Letters to the Editors

Forget new clubhouse; build drainage area

The first test is before the new Clearwater city commissioners. Will they have the vision and fortitude to look ahead to Clearwater's future and fully endorse the city's own ambitious $35-million plan to clean up Stevenson Creek?

The first signs are not clear. Commissioner Whitney Gray is right in her thinking to "discuss this before" making a decision to build a $600,000 clubhouse on the Glen Oaks Golf Course. The city manager and others think they can have it both ways by building the clubhouse and minimizing the retention area, which is the crux of the entire project.

This project is too important not to be done right from the outset. We already have a Chi Chi Rodriguez Golf Course on McMullen-Booth Road. Why can't we build the full reclamation area, forget the clubhouse and use the remainder of the oak-laden site for a park named after the golfer who has done so much for local youths? If any land remains after that, how about a driving range?
-- Mike Sanders, Naomi Seavy, Clearwater

City must clean up creek now

To all the residents along and around Stevenson Creek, let's wake up and smell the roses instead of human fecal matter floating along our back yards.

There were two major studies done between 1998 and 2002. It cost the taxpayers (us) several hundred thousand dollars for these engineers to find a solution for the pollution. Millions spent on a failed roundabout and millions being spent on a bridge which is a state responsibility. There's no doubt in my mind that our taxes will go up. I'm hoping I'm wrong.

A drainage pond on Glen Oaks Golf Course was recommended to alleviate some of the pollution, so what does our city manager and the parks and recreation director think is a good idea? Let us spend $600,000 on a clubhouse that is on property that goes under water during heavy rainstorms and put off the solution for the creek until 2010.

That's eight years.

City government is aware of what's in the creek. E. coli can be deadly and the levels are high. Human feces floating in the estuary and polluting St. Joseph Sound will eventually reach our beautiful Clearwater Beach. The problem is not just environmental. It's also a health hazard and not just for residents on the creek.

Enough is enough. The city has a legal obligation for our well-being. I encourage everyone who is concerned about the pollution in Stevenson Creek to send their opinion to the Times.
-- Lorraine Basore, Clearwater

Apartments would clog area

Re: Deal quiets foes of housing project, story, March 27.

The Oldsmar Community Alliance was not challenging the building of the apartments but the fact that 270 units are going to be built rather than the 200 units allowed by law. There is already a traffic density problem in the Forest Lakes Boulevard area and these apartments will not only increase that problem but also add to the crowding of the schools and roads in all of Oldsmar.

Tim Johnson, the Wilson Co. attorney, seems to think they "won" because they were right. Was it right to threaten Pinellas County with a lawsuit? Was it right to threaten the city of Oldsmar with a lawsuit? (Good corporate citizens don't go around threatening everyone with lawsuits.)

If the Wilson Co. was so right and the citizens so wrong, why did the Wilson Co. threaten them with a lawsuit in order to prohibit these same citizens from continuing to oppose the bonus units? Sounds to me like there must have been plenty right with what these Oldsmar citizens were saying.

I think that Tim Johnson (and some in our city government) would like us to think that our vote on April 23 doesn't matter.

It does matter. First off, it lets our city government know what its citizens want. In order to get this referendum put up for a vote, it took the signatures of more than 1,300 registered Oldsmar voters. It also will take the registered voters to repeal this ordinance. As to what happens if the vote is to repeal, it's my understanding that the city has two choices:

(1) It can do nothing and let the project become a nonconforming use. Supposedly, as a nonconforming use, the Wilson Co. will have a difficult time getting refinanced or if they want to make any changes they have to jump through a lot of hoops.

(2) The City Council could pull the company's building permit and require them to get a new one that is in compliance with the zoning. Whether the council is willing to take this action remains to be seen.
-- L. Sasso, Oldsmar

Largo should contract with sheriff

Being a homeowner in the city of Largo and subject to a tax increase in order to pay for computers in police cruisers, I would like to suggest an alternative.

Instead of spending $5-million on computers, contract with the sheriff and save several million dollars. The city could use the savings to enhance other city services or reduce taxes.
-- Dennis Fowler, Largo

Courses should not exploit tourists

I am writing this for the concern of the tourists like myself who visit the state of Florida for about 3 1/2 months of the year. We play a lot of golf, three or four times a week. We are always asked if we are Florida residents, which I am not. So the greens fees are about $10 higher.

I live in Michigan, and some of the people I have met through the years visit me in the summer months. We play a lot of golf and none of the golf courses ask where you're from. The rate is always the same for everyone. Also, we have a senior rate; anyone over 60 gets a discount.

I can understand not giving a senior discount in Florida because of all the retirees living here, but I do not think the golf courses should take advantage of the tourists who visit during the winter months. Florida is a great place to visit in the winter, but I feel like I'm being treated unfairly when I go play golf. In fact, I feel like I'm getting ripped off!
-- Robert Morse, Clearwater

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