LETTERS
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HELP FOR HOMELESS Thanks to Patrick Yeagle for putting human faces on the problem of homelessness in Springfield in “Homeless for the holidays,” Nov. 19.
While statistics are important, even more important is to know that the homeless in our city are not just a glob of those most unfortunate among us. As Yeagle wrote, they include folks who are athletic, handsome, protectors, artists and philosophers. They socialize, smoke, smile and have ambitions, as well as drug and alcohol abuse problems. Each one has a story, but without Yeagle’s enterprising reporting, we never would have known that.
Earlier this week we celebrated Giving Tuesday. Giving once a year is nice, but to help solve the problem of homelessness what is really needed is year-round giving. A painless way to do this is to sign up for the Round Up Program on your CWLP bill. Your bill will then be rounded up to the next dollar with the extra change (1 to 99 cents) going to help the homeless. Multiply this by even a fraction of CWLP’s 65,000 customers and you are making a huge impact.
Because so many generous CWLP customers already round up, on Tuesday Mayor Jim Langfelder introduced an ordinance to award $16,000 of Round Up funds to Helping Hands to operate the winter overflow shelter. As Yeagle’s article pointed out, the Salvation Army shelter’s 36 beds are gone this year as they transition to a new building still being renovated. Helping Hands is expanding its shelter to fill the gap, but can’t afford to operate it without the Round Up funds. The committee of the whole will consider this next Tuesday, and the full council votes Dec. 15.
Springfield is in the national headlines because of the constitutional challenge to our downtown panhandling ban that the U.S. Supreme Court is now being asked to decide. Let’s show the country and our nation’s Supreme Court our other face ... that this is a city with a heart that helps its homeless citizens.
You can sign up for the Round Up Program by filling out the insert that will be in your January CWLP bill. Or you can do it right now by calling 789-2030 or go to http://cwlp.com. Click on online services and forms, and then donation forms. Sam Cahnman Springfield
LISTEN TO ANCESTORS Jacqueline Jackson’s Nov. 12 article on the local authors Sandy Baksys, John Knoepfle and Barbara Olson was interesting, to say the least. “From Lithuania to the land of Lincoln” was, I’m sure, a labor of love. We’re all here because of our immigrant ancestors who had a dream. A dream to live in a free country, a dream of a better life and the willingness to work for such a life. Ellis Island was the destination of dreams; for some it didn’t work out so well and they were sent back for some reason or another, as with some of my ancestors migrating from Bohemia. We have no concept of the courage that it took for our ancestors to endure these hardships to make a better life for their descendants. We are surrounded by living history books – our fathers and mothers, grand and great grandparents. Listen and learn because once they are gone, unless we have the stamina to do what Baksys has done, it’ll be dust in the wind. Sandra Sklenka Springfield
LAKE AREA DISPOSAL I am sorry to see that Lake Area Disposal is closing their drop-off recycling service because they are losing money. It is a great service and they have kept it very clean. I pay for curbside recycling but I also drop off cardboard boxes and use it to drop off my mom’s stuff probably 12 times per year.
I assume that the losses are not huge or they would have closed it a long time ago. I would think the city could pay $1,000 per month towards this valuable service. That would be around 10 cents per resident per year. I am sure they could find that in the more than $100 million budget.
Another idea is that a dedicated fund could be set up to support this service. I would be glad to pledge $25 per month as support. If 100 area residents donated this $300 per year, that would be an additional $30,000 to support the business. Jack Hellner Springfield
