Letters to the editor

Government vehicles should be fueled with cheapest gas

I've noticed now on at least a half a dozen occasions, our bus service "JAC" fueling up at one of the highest priced service stations in town. Also, I've seen two police vehicles fueling up at the same station.

This certainly isn't conserving money. Does the city have a contract with the station to fuel there? If so, there are by far cheaper stations to gas up at.

Also, at Costco last week, I witnessed two different government vehicles shopping with women and children in the car. This would be a stretch of the imagination to think this was "official" business.

GAYLE MAINE

Carson City

A wake up call for voters, taxpayers

The failure of Congress to pass the bailout on Sept. 29 can be considered a victory for "WE,the People," the American Taxpayers. Our representatives in Congress should be on alert. To expect the American people to believe this economic crisis was created by Wall Street is unrealistic. There was clearly a lot of "help" from our government. The blame game is foolish. The record number of calls to Congress opposing this bill sent a message loud and clear.

What exactly were the problems with the proposed legislation? First of all, timing. When Congress can spend so much time worrying about baseball players taking steroids, they can stop trying to panic the country with a bailout over a weekend. This weekend was a wake-up call for the passive voters as well as one for the over-spending, too many oversights for Congress. What were these elected officials waiting for except perhaps a quickie weekend deal?

Why didn't these bipartisan discussions (turned too partisan by Ms. Pelosi!) start months ago? Was it orchestrated to sneak in an exorbitant amount of pork barrel spending hoping the taxpayers would not notice?

The question now is can "Main Street" and "Wall Street" commingle in an interdependent relationship? You can bet on it. Should the government get out of the way of the free enterprise system, the genuinely American way? Take that one to a surviving bank. We simply have too much government and bureaucracy. A checks and balance system is lacking at all levels of government.

On the subject of a lack of checks and balances it is outrageous that Nevada's own Robert Loux took a few weeks to decide to resign his position as Director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency; that is only outdone by requesting he continue robbing the taxpayers until a replacement is found.

All elected officials should realize they CAN be replaced. And, it may very well be a great opportunity this November to do just that to most of them at all levels of government. Integrity. Commitment. PUBLIC Service. Honesty. Let's replace pork spending and oversights and mismanagement with these attributes and everyone will benefit and trust will be restored.

ANN BEDNARSKI

Carson City

Clarifying some names from city's past

My apologies to Don Hataway, former Carson City Manager, for my forgetting that he wasn't our city manager at the time of the creation of the Airport Authority. And he is dead-on right! The airport was never on the city administration's radar screen, even as late as 1989, which is why we created the Airport Authority. And yes, Mike Rody was our assistant city manager at that time saddled with the task of overseeing our airport. Everything else in my column was factual. While we desperately needed an airport authority at that time, we no longer do because the airport is now, 19 years later, firmly established as a profit and asset center for the city.

BOB THOMAS

Carson City

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