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Dear Editor:
Congratulations to the city government of East Liverpool! You have reached a new height in lows.
Today, I opened my mail to find that the city of East Liverpool has sold out its police force duties to some money-grabbing company out of the Cincinnati area. Apparently, the city does not feel that its police force is competent enough to trust officers to enforce the state driving laws.
I received a ticket for $100 from the above-mentioned organization purporting to be working for the city. No one stopped me, no one pursued me, and no positive proof of my supposed violation can be demonstrated to me other than a photo and some online video that claims to show that I was travelling at 10 mph over the speed limit.
Not knowing that I was being accused of violating a law until 11 days later (instead of right away as is customary with moving violations), I cannot mount any type of defense as I have no idea what speed I was travelling at the time I was filmed. Other than stating that I was on state Route 7 at the time of the violation, I have no idea where they filmed/clocked me on state Route 7.
I was charged with going 45 mph in a 35 mph zone, but some parts of state Route 7 are 50 to even 70 mph in the East Liverpool area. How do I know whether or not the policeman "got me" in the 35 mph zone and not one of the other mph zones?
Additionally, I have never been given a ticket for going only 10 mph over the speed limit. Normally, no more than a warning would be issued for such a minor transgression. I am certain that this policeman's skills could be much better spent pursuing actually criminals, instead of being relegated to being the hall monitor who hides around the corner and sends the names and numbers of the bad kids to the office to be dealt with by someone else.
I grew up in Calcutta and moved to the Steubenville area about 20 years ago when I became employed at a hospital in this area. I do not have any family living in the East Liverpool area, but I have continued to come to town from time-to-time to shop at the few stores we do not have in Steubenville and to continue going to my long-time dentist.
Before now, I did not realize that the city government of East Liverpool does not want my business or traffic nor the business and traffic of anyone else from out of town. In the future, I will be sure to avoid travelling through your town. I will take state Route 45 out of Wellsville when I am headed north of the city. I will shop elsewhere.
Hopefully for the sake of the citizens of East Liverpool, they will use my $100 or whatever part of the $100 the city actually gets, after the money-grabbing company takes its cut, to fill the potholes that litter every mile of the once-proud streets of East Liverpool that I used to call home.
Dear editor, please let me know who to contact to be a part of the class-action suit against the city, which will likely result in the return of my $100, but will not result in the return of my business.
Keith Jackson
Steubenville