Community invited to Arbor Day tree plant
To the editor:
April 29, 2022 is Arbor Day in Indiana. The Nashville Tree Board will be planting a tree in observance of this day at 10 a.m. at Fearrin’s Ice Cream and Yogurt Depot. Please join us.
There will be students joining us to learn the correct way to plant a tree. This is a great chance to observe the proper planting procedure of a tree.
When trees are planted in the right place, they have a great impact on our lives. Trees slow down climate change, filter our air and water, provide shade, home for wildlife and make life better.
Today we can plant a tree for a loved one, a dear pet, for occasions such as a new baby or a marriage. We need trees. Trees make us happier.
Sterling Morton started the first Arbor Day in Nebraska City, Nebraska. On April 10, 1872 an estimated one million trees were planted there. Today many countries also observe Arbor Day.
Join us on April 29 as we observe our tree planting event the keep Nashville as a “Tree City.” Then get out and plant some trees of your own!
Cathy Paradise, Nashville Tree Board
Why mail-in voting is a ‘bad idea’
To the editor:
I wish to congratulate Annika Evenson and Alayna Jacobus on their well written, award winning essays regarding voter participation in the United States. It is encouraging to witness young people actively engaged in civics education.
I received my formal civics education, about 60 years ago in public school. My family also taught me the importance of exercising my privilege and right to vote. The right to vote was not taken lightly in our home. My father, a veteran with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service in Europe during World War II, always looked forward to going to the polls on election day. He fell into ill health in his 80s, with blindness and other issues, and definitely would have qualified to vote absentee. He, nonetheless, insisted on going to the polls and voting in person. I would pick him up at the nursing facility, where he lived, at about 5:30 a.m., so that he could vote early. I was proud to be able to help him exercise his voting rights on those days.
Exercising the right to vote should not be difficult, but there should be safeguards in place to assure the integrity of the vote. In-person voting locations on Election Day have rules that poll workers must obey, such as no politicking within so many feet of the chute, and providing privacy for the voter during the casting of their vote. These rules are in place to safeguard the sanctity of the vote and to discourage coercion, intimidation, bribery and similar nefarious activities. Mail-in voting does not have these protections and is vulnerable to all of these risky issues.
I take issue with those who claim that potential voters lack access to the polls. With a minimal amount of planning and effort any eligible voter can arrange to register and vote in person. Election dates are slated years in advance. There is no good reason for automatic or same day registration. Voters need to take their privilege seriously and understand that hundreds of thousands of patriots have bled and died for their right to cast their vote on Election Day.
I agree that there are needed changes in the way elections are conducted in the United States. We need to eliminate mail-in ballots except for extreme situations, such as remotely stationed service personnel. We need a verifiable record of every vote whether it was cast manually or electronically. We need voter identification and verification. Ballot harvesting should never be permitted. Tabulation of cast votes should be public and transparent.
The Senate proposed Freedom to Vote Act was a flawed attempt to expand federal control and ambiguity in the way elections are conducted in the United States. We don’t need early voting, we don’t need late voting and we don’t need easy voting. What we need, and must demand, is fair and honest voting.
Give mail-in voting the boot!
John E. Main, Brown County
Director responds to candidate’s claims
To the editor:
This letter is in response to Brown County Commissioner “candidate” John Kennard’s comments regarding the Brown County Solid Waste District in the election 2022 forum dated April 19.
Mr. Kennard needs to realize that Brown County has no landfill or transfer stations with the lucrative fees that our surrounding county solid waste districts enjoy. The district has to rely primarily on tax revenues. We do make money from recycle material fees, but that only amounts to a minority of total income. As a result, the district runs on a slim budget year after year.
Additionally, if it wasn’t for winning Brown County Community Foundation and Indiana Department of Environmental Management grants over the years we would not have some of the new equipment we do. There is also the constraint of sharing our operation on the same property as the highway department. This does not allow for any growth or expansion.
Mr. Kennard stated the “funding is already there.” The funding is not already there. I also don’t know what he’s referring to when he says, “all types of equipment we get money for.” We get no money for equipment unless we sell something we managed to get replaced, but only if we replace it.
He also stated the operation is “terribly underutilized.” As just one example, the solid waste district took in over 3,600 tires for our Tire Recycling Day on March 25. In 2021, we took in 715 tons of recycle material plus over 26,000 pounds of electronic waste. That was a massive effort and I don’t see how that amounts to under-utilization.
The solid waste district also manages a vibrant business pick-up recycling program in and around Nashville involving scores of shops, gas stations and restaurants. I would urge Mr. Kennard, in the future, to research his statements pertaining to the Brown County Solid Waste District.
Phil Stephens, director, Brown County Solid Waste Management District
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