Letters to the Editor - March 25, 2021

Change needed to combat noise

 

The headline accompanying your Readers’ Poll [on leaf blower noise] could have read 57% of respondents believe change is necessary, while only 28% choose the status quo. The challenge in answering your poll was choosing between the two definitions of change: restrict the noise level or restrict the hours of operation. BOTH these changes are needed.

 

More and more landscaping companies are using commercial-sized ride-on mowers that were designed to mow football fields. These 100-plus decibel machines sound like jet engines when they start up. And many of them show up in the dinner hour, or on Sunday morning, times when they are not allowed to operate in some other communities.

 

Try planning an evening cookout and then have one of these machines start up next door. And then the crew walks around with leaf blowers blowing all the dirt up into the air. Evening ruined. Retreat into the house.

 

Daniel Island as a serene place to live is a myth. Change is needed.

 

Timothy Dempsey, Daniel Island

 

Mask mandate extension not necessary

 

This is a letter to the editor regarding the March 18-24 article “City of Charleston under mask mandate until April 14.”

 

As we know, Governor McMaster’s Executive Order 2021-12, issued on March 5, lifted the mask mandate across South Carolina. Section 2G allows counties and municipalities to amend Emergency Ordinances “taking into account localized circumstances and key metrics.” However, it goes on to say any deviations “must be targeted and narrowly tailored in the least restrictive manner.”

 

The article says that the Charleston City Council extended the mask mandate to April 14 although Tracy McKee from the Mayor’s Office reported that there had been a 48% decrease in cases in the prior two weeks and DHEC reported that 22% of our citizens have been vaccinated.  

 

As such, I fail to understand what “localized circumstances and key metrics” led the City Council to decide to impose a broad (not targeted and narrowly tailored) mask mandate for another month? The data simply doesn’t support it. [Governor’s order: bit.ly/2OQty6R]

 

Jim Wasson, Daniel Island