Mat and Bill Pro/Con: Should Eleanor Bennett be reimbursed for all of the items she lost in her home?

For the love of Versace

BY Mathew Pellegrino

We all know you have a stomach Bill, but do you have a heart?  Much like the Grinch, I suspect you are missing that valuable organ..

I have yet to see you shed a tear of sympathy when someone loses their home in a fire, their car in an auto accident or their pet to a calamity.

Heck, you weren’t even upset when someone hit your car a few weeks ago. The insurance company turned right around and reimbursed you.  But we all know you hated that car to begin with.

Eleanor Bennett had a love for the items she had.

Many people don’t realize that there are two types of people in this world: those  that love and take care of their things, and those who get something, trash it, and either replace it later or don’t care to replace it at all.

Bennett is obviously the former. She bought nice things for her home. She was comfortable, situated, and then BAM!

Just like the family that lost most of their home to a fire in Pace a few weeks back, everything was suddenly gone.

Yes, the City has really stepped up to accommodate Bennett, but when you have things that mean a lot to you, it’s hard to part with them.

I’m sure, retail price-wise, Bennett had almost $25,000 worth of personal belongings. But just like all things, those prices depreciate over time. Her table could have had a wobbly leg, or her shoes could have all lacked sole.

The city is paying a fair price for the depreciated value of all of her items. Just like Mayor Guy Thompson said, her items may not have all been on the floor.  Especially, hundreds of dollars of “wall” art and thousands of dollars in fancy handbags and clothes.

But the point is not the cost of the items, but how much they actually meant to her.

People don’t go out and buy a Ferrari, never wash it, never wax it, and drive it through the mud. They take care of the investment. If sewage were to somehow come and flood the inside of that Ferrari, you would want every inch of that thing miraculously put back together and cleaned.

See Bill, a man like you (without a heart) doesn’t understand the word “loss”.  You wreck your car, but you hated your car. No one could sit in your car because there was nacho cheese on the seats and the floors were lined with Burger King bags and Circle K cups. Maybe now that you have a new car, you’ll appreciate it more, and appreciate the point I’m trying to make.

Ms. Bennett’s son spent hundreds on Polo and Ralph Lauren shirts.  Should she be reimbursed with some other polo-like shirts?  No. Just like you, Bill, you wouldn’t have wanted your car replaced with an older, cheaper model Chevrolet.  Then again, I think your car was at the bottom of the barrel. Still, you wouldn’t replace it with a bicycle. So why would the city do the same to someone who lost almost all of what they had in an accident not of their fault?

Responsibility only goes so far

BY Bill Gamblin

Mat, I, for one, thought you had more common sense.

Looking at the laundry list of items the city has produced regarding the claims of Ms. Eleanor Bennett and her losses we see something that looks more like something the Philippine government found when they invaded the home of Imelda Marcos when they kicked her late husband Ferdinand to the curb.

The City of Milton, out of the kindness of its heart, has spent close to a third world country’s gross national product to take care of something they didn’t have to.

Since this unfortunate accident, the City of Milton has spent over $67,000 to restore her home and take care of other miscellaneous items.

Now $24,000 of that number is being paid for by the Florida League of Cities, but crikey!

I understand a short hotel stay, but almost $4,000 for less than one month at the Regency Inn and Suites in Milton and after they moved her to the Ashborough Apartments at a cost of $2,600 for four months they also picked up an $840 cable tv bill.

What can you watch in four months to run your cable bill that high?

I can’t imagine what was being watched unless it was every pay per view movie possible. $210 a month for cable only is a lot of TV watching.

Now I will be the first to admit before my ex or any past girlfriends come forward that I am a complete and utter slob when it comes to things just lying around the house.

But I can’t afford $3,000 worth of shoes in my bedroom and there is no way I could afford a $2,900 Versace outfit (shirt and pants).

I commend Mayor Guy Thompson and the members of the Milton City Council for wanting to do what is right since they felt responsible.

But they were not responsible and looking at this list I can only imagine the four inches of raw sewage throughout her home was caused by the four to six inches of items she had laying on the floor in the first place.

A $25,000 claim of lost goods such as clothes and shoes is just a little far fetched.

They have already bought her a new television after her set was apparently damaged by the sewage.

I am no rocket scientist, but I haven’t seen a cabinet model television since my dad used me as the remote control and I changed the channels with a pair of pliers.

What is going on with the list of lost items claimed is no more than someone trying to stretch the inch given to them an entire mile.

The City of Milton extended an olive branch to Ms. Bennett for what happened to her home and not only has she taken it, but now it at least appears she is trying to thrash them with it like she is riding a nag in the home stretch of the Kentucky Derby.

This is why people and insurance have gotten to the point they are today.

Instead of being appreciative of what someone has done or is doing, people want everything they can get and then some.