EDITOR,

As a Felton resident who used to take my kids to the Covered Bridge Park and shop in the Felton Fair center, I am really dismayed by the current state of decline those areas are in. I no longer feel safe when shopping in Felton Faire in the middle of the day. Many times when I have been walking by Safeway with my kids, I am aggressively asked for money and have been verbally abused when I did not give it to the person asking for it. My 2 and 4-year-old children have witnessed fights, screaming, swearing, people smoking and drinking at the children's park at 10 in the morning, and people openly using. Now, I drive my kids to Skypark and shop at the stores in Scotts Valley. I want to support stores in Felton, but I simply don't feel safe there anymore. The problem has become significantly worse recently, and a group of volunteers just this weekend discovered that the illegal camps under the Graham Hill bridge that were recently cleaned up are back to polluting our river with used needles, trash, and piles human feces. Although these camps were cleaned up just a few weeks ago, the accumulation of trash and filth was so great that it was impossible for them to haul it all out. Not only is this a terrible environment for all of us to live in, but it is becoming an ecological disaster! These needles and trash are in our parks, rivers, oceans, beaches.... can't we do something about this?

Stephanie Culligan, Felton