Print edition: 
Warren safeguarded Wichita's future
Regarding "City water director abruptly resigns" (March 11 Local & State): What has David Warren done for Wichita? He fixed "red" water and deteriorating water-line problems in the older parts of the city. When our water was musty and smelly, he fixed it by installing state-of-the-art ozone treatment at Cheney Reservoir. He took our waste sludge from the wastewater treatment plant and turned it into fertilizer for the farming community. He decentralized wastewater treatment, which is now the goal for major cities. Wichita is positioned to distribute "reclaimed" wastewater for irrigation, commercial and industrial uses. We have an infrastructure poised to serve new development around Wichita. We have sufficient water supply for the region.
The Aquifer Storage and Recovery Project is a plan to keep Wichita and the region from running out of water. The program has been supported by Wichita City Council members throughout its development and is now in the construction phase. It will be viewed by future generations as the salvation of economic life for Wichita.
I would like to thank Warren for his service and his love for Wichita. I appreciate the fact that we have been able to "stand on his shoulders" for more than two decades and, in doing so, safeguard our future.
MIKE SCHOMAKER
Wichita
Water woes
A couple of days after Wichita water utility director David Warren resigned, we found out our water bills need to rise 15 percent because the water department is strapped for cash (March 12 Eagle). How did that happen? Was it because, after years of being told to conserve water, we now find out that projected revenues were never met? Or did Warren know something, and decide to get out before everything hit the fan and he would have to provide answers?
If our water bills increase, we will have to conserve to keep what we pay as low as possible. Projected revenues then will be lower than expected, and there will be another rate increase. A never-ending cycle. And if the state decides to tax utility bills, we will pay 6.3 percent more. Will it ever end?
Before raising water rates, the city needs to see why projected revenues were not met and make cuts where needed.
PETER GRANT
Wichita
Out of touch
The Kansas Health Care Freedom Amendment — proposed by state Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee, and sponsored by Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita — seems very out of touch with the state of health care in Kansas.
I understand the desire "to preserve constitutionally the right and freedom of Kansans to provide for their health care," as stated in the amendment. However, a large number of Kansans are unable to provide for their own health care.
If you are under age 65 and do not qualify for Medicaid, you are left to pay for private insurance — and that is if you do not have a pre-existing condition. As a nurse of six years, I have seen firsthand the financial burden the uninsured and underinsured bear, and how it trickles down from individual to institution to taxpayer. Only by opening up health care to everyone can we attempt to fix this issue, and passage of this amendment would block this attempt.
In this time of economic uncertainty, the decision of paying for health insurance or buying groceries or paying the mortgage is one many are facing. To pass this amendment is to turn a blind eye to their situation.
TERESA NOLD
Sedgwick
Protected speech
Regarding his column on our funeral picketing case before the U.S. Supreme Court ("Court should rule against Phelps gang," March 14 Opinion): Cal Thomas is the hypocritical voice of the false prophets of a doomed America. In the past, Thomas has written in favor of our position that homosexuality is a sin, because it made him feel holy.
Per our usual practice, our protesters stood more than 1,000 feet from the church in the case at issue, and no one going into that funeral even saw the pickets. Meanwhile, routinely false prophets, media, militant- military members, politicians, veterans and citizens pile up immediately outside the building, flapping their impotent flags and mouths, making a major ruckus. So Thomas shouldn't pretend to care if these death-watches are disturbed. He'll take all manner of chaos and noise around funerals, so long as the words make him feel better about the crimes committed against God.
Thomas repeated the lying saw about how you can't yell "fire" in a theater. If the blooming theater is on fire, you'd better yell "fire." Otherwise, don't pretend you give two hoots about your fellow man, while you stand there smugly watching him burn to death.
The only way to silence the lawful, peaceful and faithful words of Westboro Baptist Church is to rip up the blessing God gave us called the First Amendment, and to uproot settled law.
MARGIE PHELPS
Topeka
Spelling news
I could find no information about the spelling bee for Sedgwick County. I knew it had happened, because a student I know competed. This past weekend, the same student went to Great Bend to compete in the Great Bend Tribune's 2010 Sunflower Spelling Bee. Again, no information was available from The Eagle.
I can find all sorts of sports news, but why can we not find a small space to mention kids who work to excel at something that actually uses their brains? We complain about education or the lack of it, but when there is something educational and positive to report on, no one reports.
TRACEY McNEELY
Wichita
