Letters to the Editor

We must hold everyone accountable

To the Editor:

Over the coming months, funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be distributed to communities throughout the country to put Americans back to work and strengthen our long-term capacity for economic growth.

When I supported the legislation in February, I said that the success of the plan relies on how it is implemented. We all have a stake in ensuring these dollars are spent wisely, so I wanted to let you know about a way you can help hold the recipients of economic recovery funds accountable.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has established a new waste, fraud and abuse hotline for the public. The independent, nonpartisan agency investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars and sounds the alarm when funds are being misused. If you see waste, fraud or abuse of economic recovery funds in your community, please consider reporting it to GAO. You do not need to provide your name, and the information you provide can help ensure that every penny goes to turning our economy around.

To submit a complaint, you can e-mail: fraudnet@gao.gov, call GAO's automated Fraud Hotline at: (800) 424-5454, or send a letter to:

GAO FraudNET

441 G Street NW

Mail Stop 4T21

Washington, DC 20548

Be sure to provide as much detail as possible to help GAO investigators.

Rest assured, I will continue to do my part to restore honesty and accountability in Washington. Together, we can prevent government waste and turn our economy around.

U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth

Evansville/Washington D.C.

What about

Fairview Road?

To the Editor:

I'd like to respond to Mr. Brazil's article about speed on Bolten Road. Yes I agree with him on reducing the speed "if" possible, but we need to clarify a couple of things.

First, the last horrible accident was not on Bolten Road, it was on County Road 1225W. Second of all, a few of the "speeders" are young people coming and going to school whom "live" on Bolten Road or Bolten Lane.

You ask how do I know this, well I live on Fairview Road and I watch these young people going and coming from school.

Most do not even stop at the stop sign at 200N and by the time they reach my house, they are already going 55 mph or more. I have also been behind a few of these young people heading to State Road 59 and watched them pull into houses on Bolten Road or turn into Bolten Lane.

So, I feel if Bolten Road thinks they are more important than any other county road, I'd like for them to sit at the corner of 200N sometime and actually see who the speeders are in this area. They may be shocked to find out.

For one, Bolten Road does not have a school or business or major cemetery on it in the area they request a reduced speed limit. However, I can see putting some of these roads down to a speed of 45 mph, a 35 mph is unrealistic on a country road. Fairview Road is a heavily traveled road because of the school up the street and because of an important cemetery for the area but we deal with for the reason it "is" a country road and country roads are 55 mph.

So if Bolten Road can get a reduced speed limit sign I feel Fairview Road should also be reduced but only to a 45 mph speed limit.

Tony Bradley

Linton