clerk has not been forcing the village of Brice to pay for all of their own processing. It is up to Franklin County, not the city of Columbus, to deal with that problem.
If, instead of sending Brice’s bad debts, or the bad debts of any other city or township to the city of Columbus for payment, Franklin County made these smaller cities pay their own processing costs, the speed trap in Brice would take care of itself.
Cynthia GH King, Columbus
Don’t blame program cuts for tragedy
Regarding “Camp Mystic tragedy” (July 17): How quickly we forget. On Oct. 11, 2024, Asheville, N. C., endured devastating floods due to a hurricane. It took days for the Biden administration to respond. At that time there were no cuts to the programs. Did Mr. Reinier complain at that time?
Again, how quickly we forget.
Richard Bornstein, Blacklick
Ohio, America need to wake up
I no longer recognize the Ohio and America I love. Throwing people into jail whose only crime is seeking a better life.
We are not talking violent criminals, as the rhetoric expounds, but families, lawn care workers, farm workers, house builders, factory workers, painters, etc. Hardworking people who thought they were coming to a civilized, free land of promise. Instead, they get a country that has rescinded a promise of asylum and closed pathways to citizenship.
I can’t believe my fellow Americans would re-elect a sheriff who asked neighbors to keep a list of neighbors based on their choice of another political party. I pray that all Americans wake up. We are better than this.
Sheila Giano, Dublin
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus council president needs to mind his own business | Letters