The Way I See ItBy cj pollickTemporary Clearwater Parking Lot Approved - It looked like a place that could have been used for temporary beach parking; in fact, it always had one of Clearwater Beach's best views - that is, the old Adams Mark Hotel property located on mid-Clearwater Beach. Clearwater city officials are looking to lease the current vacant lot from Salt Block 57, LLC until September 30th (thereafter, month-to-month) to create about 94 parking spaces. Each parking space would cost the city $120 a month plus about $20,000 for site improvements. The city believes it would generate $225 of monthly revenue per space or about $21,000 per month. Since the parking spaces would be "metered," it appears that this temporary parking solution is a win-win project. Imagine another 94 parking spaces on Clearwater Beach! Clearwater Airpark Gets New Hangar - Clearwater City Council authorized a new 9,600-square-foot, multi-plane hangar to be added at Clearwater Airpark. The building will be constructed next to the current hangar and will help to house larger planes. The much needed hangar was funded with an FDOT grant with 20 percent city matching funds. This worthy project will generate about $33,000 per year back to the city in rental revenue. AFLAC IronGirl - The fifth annual AFLAC IronGirl 10K and 5K Run/Walk will be held on April 5th. The race begins at Coachman Park and follows a course along the waterfront. There will be awards and a catered post-race breakfast. Funds from this event will help support young adults living with and recovering from cancer. Interested participants should go on line at www.IronGirl.com. Big Oil Company Executives Quizzed By Congress - The five largest US oil company executives met with members of Congress on Capitol Hill Tuesday. The purpose? To explain why the price of fuel is so high and to review why they should not be taxed on excess profits. What was the profit last year from these five oil companies? $123 billion. As expected, the oil executives explained to the Congressional committee members that their profits were not out-of-line when compared with other businesses. One oil executive stated that "What goes up does come down," meaning that the profits of the oil companies would not always continue to rise, as they have the past several years. "Remember when the price of oil was $60 a barrel and not $100 a barrel?" replied another oil executive when grilled by the committee members about the large multi-billion-dollar annual profits. There was some truth to the comments made by the skittish oil executives, much of the world's oil supply is not provided by these large US companies, rather, the majority of the world's oil comes from the Middle East and other non-US locations. Times have changes since oil was abundant in Texas in the 1960's. America no longer has the largest influence on oil production and oil costs, that picture changed in the 1970's according to oil experts. Perhaps the frustration with gas prices in America has reached the level where Congress would pass excess profit taxes on US oil corporations, after all, one Congressman said, "Oil company ratings are now lower than ours (US Congress)." Who actually controls oil prices in America, US oil companies or larger foreign oil companies from the Middle East and elsewhere? Is the price of oil being manipulated by foreign companies to generate huge profits? How dependant are we and what can be done to reverse this economic dilemma? Some folks in Washington believe that the US oil companies could do more to develop other forms of energy; in fact, Exxon was particularly criticized for investing very little funds for alternative energy research. Others believe we should tax foreign corporations like our US corporations . . . in other words, an equal playing field for taxation. Ideas, but few actual solutions. Bottom line? It was a big show in Washington where elected officials received some free television time and the oil people went back to the five-star hotels for some wine and fine food. The Great Federal Bail-Out - Our federal government is bailing-out Wall Street banks and other financial institutions to the tune of many tens of billions of dollars. Of course, any federal bail-out of large Wall Street firms depends upon the taxing power of our government funded by working people. What did the federal government do to help hardworking Americans in this recession? Many taxpayers will receive a check for $600 or more. The Way I See It, any large Wall Street firm or bank helped by our federal government should mandate caps on CEO salaries and CEO stock option benefits for a certain period of time. Stockholders would not mind this type of compensation restriction and neither would most hardworking people who paid to help bail them out of a financial crisis. Why should CEO's of some firms benefit from the recent federal bail-out when common workers received a $600 check from the same government? It is Not Mayberry - After speaking with a Sheriff's deputy patrolling my neighborhood, I was shocked to hear him tell of the number of homes that are burgularized because their doors were not locked. In fact, according to the deputy some folks didn't even have keys to their front doors. This is not Mayberry - wise up - lock your doors and windows!
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