Today's Letters: Waterfront could generate income

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published September 9, 2007

Waterfront could generate income

With almost 20 miles of Gulf of Mexico shoreline, there is not one restaurant on the gulf front and only one tiny spit of sand, Pine Island Beach. Over the Labor Day weekend, Pine Island Beach was closed because the parking lot was full.

The Hernando Beach channel will be dredged soon, and the fill should go to make a new beach to the north of Pine Island. Make a bridge to the right, to a nice new beach, with fees and beautiful gulf-front restaurants on stilts.

Generate income for the county. Use this rare asset; don't waste it.

William Gilbert,

Weeki Wachee

Re: Local talent will stay for the long haul Sept. 2 guest column by Vince Vanni

To succeed here, we must conform

Mr. Vanni's "two realities" are true: "We cannot change the atmosphere in our community. It is what it is," and "People who come to Hernando County for personal gain and an upgrade in their careers will leave Hernando County for the same reason."

Hogwash! The problem with Hernando County and its leadership is change. The selection process works fine. It's the "in" word that destroys an individual's ability to create change for the good of the people of Hernando County.

Conformity to the status quo, relinquishing creativity and abandonment of your independent thought process are the new requirements for the next county administrator, according to Mr. Vanni. Why don't we hire a robot and program it according to the atmosphere Mr. Vanni speaks of? This is a necessary requirement for long-term success in Hernando County employment. If you conform to the power brokers who control Hernando County government, then you will have a long-term future in Hernando County. If you don't, then you are out, not in.

Each past county administrator truly believed, during the selection process, that he or she would be able to make a difference - until they began working with the real controllers in government, the department heads. These are the people who run our government. These are the people who the power brokers control. Once the heat is turned up and the county administrator attempts to upset the apple cart, the department heads say "no" and the administrator says "goodbye."

Finally, how could anyone upgrade their careers in Hernando County? Hernando County offers nothing except three employment opportunities: government (and we know how closed that is to newcomers); health care, which is very specialized; and education. The rest are minimum-wage jobs.

It sounds like Mr. Vanni survived in Hernando because of his conformity and his marketing and sales abilities. I congratulate him.

Vito J. Delgorio Sr.,Spring Hill

Ask more of our schools, not less

Some Hernando County School Board members are actually contemplating averaging down our student educational opportunities vs. the alternative, averaging up? Why can't the School Board spend some time looking at ways to improve the overall educational resources in Hernando County?

I'm asking the School Board members, on behalf of thousands of parents and students who understand the value added by these schools/administrators and staff, to look at filling the underpopulated schools before undermining the success of the county's magnet schools. I encourage you to look at other magnet concepts for our underpopulated schools and even some that are approximately at designed population. If we create a magnet school around sports concepts, they'll come. The possibilities for creating a curriculum around sports or sports medicine are endless and exciting! You only need to be creative; you need to ask for more from the administrators, staff, students and parents.

When we review the success of the magnet schools in this county, the only results we hear are excellent, across the board; the only negative, which is really a positive, is that the waiting list to get in is long, indicating the people of Hernando County are happy with magnet schools.

As a parent of students who attended zoned schools and magnet schools, I can tell you our family's satisfaction with magnet schools far outweighs our satisfaction with zoned schools. The averages of testing results are higher, attendance is higher, parent satisfaction is higher, parent volunteering percentages are higher and student disciplines are lower. These results are higher as a result of higher expectations from administrators, staff, students and parents. Ask for more, you'll get it; accept less and you'll get less.

I might add that West Hernando Middle School (technically, a zoned school) was the first magnet school in this county, attracting students and parents from all over Hernando County. With excellent leadership and creative vision, Ken Pritz and Mr. Clifford created an educational environment involving nature as a concept to build around, and it worked. One of the main ingredients in that success was greater expectations of everyone involved and a concept or vision. This success resulted in a tightening of out-of-zone student requests for entry. I share this opinion as another example of magnet concepts that work.

If the board undermines or does away with magnet schools, the average results relative to educational opportunities offered, customer satisfaction and simply the average educational benefits our students might receive will average down. I ask you to be creative and think outside the box. Let's average up, for the sake of all our students.

Douglas Liddle

Spring Hill

Your voice counts

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[Last modified September 8, 2007, 20:42:08]