A public service campaign, coupled with increased rates for speeding tickets and strict enforcement of the speed limit would do a whole host of good for our city and county.

One, through better gas mileage achieved, would reduce the amount of money that we spend on gasoline, money that goes directly out of our county since we import every drop that we use. This results in more wealth staying in the local economy.

Two, it would result in lower accident rates, lower hospitalization rates, and lower medical bills.

Three, in time, a lower accident rate would result in lower automobile insurance rates for the lowcountry.

Four, a temporary boost in city and county revenues as people adjust to the new program.

Five, a decline in airborne pollution from combustion engine exhaust as people learn to drive more efficiently.

Six, a collective feeling that we are doing something as a community to better the quality of life for ourselves.

Such a plan should be accompanied by a reevaluation of posted speed limits throughout the city and county, bringing them in line with what the actual safe driving speed is along our various highways and city and county roadways.

I would like to put forth a program that collects and publishes our energy usage as a county, either monthly or quarterly.

Gasoline, Natural Gas, Electricity, water, recycling and solid waste.

Publishing these statistics will make us much more aware how much we are actually consuming. Using these numbers, we can track together how much we use, and collectively work to bring these numbers down.

Sometimes it is hard to get motivated to conserve when looking at individual home energy bills, when only a few dollars are at stake each month. It would be different if we tracked these numbers as a county where tens of thousands of dollars of potential savings are at stake. It is even more important when you realize that we import almost all of the energy we use.

Carry on.

MUSC handles budget shortfall with furloughs.

I would like to suggest that MUSC, as well as University Medical Associates, stop using out of state companies to process their billing.

After recently using the emergency room facilities, after an unfortunate interlude with an automobile while on my bicycle, I received bills from each of them, MUSC wanting me to send a check to a p.o. box in Atlanta and UMA asking me to send a check to a p.o. box in Raleigh. I paid both bills locally.

Surely they realize they are sending jobs out of state at a time when unemployment is high. They are also reducing our state’s tax base with these practices.

Carry on.

The impending expansion to an industrial lubricants facility in North Charleston is certainly a good thing for our local economy. I would like to suggest, in light of our already extremely poor air quality, that local government work closely with DHEC to insure that the best possible air quality control standards are initiated at the plant.

The recent article in the Post & Courier regarding the delay of the pending sale of land for development surrounding Concord park brings up the possiblility of the city leasing the land for development, instead of selling it, no?

This way we still get the development but we also still own the land. Hmmm.

Charleston County Council is getting rid of our incinerator. I guess they ran the numbers and a few hundred more pounds of mercury released into our atmosphere will be okay until it shuts down at the end of ‘09.

What I enjoyed in the article is how Mt. Pleasant is hiring a consultant to gauge the impact of their trucks having to drive further to dump the trash. It seems like a pretty simple study to do(labor time lost to additional drive time, additional fuel additional wear and tear on vehicles), but perhaps beyond the scope of their city administrator, Mac Burdette.  I personally don’t live in Mount Pleasant, but if I did I would like to see the city administrator do his job in this respect, instead of paying valuable city dollars to a consultant for a very simple study.