BELLEAIR BEACH – It is with no little pride that Mayor Rudy Davis shows off the broadcasting unit for BBTV15.
BBTV15? Correct.
Belleair Beach now joins Largo, Clearwater and other Pinellas cities in televising government meetings and news of the city.
The broadcasting unit does not take up much space. It is located in the small chamber, where committees usually meet, just off the main council chamber.
It is in a cabinet about 5 feet high, the depth of an ordinary computer tower and the width of two such towers side by side. Those towers, and a couple of monitor screens constitute the set up.
Mary Schoonover, a city resident, has been schooling up and practicing operating a camera for months now, and she has taped any number of council meetings, so the technique is well practiced.
Provided Bright House has all its wiring completed, BBTV15 will be broadcasting tomorrow, October 14.
Instead of tuning in and seeing Largo news and re-runs of Largo government meetings, Belleair Beach residents will be seeing stuff featuring their own town.
All this is exemplary of a city moving ahead. On the near horizon is a new city hall, the dream of former Bert Cutler, a former council member, who has worked for years to achieve this.
In office is a city manager, Reid Silverboard, as a result of Belleair Beach changing its form of government by referendum in the election of March, 2004.
And with that city manager comes the sort of approach that managers bring to their work.
There is a new zing and happiness in the city hall and at the City Council meeting last week Silverboard described the vision plan that is scheduled for the city.
This is what city managers commonly due. The nature of their professional approach opens the door to things like visioning sessions. Getting something like if off the ground with a group of elected officials is nigh impossible, but with the direction a manager brings such a plan is more easily accomplished.
Already Silverboard and members of the city staff have met with folks from the University of South Florida Institute of Government to begin implementing the community visioning process.
Visioning is an approach to looking at the future and devising plans and approaches to deal with it on a citywide basis.
The process will begin with a citizen opinion survey in which residents will be asked what they want the community to be in important quality of life aspects 10 to 20 years in the future.
This key work will lay the groundwork, obviously, for what life could be like for those who are now youngsters in the community when they take the reins of responsibility.
In addition, the city is under a legal requirement from the state to prepare an evaluation and appraisal report for the city’s comprehensive plan that was developed in 1989.
The EAR, which has to be submitted to the state by next August, will address, among other things, major issues for the community, a review of past actions in implementing the comprehensive plan, measure the degree to which objectives have been achieved.
The new television set up and the visioning tie in together. Residents who keep their eye on Channel 15 will have a pretty good idea of what is going on.