.....Advertisement.....
.....Advertisement.....

Opinion

  • Thanks for saving us money

    Banks are failing. Homeowners are being foreclosed upon. People are sacrificing simply to fill their gas tanks. In short, things are tough all over.

    With dollars in demand and expenses on the rise, government agencies across the land have been asked to cut their budgets, trim the fat and work with what they have.

    In Chiefland, two of those government offshoots have found cost-reducing ways to save the city, and ultimately the taxpayer, money.

  • How good is your imagination?

    I have a friend who keeps her watches and clocks set an hour ahead at all times. By doing so, this perpetually late creature of habit has convinced herself that she is always tardy, and when she does show up for appointments, she's on time or early.

    Now of course, somewhere deep within her psyche she knows that her clocks and watches are wrong and that could give her incentive to dally more and being really, really late.

    But she's used her imagination enough over the years that the con works, thereby saving her from embarrassment and reprimand from family and employer alike.

  • Good news, Carolyn

    Chiefland's sewer plant personnel have listened to a salesman and come up with a way to cut their energy use, cut fuel use, and cut the amount of sludge the City Water Reclamation Plant produces.

    If you read the story in another part of this newspaper, you thought it was a story about money and saving energy.

    Really, the story is about building relationships and trust.

    Randy Wilkerson said it was his working relationship with a sales rep from TSC-Jacobs Group, the company that supplies the city with much of its wastewater equipment, that led to the savings.

  • Remembering a native son

    It is said that the death of a child is the most difficult pain to bear: far-more soul wrenching than losing a parent, a sibling or a life partner.

    It is also said that it takes a village to raise a child.

    And so last September, when Army Specialist Brandon Tyler Thorsen was killed in the line of duty while voluntarily serving his country in Iraq, the villages of Trenton, Chiefland and the surrounding area joined his parents as we mourned our child.

  • Bring back bartering

    My grandparents tuned in regularly to a radio segment called "The Swap Shop". For 15 minutes every day, people called in to offer something they had -for free or less than $20 or they called in to ask for items they needed.

    It was the old-fashioned bartering system upgraded to the modern 20th century. With little or no money, you could get the products or services you needed in exchange for something you could offer up.

  • Make up your mind, already

    What's the deal with Brett Favre, anyway?

    Has he taken too many blows to the noggin? Is senility or early signs of Alzheimer's settling in?

    Back in March, he said he was retiring. Then a month later, he said he wants to still play. The Packers are ready to welcome him back, then he says he doesn't want to play.

    Now, he wants his release from the Packers.

    The Pack say no way. The last thing they need to see is Favre in an opposing NFC North team's uniform.

    They reason the least he can do is hold a clipboard and mentor Aaron Rodgers.

  • Heard any good news lately?

    As I have interviewed interns and reporter candidates over the last few weeks, one resounding theme kept coming up when I tell them what I think is the best part of working for a small town paper: the interesting people you meet.

    Of course there are the obligatory meetings that must be covered, the birth announcements and wedding news that need to be shared, but by far, the best thing for any reporter is getting out and meeting people who have done things that you only dream or have been places you've only read about.

  • Advice to live by

    I never thought my father and I had much in common despite my mother's ever-constant lament, "You're just like your daddy."

    Back then I scoffed at the idea.

    But then in 1993, my father died suddenly one week after his 62nd birthday and in the 15 years since, not a week has gone by that I don't somehow recall him, his words and his actions.

    He wasn't an affectionate man. He grew up in an era and place where children were begat to work. He didn't know much about tenderness or bonding. His way of showing love was through providing and sacrificing so his family was secure.

  • Representative asks governor to...

    While I have great respect for Gov. Crist and his continued commitment to preserving the environment, I feel that his intent to veto HB 7059 has been made without fully understanding the wide-reaching scope of this good environmental legislation. This legislation has many valuable components that seek to improve and strengthen the protection of our state's precious natural resources.

  • On my soapbox

    My life is good. I have a job that supplies my needs. Children who love me. Friends who support me. A man who understands real partnership.

    Yes, indeed, my life is good and it takes a lot to get me riled.

    I've mellowed a lot in my old age.

    I once stressed about everything and now seldom stress about anything-though perhaps there are some things I should worry about.

    When considering relationships, I weigh the good they do/are against the bad and if there are more positive things, I cling.

    If they're negative, I cut my losses and move on.

  • Here's to the graduates

    This is a big weekend for many young people in Levy County, as they leave high school and move on to the next phase of their lives.

    Graduation ceremonies are scheduled for most Levy County schools this weekend, a landmark day for a few hundred young adults who are ready to venture out into the world.

    This graduating class has been through a little more than many of us.

  • Remember what Memorial Day is about

    Over the last decades, scores of men and women have fought and died in wars to preserve the ideals and beliefs we hold most dear. Many of the ones who paid the ultimate price for those ideals were youths barely in the bloom of adulthood. The crowded cemeteries bedecked with white crosses bear mute witness to their supreme sacrifice.

  • Gas pains aren't fatal

    Judging from the amount of traffic on I-75 this past weekend, motorists are oblivious to the fact that gasoline isthisclose to being $4 a gallon.

    Or perhaps those motorists are like me.

    They know that we are a nation that moves on four wheels-or 18-and to get from Point A to Point B, you have to get in a motorized vehicle and drive, whether you want to pay the price at the pump or not.

  • Unconditional and unconventional

    I am not at all the maternal type. I'm too selfish, too distant, too "suck it up and move on"-like to be called a nurturing pillar of motherhood.

    And yet I have three children.

    Like many of you, I grew up watching Donna Reed, Harriet Nelson and June Cleaver (in reruns, mind you) as they set the example for future generations what a woman's role was in the home.

  • Happy Mother's Day, Mom

    "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his."

    -Oscar Wilde

    "Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother."

    -Lin Yutang

    All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

    -Abraham Lincoln

    "A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie."

    -Tenneva Jordan

  • Why I Relay–my son's...

    When Gail Osteen told me last week that she had no history of any kind of cancer in any of her family, I was more than surprised.

    I didn't know any such person existed, because it seems for as long as I can remember cancer has been a very real, and very unwelcome, facet of my life.

  • Money Well Spent

    Congratulations are in order for the men and women who make up the Levy County Sheriff's Office Drug Task Force.

    In the past month the task force has been able to bring about the arrests of dozens of alleged drug dealers. Many of those arrests came on the heels of investigations that lasted months and required countless man hours and dedication.

    We also tip our hats to the Chiefland City Commission for having the foresight to set aside money in its budget that allows the city to be a member of the task force.

  • Relay Walkers do it for all of us

    Take a look around you. Count three people. Stand back. Think. Statistically one of these three people will contract cancer. One of those three could be you.

    And scarier still is that some 1,500 people die from cancer each day.

    This Friday night at Chiefland High School, people dedicated to eliminating cancer and finding cures will come together to celebrate a year of fund-raising.

    But the work doesn't stop there.

  • Denise is the answer to world peace

    Do you remember that poster from the 70s that said "A friend is someone who knows everything about you and still likes you anyway"?

    We're fortunate if we can find such a person in this life-someone who accepts you for who you are, doesn't try to change you and knows your deepest, darkest secrets and never passes judgment, loves you unconditionally and makes every moment you spend together an adventure.

    I've really been blessed to find a friend like that in Denise Matthews.

  • Lost in legalese and rhetoric

    For years we have pointed fingers at the residents of cities and counties for not being more proactive in local government.

    Apathy is often blamed as the reason people don't get involved in what's happening in their communities.

    While that may be true in part, I think another reason may be it's just too darn confusing for the average person who has to sit and sift and then leave wondering, "What happened in there?"

    It's been a while since I covered a Chiefland Commission meeting. About 18 months, in fact.