Columns

A lot of trouble for such a little lake

By SUE CARLTON
Published June 27, 2007

Maybe Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair did it all - the pushing, the prodding, the willingness to spend nearly a million bucks in tax money - for the good folks who live around a little lake called Noreast.

He just happens to be one of them.

The Times' Michael Van Sickler reported Saturday on the modest 8-acre lake in suburban Forest Hills that has gotten at least as much attention as Paris Hilton walking out of prison.

Before Blair was elected to the commission in 2004, he stood before that selfsame board with a complaint. Nothing wrong with that; Blair had as much right as any ordinary citizen with a neighborhood problem he wanted government to fix: speed bumps to stop lead-footers, streets that flood in a summer shower.

Blair's beef: He said a county drainage project transformed the lake behind his home from pristine into "a cesspool, " as he later put it. The project to control flooding was responsible for problems from parasites to fewer fish, he said. No question nutrient levels on the lake reached record highs, making for an icky purple surface.

But Blair's push didn't end after he got elected later that year. He requested a report. He talked to county agencies. He used words like "expedite." He considered a pollution fund to pay for a fix, prompting a fellow commissioner to warn him not to get "nicked" by trying to bypass the regular application process.

As lakes go, little Noreast apparently became a big deal. Records show county work crews spent more time on Noreast after Blair took office than on any of the other 229 Hillsborough County lakes, Van Sickler reported.

This year, Blair and the commission budgeted $985, 000 in county sales tax money to divert storm drainage around his lake. The plan was later dropped, though it appears the county could still spend that much improving several lakes in the area.

Meanwhile, both a professor at the University of Florida paid as a consultant and the Environmental Protection Commission determined it's not clear that the county was responsible for the lake's troubles in the first place. (Blair probably won't have that pesky EPC to deal with much longer anyway; he was part of a majority of commissioners who recently said they wanted to scrap the division that protects local wetlands, since the state and the feds are doing such a bang-up job.)

Notably, the UF consultant says the area's lakes are in the same shape as before the county project and Noreast is "fine now."

Blair's response sounded testy when asked why he would mistrust a consultant he had voted to hire. "This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen a reporter talk about, " he said, sounding more like the beefed-up professional wrestler he once was than an elected official responding to legitimate questions on how he does his job.

Blair did ask the county attorney if he could vote on issues regarding his lake. She gave the okay because it affects others who live there, not just Blair.

So that's our standard? It's technically legal?

How about how bad it looks? How about the appearance of impropriety? How about helping people keep the faith in elected officials and their motives by acting in an abundance of caution?

One thing's for sure. There is one icky smell coming off Brian Blair's lake.

[Last modified June 27, 2007, 00:32:00]