Why don’t you mention (other Deerfield people) like Willie Vickers in your stories, since he was the W in M & W? What about pioneers like J.B. Wiles, Buck Moseley, the Sweat family, Mr J.D. Butler, the Stewarts, the Gaskins, Bruce Gaskin, former Justice of the Peace Bo Woods, Deputy Constable Andy Brown, Constable Clint Stewart, former Chief of Police Harry Collier and his son, Ray, who became postmaster of Deerfield, the Alvin and Emery Jones family of farmers, the Craig family with the furniture store, dry goods store owners like Frank Reeves and the Parmans, and lastly old Doc Wright who was a legend among druggists. They made Deerfield what it was when it was a wonderful place to bring up a family.
Captain Rick Moseley
Homosassa, FL
Publisher’s Note: Thanks for your email and description of a number of additional “founding” Deerfield families, including farmer W.W. Vickers and his minority investment in Dad’s company, which I will be writing about soon. You are correct in that your own Moseley family were prominent members in “old” Deerfield, and your Granddad owned a lot of the property around Hillsboro Blvd. and Dixie Hwy. In fact, I believe his big garage was the largest building in town, and was diagonally across the street from our house. You also mentioned a number of other old families and asked why I haven’t written more about them. I have written about some of them, and intend to include others as time and space allow. Therefore the tab title “History of Deerfield” should probably really be shown with an asterisk mark since it is really not intended to be an official history of all of Deerfield families, but only a series of historical stories told from the limited perspective of this one citizen. It’s been a long time, but it was good to hear from you, Rick. Thanks for writing.
David Eller
Publisher
10th Street flyover not the answer
To the Editor:
I’m writing in regard to the traffic congestion problem of the 10th Street corridor in Deerfield Beach from the Sawgrass to I-95. I don’t believe a flyover or expansion is the answer. Why should the surrounding neighborhoods feel the brunt of a flyover or massive road widening project with frontage roads? Recently, on two separation occasions, FDOT and local government officials met: the first in Boca Raton to determine how to alleviate traffic congestion at the Glades Road Turnpike exit; the second, in Fort Lauderdale, to determine how to ease traffic from the Sawgrass Expressway to I-95. For one to look at the 10th Street corridor in its current state, you would say that a flyover connecting Sawgrass to I-95 would be the logical solution.
I’ve heard people say, “That’s how it should have been built, but the Century Village people opposed it.” That may be true, but let’s examine the facts: When the Sawgrass Expressway was completed in 1986, it was dubbed, “The Road to Nowhere.” Why? Because it was not designed to be just a loop from Deerfield to Sunrise, but a leg of the Expressway was to continue north into Palm Beach County, through Boca Raton.Palm Beach officials nixed the idea then, citing quality of life issues (much like the Century Village folks).
Now, the people in Boca need help in relieving congestion at the Glades Road exit, so they’ve got the FDOT officials looking at adding exits at the Sawgrass Expressway to help.
Connect this with Broward officials looking to ease traffic at 10th Street, and it appears some sort of “solution” is imminent. Also, where is District 4 Commissioner Steve Gonot? A former employee of FDOT, you would think he would have some input.
Lastly, we’ve heard a variety of ways to ease traffic, but how about one that has not been floated: since the problem is eastbound traffic in the morning and westbound traffic in the evening, why doesn’t FDOT remove the median, widen the road slightly to accommodate six lanes, and use the orange cone system (that other metropolitan areas use).By making the road five lanes east/one road west in the morning, and five lanes west/one road east in the evening, this would be less costly, and logical, since it addresses the traffic at the times when it’s a problem: during rush hours. This would be a win/win as it would ease traffic, protect the local neighborhood, and be less costly for a financially strapped government.
Bill Mei
Deerfield Beach
Note: Commissioner Gonot sits on the Metropolitan Planning Organization. The MPO oversees traffic planning.
Editor
CV owners did not receive payments
To the Editor:
This is to comment about the Century Village Insider column by Kathy Richards in the June 5, 2008, issue (page 20) of the Observer. This column, titled “Lots of Happy Villagers as the Eagle Fliers”, is largely misleading because it gives the impression that all unit owners like myself are benefiting from the insurance money returned to the buildings and by the workshops given through Mark Bogen, Esq. These checks and workshops were given out only to board presidents or members and not to unit owners who pay the building insurance and may have supplementary claims. Furthermore, unit owners who could have also benefited by the information gained through these workshops were not invited to attend. What the readers need is more of the facts about what is happening.
Judy Goldfarb
Century Village
Note: You start your letter taking issue with Ms. Richards’ column, but the body of your letter takes issue with a process and its outcome.Don’t shoot the messenger when you have a problem with the message. Lastly, Ms. Richards did not write the headline. If you found it misleading, I apologize.
Editor
How much can taxpayers afford?
To the Editor:
Anyone who watches television has seen the commercial depicting the man who plans to retire after 35 years but then wonders how he will be able to afford health insurance when he leaves his job. If he worked for the city of Deerfield Beach, he would not have that problem. If he was a firefighter at age 20, he could retire after 20 years at age 40 with no penalty, and the city would pay his health insurance for 25 years until he reached 65 and became eligible for Medicare. At least with the non-uniform employee, the length of service with no penalty is 25 years at age 55. Last year the city paid in excessof $600,000 for retirees’ health insurance.
Recently the city of Miramar ended retiree health perks for asking for concessions from the unions for existing employees as well as new hires.
We are approaching budget sessions, and it is time that this commission take a good look at once again closing the defined pension plan for all future firefighter hires. If a non-uniform employee works for the city for 25 years and has to be 55 to retire, why shouldn’t that be the criteria for all retirees? Firefighters who retire and have not reached the age of 55 should be required to pay for their own health insurance until they reach that age. Perhaps the answer is to decide whether those departments are willing to see cuts in personnel in order for the retiree benefits to be continued. With sagging property values and mandated tax relief, cities are going to have to decide just what taxpayers can afford and are willing to pay.
