Letters to the Editor

Responding to Fava

This letter is in response to Charleston County Councilman Ed Fava's letter concerning the James Island citizens' push to form their own town. I consider Ed a friend and he was an excellent past county administrator. But I am completely disappointed in his biased letter to the editor concerning our efforts to have our own town. He stated that his purpose was not to take a position on that issue, but I doubt if that is true after reading line after line of totally negative statements.

He states that the county provides many required services to its residents such as zoning, police protection, building inspection, etc., and then goes on to say that the county has historically provided these services to "paper cities" within the county whomever they may be. He goes on to state, and this is "his" opinion, that it would not be wise to assume the same arrangement to a town of 19,000 to 20,000 residents. I wonder where Mr. Fava found these arbitrary numbers. Who sets this number?

He then states that the county will lose annual revenues of over $1 million. Well, I would just like to ask where Mr. Fava was when the city of Charleston annexed hundreds of residences and businesses from the unincorporated areas of James Island into the Charleston? I did not see any letters to the editor complaining about the loss of funds to the county from these annexations. Could it be that some cities or towns in Charleston County are fed from different spoons?

He further states that our proposed town has no industrial base and relatively few businesses. That is true, but I did not hear any complaints from Mr. Fava when they were annexed into the city of Charleston. Mr. Fava goes on to say that now, since County Council is in a single-member district system, it may not look kindly toward a town "not fully paying its own way." Let me assure Ed that we fully intend to pay our own way, and maybe, just maybe, the fact that County Council is now in the single-member district mode, and Ed lives in the city of Charleston is the reason his letter was so negative toward our efforts to determine our own destiny.

I am very disheartened that Ed tries to separate county responsibility to "paper cities" and large cities. I believe that all cities and towns should be treated equally. Big ain't always beautiful.

John D. Ohlandt

1005 Oceanview Road

James Island

Annexation policy

I hope you will encourage your readers to absorb the information in the June 13 letter by Councilman Henry Fishburne that was published in The Post and Courier.

Mr. Fishburne has tightly packaged an abundance of information on Charleston's annexation policy.

It is a cogent treatment of the need for a more rational annexation policy by the city of Charleston.

I am surprised it was published since my impression is that many articles with meaty substance concerning the viability of forming a town of James Island are given short shrift.

Thanks, Mr. Fishburne, for taking such a bold move.

I'm sure he will be considered persona non grata by some of the lemmings on city council.

Jim Fralix Jr.

1175 Harborview Road

James Island