Mailbag: City shouldn’t have to pay for playground

Excuse me! Regarding the destruction of newly installed playground equipment at Glorietta Park (“Fire destroys play area,’ Aug. 27) and quotation in the last paragraph where the community services and parks director stated, “Purchasing a new playground set is an unanticipated expense for the department’s budget.”

Why should the city’s budget even be considered? What about the juveniles’ parents’ budgets? Why should their participation not be the answer to replacement of equipment that was destroyed as an apparent prank by their children?

The responsibility lies right at their doorstep. The city of Glendale’s budget, which is in a miserable state, should not even be addressed.

When are parents of kids going to be held financially responsible for their children’s inexcusable behavior, rather than a pat on their unruly little heads!? The public is sick to death and getting more than weary of vandalism, graffiti and the like, which we are forced to live with as citizens and then must pay the price for repair, in addition to the insult to our way of life.

My question here is: Have the parents even been approached regarding this expense?

Francesca dePage

Glendale

Where did the conserved water go?

Sometime last year, we and all Glendale residents received a letter from Glendale Water & Power telling us all to conserve water because we were short of this precious fluid. We did that.

According to Glendale Water & Power officials, we saved about 16% of the amount of water we normally used. And what was our reward? They now want to raise our water rates (“Water rate increase in the works,” June 29).

Their excuse is they don’t have enough money to pay for the water they buy from Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. I am sure that they don’t buy the same amount of water that they did before the water rationing, and if this is the case, they will be paying less.

Now, where is the 16% of water we saved? Did they sell to someone else, or did they store it someplace we’re unaware of? They put us on a water-restriction situation, but the city allowed buildings and pools to be built. I don’t understand how these builders get permits to do all this building when we’re in this tight water-restriction situation.

When these buildings are in use, do you know how much water the new residents will use? What happened with water restrictions? I don’t want to call this a scam, but something seems to be going on that we aren’t being told.

Glendale Water & Power is telling us that the reason for raising water rates is because they did not collect enough money for maintenance, repair, and replacing damaged pipes and pumps. Heck, the city has been charging us every month for delivering the water, customer service charge and water adjustment charge. I think maintenance is included in these charges.

Who are they kidding? I think they need more money to make sure they keep their extraordinary salaries and pensions in place.

Let’s everyone protest this water rate increase. We pay plenty of money to the city already. We do not need further rate increases.

Joseph Vitello

Glendale

Yard workers should wear face masks

Time and time again, I see yard workers and construction workers doing their jobs in very dusty and possibly moldy environments without any face masks or any kind of protection devices.

I am sure those environments are hazardous to their health, and probably most of them have no access to medical coverage

Shouldn’t their employer provide them with the face mask? Aren’t there any laws to enforce the employer to do just that? Are these workers “Children of Lesser God?”

Sarkis Abrahamian

Glendale