Bruce Yamron

Most business owners agree that rapidly rising healthcare costs are a threat to our ability to provide good health benefits to employees. This is a critically important issue because the welfare of the business family touches the core of the organization.

I have often wondered if a community's business owners could "bundle" their healthcare benefits. Area businesses have similar characteristics, such as size, type of business, mission and values, and level of commitment to their employees. A health benefits association could be formed on the basis of industry-for example, our area's fine jewelers. Or it could be created from an already existing merchant mix, like those doing business in the Waterside Shops.

Such an association could probably negotiate benefits more effectively than a single small business. Insurance providers would benefit from the larger market created by such an association, with the possibility of spreading risks more widely and across a more diverse group of employees.

Of course, I understand that each individual has a role in managing his or her personal health through lifestyle, diet and exercise. To demonstrate how serious I am about seeking a better way to provide health benefits for my employees, I will even volunteer to lead morning workout sessions around the soon-to-be-completed water feature at the Waterside Shops.

Robert Cacioppo

One sign of a great community is its support for the arts. Most outstanding cities around the world, big and small, are filled with profit-making art galleries and performance halls. They are also filled with not-for-profit arts organizations in need of funding.

How do we establish superior (and better-funded) museums, symphonies, professional theaters and dance companies? And how do we create funding (and pay for busing) for students to go to these institutions? And how do we bring more dance, music, theater and art programs into the schools, inspiring future artists, donors, board members and patrons?

A small surcharge or tax. Add a tax of 1 percent, or even a half percent, to all luxury items over $1,000-jewelry, cars, wide-screen TVs, designer clothes, etc. The city of Denver did this with great success.

Elliott Singer

There is a desperate need for reasonably priced housing in the Southwest Florida region. I suggest an increased tax on tourists. These funds would go specifically to build more modestly priced housing.

While tourists would not be happy about any tax, it wouldn't be noticed that much. When we travel to any of the popular tourist centers in the United States, we are faced with taxes that can total as much as 13.375 percent daily, plus some fixed charges to pay for certain things in the city.

Locally, we are charging only 3 percent for each hotel room bill on top of our 6-percent sales tax. We have a lot of room for tourists to help pay for the service and support staff that makes our community function. New homebuyers could also be taxed once to help out this fund.

Denise Cobb

On aug. 13 of last year, Hurricane Charley roared ashore with winds of 145 mph. Local television stations NBC-2 and ABC-7 preempted regular programming and commercials in favor of simulcasting 24-hour hurricane coverage filled with emergency information. Local government officials and residents alike have since praised the stations for their dedication and credited them with saving lives.

However, instead of receiving awards, these stations have received fines totaling $48,000. The Federal Communications Commission contends the stations did not do enough to "provide people with hearing disabilities the same access to emergency information as those with unimpaired hearing."

Although the stations ran constant written "crawls" at the bottom of the screen, they inadvertently left out just three visual warnings. These instances came during eight days of continuous coverage, and they came from newspeople who, in some cases, faced the destruction of their own homes as they tried to protect their viewers.

These fines should worry us. They could discourage extended coverage, since the more you do the greater your vulnerability. What if there had been no round-the-clock reporting? No coverage would have resulted in no fines. This is a scary thought. My solution? Send a complaint to the FCC at Kris.Monteith@fcc.gov.

Kellie Burns-Garvey

Southwest florida is struggling with

a skyrocketing population and all the benefits and detriments that come with it. And while traffic issues, school overcrowding and managing growth are at the forefront of most discussions, I want to talk about cigarette butts.

Maybe these little pieces of paper saturated with nicotine and DNA have always littered our roadways, parking lots and beaches, and I just never noticed. But now that I have an 18-month-old son who seems to have radar for the little suckers, it's driving me crazy.

Jack finds them everywhere. And like his mother when she comes across a good piece of dark chocolate, he triumphantly grabs it, gives a gleeful shout and, unless Mommy can beat him to the punch, pops it in his mouth like a piece of candy and chews. It's enough to make anyone ill.

I am not against smokers; in fact, several of my family members and friends are addicted to nicotine. I just hope my son never becomes one of them. So while I respect a smoker's right to light up, I expect him or her to respect my right not to look at their cigarette carcasses littering the ground.

The solution to this pollution is simple: If you smoke, find an appropriate place to dispose of your cigarette or carry the extinguished filter with you until you find one. If we all threw our litter on the ground, no one would want to visit Southwest Florida. And then where would we be?

Kim Long

As a solution to traffic congestion during season, especially on U.S. 41, two lanes can be dedicated to tourists and sightseers and one lane to people who seriously need to get somewhere at a certain time-like work!