Pay cuts & layoffs
Dear Editor:
How can the city of Deerfield Beach offer the general employees union a promise of no layoffs for two years [recently three years has been offered] if they take a 5 percent pay cut and start paying 10 percent of their health insurance? Home prices continued to decline in January and February. They may need to lay off more or increase taxes again to balance the budget.
Before the union makes a move, they want to see complete financial information from the city so they will know how much they can squeeze out of the taxpayers. They know full well that the taxpayers have lost income and are lucky if their employer pays 50 percent of their insurance, for the ones who still have a job.
The non-union management employees aren’t any better. While demanding a 5 percent cut, there is no proposal for them to take a 5 percent cut from the city manager on down. Most of them have been paid over-the-top salaries for their job for years.
Even though the city raised our taxes on Oct.1, they continued these over-payments for six months before reducing them to the highest allowable rate. How about those who retired with inflated pensions based on their inflated salary? Is the city going to reduce the pensions down to what they should be? The managers know that private sector managers and small business owners have taken salary reductions in the past few years. Some have lost it all, the evidence of that can be seen in all the empty commercial space in Deerfield Beach. Reducing an overpaid manager down to the highest allowable salary is not sharing the sacrifice.
When the commission increased the millage rate 17 percent, they promised to do better this year. I don’t know if they can live up to that promise.
Robert Lloyd
Deerfield Beach
Beach lighting
Dear Editor:
There have been two letters in the past two weeks complaining about the lighting at the beach. One letter made it clear that the actual problem is not the lighting, but the fact that the bricks in the decorative sidewalk, after only a few years of use, are no longer level and the uneven edges provide a hazard to the elderly and awkward among us.
The matching sidewalks on Hillsboro Boulevard are already coming apart, and that project is not even completed yet.
The city officials in charge of these projects may wish to revisit the decision to use brick in these areas — someone has sold them an inappropriate surfacing material for the purpose, or it has not been installed properly.
I look forward every year to turtle nesting season, and the dim lights that reduce our excessive light pollution and afford us an opportunity to actually see the night sky again.
For those who find it to be a difficulty, I have recently been made aware of an amazing invention that can help them — the flashlight! This remarkable portable device can direct a strong beam of light exactly where one is walking, providing even better clarity than typical street lighting is capable of doing. This “flashlight” is not only inexpensive, it can be held in one hand, and some versions can be worn on the head, leaving both hands free to fend off rogue baby sea turtles.
All humor aside, one of the reasons we appreciate Deerfield Beach and want to live here is the natural beauty it provides. This beauty has suffered greatly during my lifetime here due to the influx of a large population and the diminishment of our open spaces and natural environment. Attempts to preserve our remaining open space and native wildlife in Deerfield Beach are extremely limited. This single small gesture toward our cohabitants on the barrier island is highly welcome.
Karen L. Newcombe
Deerfield Beach
Hillsboro/Deerfield dredging
Dear Editor:
So now it has come to light that Deerfield Beach has sacrificed our beautiful coral reef off our beach for the sake of beach renourishment for our neighbor, Hillsboro Beach.
This is not the first time this contractor has been in this kind of trouble. An easy search can find several instances where this contractor has either damaged coral reefs or exceeded allowable turbidity levels which severely damage reef and fish populations.
Where is our Chamber of Commerce on this issue? Just check with the local dive shops and you will get an understanding of how important this very accessible reef is to our city. This reef used to provide a great snorkel dive for divers with minimal experience who can’t afford a trip offshore to the other sites in the water off our beach.
This was one of the exact reasons I chose to run for office in this city because I do not believe our elected officials have any idea about how to protect the health of our city’s environment.
Last weekend, March 27, I took water samples inside Boca Inlet, which were significantly affected by the dredging and measured levels that far from the dredge at 20 percent above the allowable levels which are to be measured about 150 meters from the dredge site. If a violation still was present miles from the dredge site, the levels near our reef were off the chart!
It’s important that we follow through with Florida Department of Environmental Regulations to make sure the dredge contractor is held accountable for the high levels of turbidity, the permit violations, and the mitigation and restoration necessary after their negative impact to our reef.
Our elected officials and hired Managers of this City should meet with DEP and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make sure this contractor does not leave town without being held fully accountable for the damage that has been done.
This is just another example of the City of Deerfield Beach cutting another bad deal. This reef has been an important part of our economy for as long as I have known of Deerfield Beach. Too bad no one in City Hall understands this.
Next time, remember these kinds of things and let’s change the representation we have in City Hall until we get a group that “Gets it!”
Ron Coddington
Deerfield Beach
Editor’s note: Assistant Director of Environmental Services Chad Grecsek, regional manager of Coastal Systems International Penny Cutt and project manager with Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. Ben Leonard addressed the issue at the April 5 Deerfield Beach city commission meeting.
Cutt explained that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ordered a cease and desist on April 1 for impact to the hard bottom from the unauthorized discharge. Only two times during the project did they exceed turbitity and have to shut down. Two reasons turbitity levels were occasionally higher: 1) because the cutter head encountered lenses of coral fragments and 2) the shore parallel dikes were implemented. Provided the sand is removed from the hard bottom in a careful and efficient, timely manner, there should be no long-term impact to aquatic functions and values, she said.
They haven’t started on the Deerfield portion yet. It will take two, maybe three days to finish the project — a portion of which is in Hillsboro. Cutt said they hope to be up and running again on Friday or Saturday.
