Dear Editor:

I find myself in the unfortunate position of having to clarify my comments regarding the expansion of the Baker County Health Department’s dental wing due to an effort to distort the facts by persons within the department’s administration.

I fully support medical and dental care for indigent citizens in Baker County. To do otherwise would be inhumane.

I never said I spoke to “all” nor did I specifically name any dentist in Baker County who stated he or she was against the expansion [from four to eight dental chairs], contrary to what [BCHD assistant director] Terrenia Staier or [director] Kerry Dunlavey implied or said after a flurry of calls.

What I did say can be located on page eight of the [county commission] minutes, to wit: “I do know that the ones that I spoke to specifically said that they did not support it.”

Dear Editor:

I was very upset after reading last week’s article Protest after sex offender awarded custody to think that, while this family is trying to get this child back to Baker County, you and Todd Ferreira would take this opportunity to make this lady (Rita Crews) look like a bad person for not paying a funeral bill.

Everybody owes somebody.

The article should have pointed out that it’s a shame no one but a handful of the approximately 26,000 people in Baker County showed up at the courthouse to protest for this poor child. Not one elected official has stood up for this family.

Shame on you all!

As displayed by this week’s letters to the editor section, emotions are running high regarding last week’s story on the Miranda Wilkerson custody case, and that’s understandable considering the involvement of Donald Coleman, a registered sex offender now responsible for the 4-year-old girl’s well-being.

Let me take this opportunity, however, to respond to some of the criticisms and questions posed in the letters published this week.

Our goal was certainly not to portray Rita Manning, Miranda’s paternal grandmother, as “the good guy” or “the bad guy,” or to defend or assail Circuit Judge Phyllis Rosier’s decision to award custody to Mr. Coleman.

Rather, with extensive coverage of the case by First Coast News for nearly a week before last week’s edition was published, we hoped to offer readers information that might help to answer the question on everyone’s mind: Why did the judge rule the way she did?

In most cases, a judge will explain his or her decisions in writing and those records are open to review by the media and everyone else. In this case, however, the court files were not open to public inspection, the judge had not spoken publicly about the case and reporters were barred from entering the courtroom during a hearing that followed the custody decision. Thus, we had to rely on other court records and comments from those present at the protest July 18, all of which were reflected in last week’s edition.

Dear Editor:

What makes a successful farmers market? We need both vendors and customers!

From the vendors’ point of view, the day starts well before market opening; preparing goods for sale, figuring out the best pricing, deciding on the proper display and getting to the market by 7:30. A good sale day would include making contact with customers and potential buyers and selling a good part or all of the stock brought for sale.

From the customer’s point a view, looking forward to going to the market to buy unique, fair priced, fresh goods that are not available elsewhere.

In today’s economy, we must be committed to buying local, to support the residents of this area. Baker County and the surrounding area are full of crafts people, farmers and nurserymen who produce high quality goods for sale.

We as members of the Farmers Market board are committed to keeping this great market open and are asking you, the community, to make the commitment to the entrepreneurial spirit of the small business owner, by making the market a Saturday morning destination.

Vendors come and sell! Community come and buy!

Helene Guest
Farmers Market board member
Lawtey