Teen violence
Dear Editor:
I have written the Sun-Sentinel, Channels 7 and 10 and nothing. [Can you] possibly help? There was a young man (age 15) beat in the head with a lead pipe on Monday [April 4] in Cresthaven [in Pompano]. He and friends were in the wrong place at the wrong time. A local gang spotted them and hit this boy in the back of the head so bad that it cracked his skull and penetrated his brain. He has since had two surgeries to save his life; now the threat of pneumonia and a brain clot is there. He was sitting in the back of the truck and didn’t even get out. He is in the Pediatric Trauma Unit at Broward General. Prognosis isn’t perfect yet.
There have been witnesses to who did it etc. yet police have made no arrests, they did not even look for the weapon. Since there were a few of these kids in the truck, the Gang Unit of BSO considered them a gang. They are not. However, the children who did this are recognized as gang members by BSO.
My issue is that everyone rallied and supported for Ratley and Brewer … what about this child hanging on for his life? He is a member of our community. His family pays taxes. His family has no insurance and the mother will lose her job due to the fact that she has to be at the hospital with her son. Why aren’t people doing fundraisers? Donations? For God’s sake, it hasn’t even been on the news. Doesn’t anyone want to get the word out to the people who live nearby where this happened, so they may protect their children. Or is everyone afraid?
This child is very bad off, yet the community knows nothing! He, too, needs the support and at least the well wishes of neighbors and friends. Please help me get the word out.
Mrs. Dana Wade/Little Harbor
Deerfield Beach
Cove improvements
Dear Editor:
CRA Director Kevin Klopp responded to my March 31 letter in the Observer, where I complained about the lack of maintenance to a landscaping project that had cost hundreds of thousands of dollars when installed. Commissioner Miller had also tried to get answers, but had no success. It was not until Kevin Klopp was given a heads up in reference to my letter that an army of city workers corrected the problem. Mr. Klopp’s answer was that the CRA had not had time to employ a private contractor. With the state of the economy, and the number of local landscaping firms crying for work, that explanation is hard to believe.
Another subject is the eyesore that is now the abandoned sign tower. Business owners in The Cove were told that the project would start in January of 2011 and be completed in three to four weeks. It started in January, is now abandoned, and now is scheduled for completion in August of 2011, seven months later. Why? The entire commission agreed to a nine-month phased plan for The Cove that was presented to the owners. Now we hear that Phase 2 and 3 are to be combined and started in May 2011. This will further impact the businesses and is not the plan originally approved by this commission. Phase 1-2-3-4-5 were to be done in order …
Steve/ Cove Bagel & Deli
Deerfield Beach
Editor’s note: Agenda item #2 at the April 12 CRA meeting was to “approve proposal to construct Cove Shopping Center Parking Lot Improvement Project Phase 3 sidewalks as part of Phase 2.” The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) board, comprised of the city commission, unanimously approved the item.
Both Phase 2 and Phase 3 involve the southern end of The Cove Parking Lot.
According to CRA Coordinator Kris Mory, the action simply means that sidewalks in Phase 2 (about 275 linear feet) and Phase 3 (about 175 linear feet) would be done during the next phase of construction beginning May 1. The rest of parking lot improvements for Phase 3 will still be done during Phase 3, slated to begin June 15. “This was something generated from other business owners in The Cove. Basically, we’re just doing what they wanted us to do.”
She said the tower under construction will be done during Phase 2 improvements, in the next month or so.
“Phase 4b” [the fifth portion of the project] involves planting of Royal Palms and lush landscaping in The Cove entryway.
Entire project is due for completion by Oct. 31, 2011.
