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Letter writers| Fort Myers News-Press

Shade trees offer a number of advantages over palms for residential use. They are much better at storing carbon and therefore reducing atmospheric CO2. They also provide shade which lowers the ambient temperature. Temperatures are rising and trees are one of the most obvious ways for cities to counter this phenomenon. The state has recommended that palms should make up less than 30 percentof the trees in Florida cities.

The Naples city arborist seems hooked on planting palm trees around Palm Circle. This circle is in dire need of shade trees for walkers and bikers. It is too hot to walk that route. This current plan needs to be re-examined. Parts of Crayton Road also need to be examined.

Judy Hushon, Naples

Such good news to read that Republican Sen.Joe Gruters is promoting a bill to ban smoking on Floridas beaches.The benefits are many!It will eliminate secondhand smoke, decrease beach litter and protect birds, turtles and the waters of the Gulf.Wethe public should no longer have to walk in smokers ashtrays.

Dorothy S. Kuzneski, Naples

The 2022-2023 Florida legislative session is beginning. DeSantislegislative wish list begins with attacks on issues that dont exist.

After praising Floridas elections in 2020 and suggesting it be a model for other states, he now wants a new Office of Election Crime and Security to investigate fraud. It would cost Florida taxpayers $5.7 million and employ a staff larger than most police departments have to solve murders.

What in the world are 52 investigators going to do all year long? Wait for the phone to ring? said Andrew Warren, Hillsborough Countys state attorney.

Another focus is keeping critical race theory out of schools and workplaces. Attacking CRT israther a stroke of genius for the GOP. They took a 40-year-old law school course, turned it into a bogeyman, and told voters to be afraid of it. Now DeSantis wants to empower parents to sue if they detect critical race theory in schools although few can even define what it is.

DeSantis also wants to allow employees to be able to sue employers who use critical race theory as part of their training. Many employers -- and also church organizations, charities, and nonprofits -- conduct racial sensitivity training. Employees would be empowered to sue if they perceive this training to suggest that racism is systematic in our social institutions.

There is plenty of reality that DeSantis could be addressing instead of chalking up political points fighting false culture wars. Florida has poorly funded schools (ranked 46th), a struggling health care system (ranked 41st), unmanaged COVIDspreading out of control, and rampant environmental issues.

Florida needs serious legislators to address serious issues.

Susan McGuire, Bokeelia

Beth Petrunoff will hit the Naples City Council floor running and deserves your vote to make it happen!

Beth understands the complex issues facing future city councils to maintain a residential quality of life in Naples. She believes a most important agenda item is a pending update to the Naples Comprehensive Plan, a blueprint shaping the feel of the city for years to come. Beth believes it should be Values-Driven reflecting the Vision Plan approved in 2020.

She also supports Neighborhood Action Plans and believes they should be reinstated into the Comprehensive Plan.Beth advocates for a five-year Capital Improvement Plan with measurable goals, a mantra from her days as a GE executive. In addition, she supports a three-point plan to solve police staffing: raise pay to market standard, increase retention bonuses to reward loyalty and repeal union rule that mandates only entry-level rookie pay for experienced applicants.

The management skills she demonstrated as a successful executive vice president at GE will no doubt aid in our selection process to find an outstanding new Naples city manager which Beth calls out as one of her first priorities.

Beth Petrunoff deserves your vote!

Robert Patten Burns,Naples

First: I have attended many Naples City Council meetings and workshops in the past year. I have the utmost respect for the hard work and dedication of our current City Council members. I fully support the incumbents running for office, Ray Christman and Terry Hutchison. They spend countless hours preparing for the meetings and studying the issues. They support the vision clearly expressed by the residents.

Second: Beth Petrunoff has my support. She shares that same vision and has the same dedication that Ray Christman and Terry Hutchison have shown. She understands the issues facing Naples which must be addressed to maintain our residential and environmental quality of life. She has the knowledge, the qualifications and the energy to join our hard-working City Council.

Third: I urge all Naples residents to vote for these threecandidates who I believe will work together to make Naples the city the residents want it to be.

Diane Ladley, Naples

As a registered Republican I am embarrassed and offended by the extremely negative and partisan campaign being run by The Collier County Citizens Values PAC in support of John Dugan. They have even gone so far as to suggest Naples residents do not exercise their right to vote for threecandidates and only vote for John Dugan, leaving others to decide the full make up of our council. We do not need this divisiveness on our council.

Susan Anderson, Naples

As a resident of Florida since 1962, a homeowner that has been insured all these years, never made a claim. My new insurance premium rose by 30percent for this year.

Also my automobile insurance has risen even though my driving record is impeccable. I'm guessing it's due to my age.

I'm being penalized for being a senior citizen.

I read in this morning's Daily News that FPL has been granted anincrease.Where does it stop?

Frank Setera, Naples

Ms. Pierson claims that the popes comments on the necessity of having children rather than dogs and cats is simplistic.However, her endorsement of being a pet parent over a kid parent because it is easier and less expensivebetrays the selfishness that the pope was trying to address. Pierson is of course correct that parenting children is not easy, but the infinite worth of human beings and the propagation of the species makes it worthwhile.

Reverend Michael P. Orsi, Naples

Nine Florida counties voted over 80 percentfor Trump:Baker, Calhoun, Dixie, Gilchrist, Holmes. Lafayette, Liberty, Union, Washington. The average rate of vaccinations in these counties is 41percent. The sixcounties (Alachua, Broward, Gadsden. Leon, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach) thatvoted over 55 percentfor Biden have a vaccination rate of 70.6 percent.

In the ninepro-Trump counties the deaths averaged 2,556 per million. In the pro-Biden counties it was 1,446.

Food for thought!

Philip Wyckoff, Fort Myers

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Letters to the editor for Wednesday, January 12, 2022 - News-Press