Nobody asked me, but –
. . . One big reason folks on Wilcox road near where the Moss Feaster funeral parlor wants to put a crematorium are fearful is what it will do to their property values. Like, what happens when a property owner is talking to a potential buyer – “A what? A crematorium? Feets do yo’ stuff. . .” And away they go!
. . . Go figure – Largo P.D. always pushing for more officers, yet it has reduced public safety in the city proportionate to the Largo police personnel serving Belleair which is, perforce, done at Largo taxpayers expense. The kicker is that the Largo City Commission never signed off on sending their tax dollars to Belleair. No need to. Like Louis XIV, CM Steve Stanton can say, “Le cité, c’est moi.”
. . You want to see a real henhouse in action? Check the Pinellas County School Board. Whew! You can’t run that kind of responsibility like an afternoon tea party and action needs to be taken to clean out the collection of disgruntled school teachers on the board.
. . . Tim Russert is a jerk. Anyone can dredge up stuff people said before and then cross examine them. He proves his jerkness with his daddy obsession. Hey, enough awready!
. . . Bad enough that Largo commissioners go on at length at the end of meetings about their recent activities. What makes them think anyone cares? But to give outright free advertising and endorsements to restaurants – too much!
. . . Largo taxpayers are grateful their city lawyer, Alan Zimmet, has to split the time he works for Largo with two other major clients – Safety Harbor and the PSTA. If Largo was paying full freight for his part time work it would cost triple – more than $300,000 a year. As it is now, Zimmet collects about $2,100 a week from Largo (for maybe, at the most, 20 hours work)– not bad, hey?
. . . Plus there is all the extra moolah siphoned out of Largo for various and sundry legal exercises. Alan is quite the rainmaker – over at the firm they are gleeful in the way he brings home the bacon. Hey, Zimmet and his law firm have a great deal. They take about half a million dollars a year out of Largo. Largo is their cash cow.
. . . The “no more recyclables” in Largo trial balloon floated by City Manager Steve Stanton has had the desired effect. Citizens are sending messages to city hall to not stop the program, EVEN IF IT COSTS MORE. And that, mes amigos, is the purpose – a tax raise is coming and this helps pave the way. So clevah!
. . . Yes, the formulation leading this column off (Nobody asked etc.) was the invention of Jimmy Cannon, of sainted memory, the most interesting sports writer of my time.
. . . Many huzzahs about the new Largo Public Library, but sadly lacking also. It’s got everything except the books it should have. With all that space there is no room for Dickens’ “Bleak House” and you will look in vain for Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying.” Even requests to retrieve these classics from other, properly well-stocked libraries in the county go unheeded.
. . . Shouldn’t there be some way to pre-qualify those who want to run for public office, especially on the level of the small cities and towns around here? For example, one elected type locally didn’t know the difference between a right of way and an easement, when the question came up. Whew!
. . . A question many ask – Why are facilities of the city of Largo used as a publicity organ for the Largo Mid-Pinellas Chamber of Commerce? Is the C of C an arm of the city government or, more appropriately perhaps, is the city an arm of the C of C?
. . . Whatever else was ever accomplished, this corner takes the most pride and satisfaction that it was this voice and this voice alone that is responsible for having crossing guards on Ulmerton Road at 119th Street for the Ridgecrest school kids. Everett Rice, Lester Aradi and Barbara Sheen Todd listened and the chances of a kid being injured or worse was lessened.