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Yankeetown residents will continue to lift voices

During the weekend of March 4-5, volunteers from the Save the Withlacoochee and Yankeetown (helpsway@yahoo.com) citizens' group canvassed the entire town of Yankeetown. The intent was to determine how the residents felt about the pending development project as presented by the developer on Feb. 20.

Each resident was asked to read the following statement, and sign his or her name if the resident was in agreement. The statement was: Dear Yankeetown Council Members: We the undersigned are opposed to the development as presented by Izaak Walton Investors LLC on Feb. 20. Furthermore, we strongly believe that our town has everything to lose and nothing to gain by even entering negotiations for a Development Agreement. Thank you for listening.

Volunteers reported that the poll was enthusiastically received. They were invited into homes and offered beverages. Questions were asked and responded to. Residents felt that at last, they would be heard.

Volunteers estimate that, of the people they found at home, the signup rate was 85 to 90 percent, far exceeding that of a simple majority, and 219 signatures were acquired. Residents for once felt optimistic that they could no longer be ignored by their council members and neighbors.

Copies of the poll then were presented to three of the four eligible voting council members (a fifth was resigning). A fourth was left in the inbox of the absent council member.

During the town meeting of March 7, the development agreement was the 15th item on the agenda. Debate ensued over the appropriateness of entering the agreement. Citizens were concerned that the only negotiators for the town were the mayor, the temporary town attorney and a yet-unknown zoning official.

No opportunity exists in the town code for either council or citizen input during the negotiations. A big concern was the experience level of the mayor and the relative newness of all three to the town government. The town attorney at length presented reasons why it would make sense to enter negotiations, mainly that the council could simply walk away at the end if they did not like the result.

Doubt was expressed by citizens that the developer would follow through with the threat of by-right development. The plan presented by the developer would have to change significantly. For example, no dry-rack boat storage is permitted on the contracted properties under current zoning. No one can say that the town is required to provide access to town streets for the developer's private sewer lines. Rezoning is required for the sewer plant. Height restriction variances would be required. And so on.

A letter from a Homosassa resident was read that detailed the dangers of development agreements, primarily the potential lawsuits from contractual obligations not legal under the town's Comprehensive Plan. A prior agenda item asserted that the current plan is in disarray and not available in electronic form. Thus no one could state that they understood in depth the contents of it.

Significantly, the Town Council had the opportunity to listen to 219 constituents at once and move to refrain from entering development agreement negotiations until the Comprehensive Plan was evaluated and upgraded during the coming building moratorium. It was pointed out that state law requires Yankeetown to begin that process (EAR) no later than January of 2007. For some reason, no interest in this requirement is demonstrated by anyone in the town government.

More significantly, the Town Council had the opportunity to gain the confidence and support of the town by listening to the overwhelming desire by townspeople to avoid the negotiations.

What did the council do? Nothing!

Only groans were heard, save for the citizen who said, "Don't 219 signatures count for anything?" No response was given.

A motion was passed to return the deficient request for the development agreement, with the deposit, to the developer for correction and resubmittal.

It is difficult to imagine the level of despair felt by the residents at the meeting. In a tiny town where everybody knows everybody, no one can understand the resistance by the town government to its constituents' wishes. However, resolve is there by enough people to deal with this threat to the town's character and soul using all the legal means available.

Brown-Waite not paying attention to her duty

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, as a "proud" member of the House Homeland Security Committee, should have known about the Dubai ports deal ahead of all the ruckus and put up a fight then. Instead, as she is so justifiably famous for, Ginny does nothing. She Waite(s) to see how the chips fall, and then dutifully follows in that direction.

Ginny either is not paying attention to her responsibilities, or she just simply doesn't care. I have great reservation about any efforts that she could possibly undertake relative to pursuing evidence regarding bid-rigging on behalf of Haliburton or its dealings with Iran.

Anyone who believes that such investigative efforts would arise from her office just hasn't paid attention to her overwhelmingly "Bush Friendly" voting record.

Hernando

This e-mail was sent to Gov. Bush and printed here at the author's request:

Greetings: Wednesday, as I was driving south on U.S. 41 through Inverness, I noticed several gasoline stations and their respective prices for regular gasoline. Two were $2.44, one was $2.55 and one was $2.60. I am confident that as governor you are concerned over possible price gouging. All prices were prominently displayed.

FCAT isn't a good measure of student's ability to learn

I have a problem with FCAT. I don't think that a standardized test should be the final determining factor as to whether or not a student should receive a high school diploma.

I have employed literally hundreds of high school, junior college and university students over the years. It is hurtful and galling to me that since FCAT was established as a requirement for high school students I have had at least two employees who didn't receive their diploma on time.

It irks me even more when I realize that the decision to withhold that diploma was not made by professional educators, but by politicians. The boys from Tallahassee decided to make FCAT the last determining factor for graduation.

If a young adult has passed grades 1-12 and hundreds of tests along the way, I think that student deserves to be handed a diploma. At least let the school administrators decide whether or not the student is worthy of a diploma. It is unfair to place so much emphasis on one test, or any test, for that matter.

One young person who worked for me for more than two years is a prime example of what is wrong with the present system. This employee worked after school and on weekends for me and was so efficient and dependable she became an integral part of our team. She was our go-to person when we had problems with back office computers or scanning.

When our store first instituted a new scanning system, she worked nearly 70 hours for two weeks in succession to get us online. (She was out of school at the time). The system was new to all of us and her, too, but without her determined effort we would simply have not been able to go online when we did.

This girl made good grades throughout high school, helped her parents with their business in the mornings before school, worked at our store after school and oh yes, she even found time to participate in high school sports her junior year.

She has one glaring weakness, however. She does lousy on standardized tests. Because of that, she didn't get her diploma with the rest of her class on graduation day. She has had to go to night school to earn a GED. What should have been a wonderful and memorable day in her life instead became a hurtful and potentially damaging experience.

If I were to list the accomplishments and careers of many of the people who worked at a supermarket I ran since I started managing supermarkets, it would include attorneys, pharmacists, a high school principal, a U.S. Marshal, a bank president, a city manager and many other high-profile and respected occupations.

I say this only to assure anyone who reads this that the girl who I am referring to ranks right at the very top with the brightest and best of all of them.

If we are to be saddled with FCAT, I think it is only fair that all of our lawmakers and elected state officials take the test, too. Any official who fails the test, and rest assured there will be some who fail, should resign immediately and stay on the sideline without pay until they can pass the test.

That would make the hypocrisy known as FCAT a lot more tolerable.

[Last modified March 21, 2006, 02:30:40]