New Faces In Clearwater? - Three Clearwater citizens have picked-up city council election packets. By appearances, they look like a group of concerned citizens running for office to help eliminate city waste of taxpayer funds.
New faces at Clearwater city hall?
The answer is, yes. The only question is how many new faces might be present with the new city council in Clearwater.
City budget issues facing Clearwater city council members are not much different in other local communities, except perhaps Belleair Shore. Thus, controlling city spending will be an important issue throughout Pinellas County.
Increased taxes and increased homeowners insurance premiums have most citizens in an uproar. Citizens feel that if they, the taxpayers, must cut spending to balance their personal business and home accounts, then the city budget must also be cut. When the citizens do not notice enough cuts in addressing the city budget, elected officials can face an irate public and removal from office.
On the other hand, most voters in Clearwater (and other local communities) do not use their right to vote. Less than 20 percent of registered voters are likely to vote in the next Clearwater city election. Thus, special interest groups and unions tend to control voter results . . . unless the citizens are totally fed-up with the direction of the city and vote for change in large numbers.
Belleair Beach, Belleair Bluffs, Belleair Should Examine Options - The recent discussion in Belleair Beach about reviewing options to possibly save taxpayer funds by use of common (shared) "Belleair" administrative services department is not new. Every time city council is elected they fall prey to balancing a rather fixed city budget.
However, one budget line item that could, and should, be reviewed is annual costs for administrative services (and that includes police services.) This is perhaps the largest financial line item for each Belleair community to resolve (without increasing taxes.)
Most folks would agree that if there could be one "Belleair" administrative services building" it could serve as the administration office for a few of the small Belleair communities. The cost savings for all Belleair communities could be substantial.
Elected officials, of course, would remain within each individual Belleair town. The issue is sharing small government administrative services resulting in a tax savings for all Belleair citizens.
Police services?
That is an individual town-to-town decision, based upon the will of the people. If the people decide to contract with the Sheriff's Department, then it should be a city-wide referendum.
Stone Crab Season - October 15 is an important day for local restaurants. That is the official opening of stone crab season.
Restaurants like Frenchy's, Heilman's and Cooters on Clearwater Beach will host stone crab specials.
Stone crabs?
This is the time.
Speaking of Frenchy's, they are celebrating their 25th anniversary on the 14th at the original "Frenchy's Café" on north Clearwater Beach. It should be a good time loaded with many wonderful memories. Congratulations to Frenchy.
North Korea Says, "We Have The Bomb" - If you believe reports from North Korea, then they exploded a nuclear bomb last week. The underground nuclear test was performed regardless of objections from the United Nations, the United States and other Asian nations.
Obviously, the North Koreans could care less about U.S. or world opinion regarding their development of nuclear weapons for military purposes. Of course, anti-American sentiment figures large in North Korea.
Japan and other friendly nations near the North Korean borders are fearful of how the dictator in N. Korea might use nuclear weapons. Especially since N. Korea has developed into a war machine (1 million troops) . . . even to the detriment of its people (who, for the most part, live in poverty.)
Thus, it may not be long before we see nuclear weapons in Japan, Taiwan and other eastern nations. Such a trend towards nuclear bomb development is something that should concern all nations of the world, regardless of their forms of government. However, it is likely that only a few nations in the world might threaten North Korea in its quest to further develop nuclear bombs. Other than the Untied States and perhaps England (while Tony Blair is in office), there are not many nations that would be bold enough to confront North Korea.
Then again, maybe not even the U.S. would address the North Korean nuclear bomb issue if people like Al Gore, John Kerry or Hillary Clinton ran the White House. In fact, I expect some of the liberals (if elected) to hire someone like Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton to negotiate with the N. Koreans.
Big deal?
Albert Einstein thought so. In some of Einstein's historical writings on this subject he cautioned the U.S. to not allow other nations to have nuclear bomb capabilities. Einstein's words of caution about the nuclear bomb went unheeded. Politicians knew better. In fact, after WW-II the U.S. removed its nuclear capabilities in the Far East. How important was the nuclear bomb threat to Einstein? He thought the U.S. should use it as a way to help maintain world peace. Now we are threatened by other small nations using "our" nuclear bomb technology against us. Amazing.
Representative Foley - Representative Tom Foley from Florida is an embarrassment to the U.S. Congress, his constituency, and a host of other friends and associates. If he did anything wrong by using the Internet to correspond with boys, he should be reprimanded. The way I see it, his actions are unacceptable and anyone who knew of his actions and did nothing to stop him should be removed.
I also remind our good readers that he is not alone in Congress with unusual sexual appetites. There was a time when Rep. Barney Frank, of Massachusetts, had his alleged problem. Same could perhaps be true for the young ladies being pressured by some of the older men.
Foley is gone from the U.S. Congress and good riddance.
Because of Foley's unacceptable actions some good people in Congress are being criticized by liberals in Washington. Let's see, we shouldn't hear much from Ted Kennedy, same from Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and a host of other people in Congress.
All of this media hype does, however, make voters wonder about all elected officials - Democrats and Republicans. However, this is not just an issue for Republicans in office. All political parties have their issues.
Some Of The Biggest Polluters? - This may surprise many of you readers, but some of the worst polluters of waterways are wild animals. Wildlife dung is a serious problem for environmental folks in charge of controlling pollutants in our waters, etc.
Harmful bacteria excreted by excessive numbers of ducks, wild birds and other wild animals in more populated geographic areas is a pollution problem.
Can't kill the "cute" ducks, said one environmentalist when asked about this issue.
Thus, when we notice all of those pretty ducks and other wild birds swimming in local ponds, maybe we should also think about where they are going to the bathroom.
Of course, in their natural environment, many of the wild creatures are not in concentrated numbers all year long - hence, no problem.