Waste on Sludge

Editor: During the period of financial crisis for government at all levels, I was amazed to see the City of Baltimore moving ahead on a sludge disposal process that will add $10 million a year to the taxpayers' burden.

Currently sludge disposal at the Back River Plant in Baltimore County (city-owned) is being handled successfully by three separate contractors. The average cost of disposal is under $40/wet ton. There is no storage of sludge at the plant and odor complaints have been eliminated. These three one-year contracts were extended in 1991 for another year.

Now, the city Board of Estimates has decided to eliminate the current system which is working so well and construct two new high-tech systems to dry the sludge before removal from the site. The city will begin paying over $100/wet ton and will be locked into a method that will inflate each year with the CPI.

This is an added cost initially of over $10 million each year. This so-called privatization is a complete waste of the taxpayers' money. The two non-bid, non-competitive contracts will cost metropolitan taxpayers over $400 million during the 20-year term.

I wonder what odors and emissions to pollute the air will come from cooking sludge?

Where are our priorities when we close libraries and pay this kind of money to experiment with technology? Whatever happened to competitive bidding, in an attempt to get the most for the public dollar?

Robert Oler. Towson.

Japan is No Enemy, It's U.S.

Editor: If you are suffering from the recession and drive a Japanese automobile, you have only yourself to blame.

According to former Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher, billion in U.S. exports equals 20,000 jobs. Considering that Japanese cars constitute 75 percent of the $42 billion deficit, that amounts to 630,000 American jobs lost to Japanese car manufacturers.

Don't blame President Bush, blame yourself.

#W. Walter Farnandis.

Catonsville.

Editor: Since Dec. 7, several "Japan-bashing" letters and articles have appeared.

Unfortunately, all of them are way off base. Japan is not the enemy; it is the United States. No one is putting a gun to an American's head to buy Japanese or other foreign- made products.

One of the television news commentators said that one out of every three cars sold last year came from Japan. That is a sad indictment of Americans, when the reason given for such purchases was "quality" of product.

The American press ridicules the Russians for the quality of their consumer products but ignores the reason some Americans give for purchasing Japanese and other Far Eastern products.

The American consumer is not the only one to be blamed for the trade deficit.

Our corporate executives and board rooms come in for their share of the blame. Instead of working toward product improvement and quality, they shifted operations to foreign countries, shipped products here with an "American" label and believed their consciences to be clear.

I include Lee Iacocca in this category. Early in the ball game, he was among the first to have cars manufactured in Japan or

Korea shipped here under the Chrysler name.

Labor unions have done a poor job, too, in educating their members. If an American worker wants to get big bucks for his toil, he must then be willing to pay for the work of other Americans, even if it costs more. Quid pro quo!

Don't blame the president for the current state of the economy, ** when we are the cause of it.

'Richard L. Lelonek. Baltimore.

Hard at Work

Editor: In response to your editorial, "Needed: Attack on Vacant Houses," please note that there are solutions to the problem already hard at work in Baltimore City.

Many parts of the city are currently being improved -- slowly but surely -- by small, community-based non-profit housing corporations which acquire, rehab and resell the unsightly vacants to low- and moderate-income persons.

Tri-Churches Housing is one such small, energetic non-profit, working since 1985 in the Pigtown area of Southwest Baltimore. To date, 15 vacant houses have become owned, lived-in homes as a result of Tri-Churches' hard work. More are under way now.

The public and private corporate sectors could do Baltimore a great service by backing organizations like Tri-Churches which make homes, not boarded shells in Baltimore neighborhoods.

Sister Cornela Sarandria RSM. Baltimore.

The Red Dean

Editor: In his column in The Sun of Jan. 4, Cal Thomas would have us believe that the influence of certain leftist clergymen was "one of the main reasons communism maintained its grip for so long."

Political systems -- communism among them -- rise and fall for many and complex reasons, but the part that religious leaders play in that process is, at best, minimal. In the West, at least, the impact of religion on the politics of its adherents is diffuse, at best, and therefore ineffectual. The strength of religion lies in the area of individual human relationships. Institutions, political organizations among them, are hardly susceptible to the influence of a few misguided clerics, zealous though they may be.

In his article, Thomas elevated Hewlett Johnson to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Johnson, known as the "Red Dean," was dean of Canterbury Cathedral, a relatively minor position in the hierarchy of the Church of England. The then-reigning archbishop, Cosmo Gordon Lang, was deeply frustrated by his inability to publicly censure the dean of his cathedral church for the dean's political opinions. Hewlett Johnson has been out of the picture for many years, and in this writer's estimation would no longer serve as an example of a clergyman who helped keep communism in power.

!Robert A. Gourlay. Chester.

The writer is a retired priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Easton.

Horsefeathers

Editor: So now it comes to light that Maryland's economic woes are directly attributable to reduced taxation on thoroughbred racing.

Or so recent letter writers would have one believe. Horsefeathers!

Economically, racing is a marginally profitable industry not just in rTC Maryland but nationwide. It simply lacks the capacity to generate tax revenue that would be significant for state purposes.

One letter writer suggests Maryland has been losing $16 million a year due to reduced pari-mutuel taxes. To imply that such a sum is responsible for the state's massive fiscal problems borders on lunacy.

For The Sun to compound the error and impart legitimacy to such a view by displaying it under an eye-catching racing photo was irresponsible. Perspective was sacrificed solely for the sake of graphics. And this is a supposedly responsible forum. Racing deserved better.

R.T. Harding. Baldwin.

Beach Dollars

Editor: It was interesting to see Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Rep. Wayne Gilchrest claiming victory in the battle between tax dollars spent on the beach replenishment program versus Mother Nature's ravaging wave action.

We have heard everyone screaming that the federal disaster relief fund didn't provide any funds, and that damage would have been less with more money. With all of this bickering, who is benefiting by tax dollars spent on beach replenishment? The state, the property owners and the insurance companies.

Almost every insurance company increased its flood insurance premiums by threefold when the federal government got out of the flood insurance business. Not only have property owners been hit by these premium increases, but they face increases and assessments and higher taxes.

The taxes are used to help pay for the Beach Replenishment Program which in turn protects the property owners and protects the insurance companies from more extensive claims. Yet, I will bet the insurance industry has not allocated one dollar for the Beach Replenishment Fund.

Now that the federal and state governments have proven that this program works, perhaps it's time to look to the insurance companies, not the federal government, for backup funding.

After all, the insurance companies are the direct beneficiaries.

& Stephen C. Leocha. Queenstown.

Editor: It was as if I had written the Roger Simon column of Jan. 8 about more money for sand in Ocean City.

If the federal government can come up with the funds for more sand, why is there no money for schools, roads or the homeless? I am quite sure that $44 million could be well spent in these areas.

Why don't the land and property owners come up with this money? Are they not the people who benefit from the $44 million?

I vote to leave the sand alone. Do not test Mother Nature any more.

Let the original land owner take his property at will. Who are we to test God?

* Sheila Parker-Heckner. Baltimore.

Thoughtless

Editor: I, too, am outraged that the MVA failed to remind me of when my license tag renewal is due (letter, Dec. 30).

Furthermore, my pharmacy did not remind me that my prescription was about to run out, my doctor did not remind me that my physical exam is due, the library did not remind me that some books were due back a week ago, my daughter's school did not remind me when school started, my refrigerator did not remind me that it is time to get more food. . . .

D. R. ProWom. Baltimore.

Reason Ignored

Editor: Once again the community of nations voices outrage against Israel for its temerity to expel 12 Palestinian terrorists and impede the peace process.

Is it not ironic that the reason for the expulsions -- murder of four Israelis -- is practically ignored?

If the situation were reversed, no doubt Israelis would have been executed, not exiled. The only sounds heard would be those of silence.

' Marian Mehler. Baltimore.