LETTERS: Sledding, town hires, vaccines

If you want to sled, please use your head

I can't be the only one who thinks sledding down the embankments formed by the Long Island Expressway's ramps is insane. I see this all over the Island. I would expect to see teenagers taking advantage of an opportunity like this, but dozens of parents with little kids take part in this very risky winter fun, sometimes at night.

Sledders pull their cars over on the ramps, making it very difficult to see around the bends. Suffolk isn't exactly a city setting where places to sled are hard to come by. Take the kids to one of the many parks the county has to offer. Or play with them on the train tracks, where it's safer.

Dan McQueen

Farmingville

New Huntington hire: Fiscal restraint it ain't

Hypocrisy reigns supreme at Huntington Town Hall.

In a cynical act of political retaliation against an independently elected official, the Town of Huntington recently filed a lawsuit seeking to block Superintendent of Highways William Naughton from hiring needed personnel. To justify their action, town board members, who have wrongly treated Naughton as if he is just another appointed department head, cited the current economic climate and a supposed town hiring freeze.

Yet, while Supervisor Frank Petrone bemoans what he calls "reckless spending" on the part of the superintendent of highways, he and the town board reinstated another $50,000 part-time position in the already bloated town attorney's office for a former town councilman .

Is that what the supervisor meant by "All government officials must practice prudent financial management to ensure that no taxpayer dollar is wasted"?

Michael Kornfeld

Huntington

Separate vaccines would improve health

I am a mother who believes in vaccinating my children, but I felt more comfortable spreading the MMR - measles, mumps and rubella - and all other vaccinations out over several weeks, so my children could adjust to each dose separately ["Guarding the masses against old diseases," News, Feb. 8].

Even though my choice is not scientifically justified, nor are there links to autism and other disorders, I chose to err on the side of caution. I recently had that choice revoked: The only reputable manufacturer of the MMR vaccine in the United States stopped producing it in separate doses. My children had started with the separate measles vaccine.

All these articles encouraging parents to vaccinate their children have blatantly left out that important piece of information. I am certain that if the MMR vaccine becomes available in separate doses again, the rate of vaccinations will increase, along with our community health.

Jennifer L. Woods

East Meadow