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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 22, 2002
Editor: As they draft a new ordinance governing adult entertainment establishments in Pasco County, the Board of County Commissioners should let the adult entertainment industry know that their businesses are not welcomed in Pasco County and particularly not in Hudson.
The commissioners can do that by constructing an ordinance that effectively constrains the growth of adult entertainment businesses and tightens their standards of operation. Efforts should be made to restrict new establishments, if any, to specifically designated areas.
We recognize such businesses are protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Courts have repeatedly upheld that right. We also recognize courts have repeatedly found that unreasonable restrictions may not be imposed. However, we know the community can prevail if we have the will to face the industry and their well-financed and sophisticated attorneys. Other communities have done so.
However, even a strong zoning ordinance with strict standards of operations and licensing requirements cannot put these places out of business or even curtail their growth by itself. It takes the will of the community to establish a vision and a code of community standards that reflect the character and morals of the community. It takes community leaders and elected officials who support that vision and those standards through their legislative efforts and the aggressive enforcement of the laws they enact.
Adult entertainment establishments are inconsistent with the vision of the community held by most residents of Hudson. Those establishments increase crime, reported and unreported, and undermine the economic, moral and social welfare of the community. Such businesses are inconsistent with this community's standards of morality and decency and the higher levels of those standards toward which the community and its leaders strive. Adult entertainment establishments also undermine property values. But, as someone has said before, property values are not what a community is about. It's about the community's collective moral values and character.
All of us can proclaim our position and our sentiments on this matter by contacting each of the county commissioners by phone, mail, fax, e-mail and, most importantly, by attending the ordinance workshop scheduled for Tuesday at the West Pasco Government Center on Little Road.
-- Bill Clark, Hudson
Editor: Election day is upon us. Again we are swamped with Jeb Bush commercials about how good he is to the Florida school system. I am a volunteer in the Pasco County School District. I see differently.
I see shortages of school supplies. I see teachers buy supplies with their own money. Yes, their salaries are meager.
I know of a gentleman in the city of Port Richey who runs an annual fundraiser to buy school supplies. He collects the money, goes out and buys school supplies. The people, parents and children, come in before school starts and pick up supplies for the next term. No help from the state.
Please sit down and give the education system some deep and serious thought.
Would our governor run so many commercials of education if his opponent did not pressure him? Think about it.
I am not telling anybody how to vote, just think about it. Yes, school budgets have been cut the past few years. That is your tax money. Think.
-- Michael Starr, Port Richey
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