Comments from our readers.

THE TIPS FROM first-graders to kindergartners Aug. 19 were precious, as was the picture of the child looking into her bookbag.

A BIG THANK YOU to reporter Sylvia Cooper and transit driver Charles Goff for exposing the hotel key card fraud at Augusta Transit. It took courage and integrity for these two individuals to do that, and they should be commended.

A RANT TO FRED RUSSELL, the mayor and the commissioners. How do you expect seniors in the area to live out their days in their own home? You're raising property taxes, and now you want to raise the trash pickup. You evidently just want all seniors to disappear. Well, you're probably going to get your wish, cause I can't afford my medicine or my food. I have to choose one or the other now. I hope you sleep well.

A RAVE for Ms. Sarah Thomas. She's a very good bus driver and coordinator.

I'M CALLING ABOUT the article in the paper about lowering the drinking age to 18. I have a daughter at Georgia Southern University, and she is underage, and yes, they do binge drinking. I think it's a very good idea to lower the age because they are getting the alcohol when they want it from other people when they are in college.

INSTEAD OF RAISING our garbage rates, why don't you cut the pickup time from two days a week to one time a week?

I PUT MY GARBAGE out only once a week, and it's not full. It's very unfair of Augusta-Richmond County to raise my taxes.

THIS IS A RANT for the Richmond County school board's Dr. Bedden. They are crying that they don't have money for education, but then you look in the paper, and what do you see? New football stadiums. Oh, we're so proud of that. Maybe they ought to cut back on some of the extracurricular, and use that money for what schools are intended for, education, not recreation.

If you have an opinion, call The Augusta Chronicle's Rants & Raves line at (706) 823-3397, fax (706) 722-7403 or e-mail newsroom@augustachronicle.com.