 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Skate park proposal rolls on
By JOY DAVIS-PLATT
© St. Petersburg Times, In a workshop Monday, Hernando County commissioners gave preliminary approval for a skate park and a rabies control position. The board voted 4-1 in favor of appropriating $250,000 for a skate park. Commissioner Mary Aiken was the dissenting vote. "Kids need an area like that they can have for their own," said Commissioner Diane Rowden. "This is a progressive step." In the same meeting, there was a consensus to fund $17,000 for a full-time rabies officer, Rowden said. Although there is a state mandate for such a position, there is no funding for the slot, Rowden said. But rather than holding off action while the matter is settled, commissioners choose to move ahead with the funding. "The health, safety and welfare of the community is at stake. We can't ignore the problem," she said. Department administrator Elizabeth Callaghan has requested the amount to turn a part-time investigator's job into a full-time post beginning in October. The county has not increased the amount it spends on the program -- $27,800 -- in four years, and the rabies situation has worsened. County social services director Jean Rags, liaison to the Health Department, agrees. Rags has pushed County Administrator Paul McIntosh and the budget office to include the $17,200 increase in the rabies control program budget to allow for a full-time position dedicated to rabies issues. Without a full-time position dedicated to rabies, she said, residents would receive only the the minimum required by the state mandate and that would be a hazard. Further, if rabies-related duties fell on the shoulders of Animal Services, other duties would suffer. In the past year alone, Rags said, the county has seen a 15 percent increase in reported bite cases. "In the end, there was consensus that the rabies issue is one that cannot wait," Rags said. "First, we have to deal with the problem and fight about the state mandates later."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From today's Hernando Times |
