Letters to the Editors

Come rate machines, candidates

Re: Candidate's mailing raises questions, story, March 6.

The concern over a new majority as to its purpose and hidden agenda is totally out of order in a democratic election. The fact is that our recent elections have been determined by an old minority. The minority is a little more than half of the average 20 percent eligible voter turnout.

The new majority, the 80 percent of eligible voters who don't turn out, should be stimulated and encouraged to come out and give a thumbs up or thumbs down to what's being offered to them.

Clearwater voters have a chance to put the new voting machines to their shakedown test. Let's get out there on Tuesday and give them and the candidates the test they deserve.
-- Lee Regulski, Clearwater

Quiet visionary's genius will be missed

While others were scrambling to get expensive consultants and out-of-town developers to encourage Clearwater's downtown redevelopment with a "catalytic" project, a quiet man in the Clearwater Public Works Department worked diligently on what could be the most important development in downtown in the last 30 years.

Hired to solve Clearwater's stormwater runoff problems about 12 years ago, Tom Miller created the idea of a joint stormwater runoff lake in downtown Clearwater. One of the purposes was to allow developers to buy into the public runoff area instead of creating the required on-site runoff basins.

Typically, Mr. Miller began to visualize something far more useful than just a retention basin. He began to plan for a lake with lush green shores and shaded benches and, maybe, a small decorative fountain, placed right in the middle of a blighted area in downtown. He pictured the lake's attracting townhouses and maybe even the main library on its shores, gradually spreading to improve a circle of property beyond.

Few people shared Mr. Miller's vision. Commissioners reduced the scope of the lake. Letters to the editor ridiculed it, calling it the town mudhole and other uncomplimentary phrases. But Mr. Miller quietly persisted. Eventually assisted, he insists, by staff and management, he was ready to bring his idea to the commission for approval. The commission gave him the go-ahead. A developer, wisely predicting the advantage of having townhouses in such a setting, planned townhouses for the adjoining property. Recently, work on the downtown lake has begun.

But that's just the biggest and best of what Mr. Miller has done for Clearwater. He was responsible for making it possible to clean up Cooper's Point at the west end of Courtney Campbell Parkway, making it a passive park. He has made Clearwater's stormwater treatment plan one other cities look to imitate.

After 12 years of caring for Clearwater's environment and finding some excellent ways to enhance and preserve it, Mr. Miller has accepted a position with private industry in Marietta, Ga., and his last day was Friday. I did not want him to leave without telling the people of Clearwater a little about what he has done for us. His creative genius and quiet effectiveness will be missed in ways we aren't even aware of.
-- Anne McKay Garris, Clearwater

Sorry roads will not improve without action

Do the taxpayers in Pinellas really think our sorry road conditions will suddenly get better because we're taxed more? If taxes for gas go up in this county, people who work or live close to an abutting county will just get their gas there.

How long has Pinellas County sat on its hands and not addressed all the problems on U.S. 19? After the overpass at Countryside and U.S. 19 was complete, I thought they would address the next bad intersection and start building. Nothing has been done since then. Do they think the problem will just go away?
-- Scott McKown, Palm Harbor

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