To the Town of Cary and Organizers of the Lazy Daze Event:

My father and my husband are adult children of alcoholics, and when I heard that the organizers of Lazy Daze desire to add a “beer garden” (a.k.a. “keg party”), I could not help but think of all of the children who are coming to Lazy Daze; after all, it is promoted as a family event.

Vulnerable children of alcoholics who are looking forward to a fun day of face painting, music and art in a safe environment will be devastated to learn that Cary’s Lazy Daze has become an accomplice to the beast that seeks to destroy their families. Instead of skipping from one booth to the next, the attractions will be visited between long, hot hours waiting for Mommy and/or Daddy to emerge from the “beer garden,” where they are able to start drinking earlier than usual for a Saturday.

If this letter seems overreactive, consider that one in four of America’s children under 18 are children of alcoholics and are “the people hurt most by [drugs and] alcohol” (National Association for Children of Alcoholics, www.nacoa.org). In addition, the safety of children of nonalcoholics will also be lowered at the same rate as the inhibitions of those who partake. Teens will anticipate the day that they become old enough to party in the garden, but hopefully they will wait patiently, rather than sneaking sips from the cup of another. As the traditional crowd of thousands packs Academy Street in the sweltering heat and “cold ones” are sought for temporary relief, the beer garden may cultivate some flaring tempers, in which case no one will be safe.

It’s difficult to fathom why the organizers of Lazy Daze would consider a beer bash as a welcomed guest to this family event, located on the same street as the library and the elementary school and in sight of two churches. The beer garden’s expected revenue must be phenomenal to outweigh the costs of licensing and insurance fees, the potential costs added by endangering patrons and exhibitors and intrinsic costs to the Town of Cary as a result of tarnishing its highly esteemed image. Please seek other avenues of revenue that don’t line the pockets of a few while causing devastation and destruction to others.

Terri M. Howell, Cary

Little bit of ‘poison’ not a bad thing

One of the letters in your March 7 issue accused Harold Weinbrecht of trying to create a “poisonous atmosphere” in Cary with his negative comments concerning our town’s leadership. I have never met Mr. Weinbrecht but would agree with the majority of what he stated in his “State of the Citizens” rebuttal. It is a bit curious why Mr. Weinbrecht’s column drew venom when so many preceding reader comments of a similar nature did not.

A “poisonous atmosphere” is one which encourages citizens’ outrcy when their best interests are not well represented, where leaders openly challenge each other and where public scrutiny prevails. Kind of reminiscent of the way government was run when our great country was born.

Instead, the “Good ole boy network” is alive and well in Cary. Developers finance our town council and mayors’ campaigns (fact, not opinion), our leaders stand with the developers to support $1 billion school bond referendums, and we as citizens ultimately pay the price in taxes, traffic and in our education system. This week a number of Cary families received letters about their mandatory year-round track assignment — a bitter pill to swallow for the sake of increasing the tax base.

The mayor’s address painted a rosy picture of how wonderful everything is in Cary and how responsive the council has been to the needs of the citizens. I think a little bit of poison might go a long way toward opening people’s eyes to how decisions that affect us are being made and who the real beneficiaries are.

Joe Ciulla, Cary

Take emotion out of the discussion

I have been reading the recent opinions published about the proposed Town of Cary Aquatics (CA) facility and the Triangle Aquatics Center (TAC), and two phone calls I received from CA supporters indicate something is amiss with this debate. There is too much emotion. The CA supporters get hot discussing the TAC. Where is the logical thinking?

The first phone call was from an emotional parent from the Marlins of Raleigh (MOR), the swim team that has lobbied for the CA proposal. We discussed the multisport facility proposed by the sports lobby, which was dropped from the proposal due to insufficient financial backing and my classification of MOR as a predominantly Raleigh club. All I can say is MOR holds practices at multiple locations in Raleigh. The second phone call resulted in a meeting with Paul Silver of MOR. Summarized below, we agreed:

• Additional pool space for competitive swimmers in Triangle is needed.

• Cary should build recreational facilities.

• Cary came up with the idea first and has worked for 10 years to build a pool.

• MOR was established by Silver as a nonprofit (which I did not know).

• CA has not sited, designed, built nor funded their pool (another letter).

Paul disagreed with me that:

• Cary should focus on recreational, not competitive, facilities.

• TAC will fill the need for the competitive-pool space in Cary.

• Ideas are great but results matter — TAC is getting a pool built (ask Bill Gates and Steve Jobs about ideas).

• Lane-space fees at the CA will be comparable to TAC (Paul says MOR will not lease space at TAC).

• TAC has sufficient space for all the year-round swim teams, the Wake County schools, the Cardinal Gibbons Swim Team, Red Cross and Cary parks and recreation. Did you know Chapel Hill is building a recreational facility for only $5 million? Furthermore, pool space at TAC can be leased by Cary parks and recreation to run aquatics programs. It seems there is no need for the $30 million pool proposed by CA. It is also apparent town council member [Nels] Rosland and CA supporters have a problem with Mike Curran and TAC. There has been too much time, money and energy spent planning the Cary facility and not enough spent getting it done. It is time to take the emotion out the aquatics debate and get to the business of building recreational pools throughout the town. Now that sounds like a cool idea.

Sean Kersten, Cary

Value in Britney

Please tell us what value the piece on Britney Spears on the opinion page has for the Cary readers. In a city of 110,000-plus surely there must be some subject of merit for your readers. How about stepping up to your responsibility as a community newspaper and report or comment on issues of relevance. Bob Cassell, Cary