First, your reporter erroneously reported the speed limit near Spotsylvania High at 55, in spite of seven signs in each direction declaring it to be 45. The excuse given for that error was that the reporter called VDOT and was told what the limit will be once construction is finished several months from now.

Then, the FLS prints a rambling letter to the editor from Spotsylvania School Board member Ray Lora who thinks the speed limit is 65, which is clearly wrong.

Next, we have an editorial on Sept. 16 ["A different grade"], which calls this stretch of road the "Fawn Lake Parkway" (Fawn Lake Parkway is merely 18 miles away from the location in question). The editorial takes for granted that the entrance to the employee lot was poorly designed, yet it is clear that the editor has not been to this part of the county nor has he seen what traffic is like or who uses these entrances, and when.

Finally, the editorial references Lora's contention that the traffic configuration at Massaponax High is somehow safer because it includes four lanes in front of the school. Again, have the editors been there? Of course there are four lanes! It is a major north-south corridor.

Yet there is no traffic light at the employee lot there, either, and no merge lane for a student turning right out of the student lot. The only advantage it has is a much longer left-turn lane going in.

If the FLS wants to advocate using more of our taxpayer money to improve the roads, perhaps they should do rudimentary research. They should at least go to the location in question and see what the traffic reality is.

It is the "Lake Anna Parkway." The speed limit is not 55 (yet). The speed limit will not be 65. It is a two-lane road. Students don't use the "main" entrance. There is a huge number of spaces in the student-athletic field lot accessed by an intersection with a traffic light.

Are we clear?

Steven Clifford

Spotsylvania