Festival needs volunteers

The Festival has become a MS tradtion over the years and it would be a shame to see it die now. Calvert started it in the 70s and it has been a source of community pride, enjoyment, and participation for years. Its a time to gather and socialize with our friends and neighbors and an oppurtunity for the family to have some healthy fun together. It needs new blood to pass the torch to, but will settle for ANY blood at the Lions Club, Wed, at 7pm, to avoid the disbanding of the Festival Committee and the death of a tradition.

pool Freedom of Information request

A Freedom of Information request was made today requesting all the details of the pool operations ie revenues, expenses, contracts, etc. Lets see how long it takes for a response. If nothing else, this information can identify and clarify the issues at hand.

wishing and hoping

What about the pollution, zoning, and mitigation costs associated with the annexation? Is there ANYBODY who is suggesting that those are trivial concerns? Wishing and hoping that there is no pollution, mitigation costs will be little or none, and that the County will keep the zoning as it is, doesnt make it so. Of course, actually addressing those issues would require DUE DILIGENCE, a process which is alien to City officials. Due DILIGENCE is their right as elected officials, and their responsibility to the residents to look into ALL aspects of any proposed project in order to get the best deal for the PEOPLE, not to pad their pockets and/or realize their personal and political agendas. They DONT, and WONT, do DUE DILIGENCE because it may interfere with their personal agendas. And they dont care if we know what they are, or arent, in the case of DUE DILIGENCE, doing. How do you spell arrogance? self-centered? smug?irresponsible? corrupt? deceptive ? incompetent? horribly mismanaged, at best?(your choice, any or ALL of the above).

BIG mistake

Is the poster who said nothing will ever be done, no matter WHAT the residents do, a discouraged citizen OR an arrogant City official crowing about their TOTAL lack of response to the residents? He is right about ONE thing tho- they are IMPOSSIBLE to shame. They have NO conscience and have NO qualms about their repeated and ongoing disasters that cost the residents HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars in shady and questionable backroom dealings, cost overruns, and change orders. When they are confronted with the factual proof of their continual fiscal, managerial, and administrative disasters they just pretend it isnt happening, ignore it, make another excuse, and go about their merry way. Any normal person would be embarrassed and ashamed to be exposed time after time flushing our tax dollars down the drain, but NOT these guys. They have NO problem paying 300%, 400% and more for our construction projects because its NOT their money they are wasting. Does ANYBODY believe that they pay that kind of money for their own personal projects? Of course not. A scary thought- can it be that we ARE as dumb as they think we are? We, the residents, DID vote these clueless/criminal and/or unconscionable clowns back into office, didnt we?

sweetheart deals

It seems that there are SEVERAL people who get sweetheart deals at the Springs residents expense- Santana gets free rent, electricity, and his taxes paid; VG residents get to use our facilities for free; water polo, swim team, and scuba guys use our facilities for free; contractors get at least 300% profit on all of the City's projects, etc etc. EVERYONE gets a GREAT deal EXCEPT the taxpaying residents- we get hosed AGAIN. STILL. Who is responsible is the question. Gym seems responsible for most of the pool stuff, plus the contractors. The rubber-stamp Council certainly deserves considerable responsibilty too.

Embassy Suites

I was interested to see in the Gazette that the Embassy Suites brings in $250,000 in taxes every year. Is that BEFORE or AFTER costs are deducted?

pool issues

Are we saying that NOBODY knows what the income of the pool is OR the expenses? and where that income specifically originates and details of where the expenses go? That SHOULD be a simple Freedom of Information request, right? Gym COLLECTS the fees and sets the rates? Did he bother to charge the scuba guy OR the polo team? if not, why not? We are losing over 300k a year and he wonders WHY? Incredible. Ridiculous. Absurd. Residents pay so that NON-residents can play free. More poor oversight and mismanagement. WHEN will this series of continuous and repeated fiscal fiascos stop? Ever?

cronyism

Is it true that Billy has been letting in our pool nonresidents and private entities for free, at the taxpayers expense, since he was elected? SIX YEARS? ANOTHER case of mismanagement, cronyism, incompetence, and complete and total disregard for the taxpayers and THEIR interests ! Will it EVER end?

good neighbor

Being a good neighbor is a good thing usually. When younger I played on both VG and MS kids football teams. I also believe that good neighbors pay their fair share. The residents of MS are losing 300k a year and we are allowing others in FREE? How STUPID can we be? Or maybe our city officials just dont care because its NOT their money going down the tubes, AGAIN! Are we really allowing private entities to use our pool for FREE while the residents foot the bill? Friends are fine, but we are talking fiscal FAIRNESS here. Private entities profit while residents pay the bills.. sound familiar? It should, because we are getting hosed AGAIN.

maps

Increasing our commercial tax base could be a valuable thing IF the associated costs do NOT outweigh the benefits. Where is the map that used to be in the City Hall lobby? WHY are they NOT available to the public, like they were before? It would be a public service to print those maps in the Gazette. ARE there any dumps or other landfills or spills in the lands we are looking at, East of the Expressway? IF so, what is the current, unbiased thinking on the costs to clean them up? We need the straight scoop. The same questions would of course also apply to the FEC property.

annexation issues

IF we annex WITHOUT control of zoning we DONT have control. IF there are significant cleanups to be done the voters SHOULD be scared as they will be the ones to pay for those cleanups. Who knows why VG, Doral, and Medley do what they do? Perhaps they are just as incompetent as MS is. Who really has a good handle on the pollution issues there? Until we get an unbiased and independent report on those issues we are just talking about buying a pig in a poke, an unknown entity, and NOT something in which to make a MILLION dollar gamble. Believe it or not, but Council is SUPPOSED to do something called DUE DILIGENCE, which entails gathering ALL the best available information about ANY project so that a well-informed decision can be made. We have hired many consultants in the past to do that for us. The Council usually DOESNT LISTEN to them if they dont come to the same conclusions as the Council would like, but that IS the theory. We need an unbiased, independent authority to tell us their current opinion of the possible pollution issues involved here. AGAIN, due diligence will NOT be done, all the facts will NOT be collected, and the Council will proceed with their own personal and political agendas with NO regard for the residents who will wind up paying the bills. Its becoming a pattern of neglect, irresponsibility, and disregard by City officials. HOPING there are no serious cleanup issues doesnt make it true, and isnt the basis for sound decision-making.

annexation issues

The City Manager isnt telling us ALL the truth. One example, when he says that state law says that whoever made the mess has to clean it up, he is half-right. What he DOESNT say is that if the owners are no longer in business- Aerodex, or unable or unwilling to pay for the cleanup, who DOES pay for it? It appears that the county and the municipality split the costs 50/50. This could cost us MILLIONS. Also, when he says that the Council has no intent of changing the zoning to make it residential that may be true BUT has ZERO, NONE, ZIP impact on whether it will happen if the county maintains the zoning powers. The County will have the powers to decide whether any zoning changes are to be made there, NOT MS Council. If the wants and needs of the County come into conflict with those of MS, who do you think will win THAT battle? If the County decides to put up high-rises, condos, or low-income housing there there will be NOTHING MS can do about it. Add to it that NINE of the County Commisioners arent in favor of allowing any more annexing at this time, the 41st street vs 36 street boundary dispute, mitigation fees, the terminal ordinance, and other pollution cleanup concerns and annexation doesnt work for MS. DERM is not to be trusted to decide on the pollution concerns and the potential costs as they have regularly sided with the County in the past. We need an independent, experienced, and knowledgable consultant with NO ties to the County or any municipality.

pool giveaways

Let me see if I have this right: the pool loses 300k a year and yet we let people from surrounding cities use it for free? The MS residents pay their taxes for the pool and surrounding people pay NOTHING? What genius is responsible for that? I really dont mind them using the facilities BUT they should pay their fair share. It sounds like ANOTHER giveaway by the City officials- gave away the CC, then the tennis courts, now our recreational facilities. Is there anyone, besides the residents, who ARE paying? yet another example of a clear pattern of mismanagement and incompetency, and WE are left with the bills...AGAIN

annexation and other stupidities

Let see, MS stupidly puts themselves deeper in debt and then expects annexation, with all its attendent risks- commissioners against it, mitigation fees, pollution cleanup fees, lack of boundary agreements,etc, to bail it out? THIS is leadership? Sounds like a pretty shaky foundation and premise for the future to me. We are only desperate for money because the Council has put us in this position and added to our debt load during a recession where residents are losing their jobs and their houses. That is just poor judgement or a lack of caring about the residents, if what needs to be done interferes with their personal and political agendas. It is the residents who will be left to pay for their stupidities for DECADES to come. Remember this next election.

VG annexation

There is no way that VG would want to be annexed by MS. They already use all of our recreational facilities and pay half of our taxes, so what would be the benefit to them? I have heard that some Springs kids use VG facilities- which facilities are those, and how many kids are documented to have used them? What facilities do they have that we dont? None comes readily to mind. VG residents should pay to use our facilities, like we do. Residents should pay but nonresidents NOT pay? Absurd.

58th street landfill

IF the mitigation fee for the 58th street dump is 5.5 mil and 1.5 mil PER YEAR, WHY would we WANT to annex that property? Hasnt our illustrious Council made ENOUGH screwups for the next 20 years? Never underestimate The Council's propensity for flushing our tax money away, by the truckloads. With their repeated and truly incredible lack of vision, common sense, economic awareness, and/or fiscal responsibility they have taken municipal futility and haplessness, if not criminality, to new levels. How many MILLIONS will have to disappear before the people either wake up, OR the City goes bankrupt? Cluelessness is, as cluelessness does.

Festival

Maybe the residents are only interested in having the Festival every two or three years..

sign of the times

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac either hold or back $5.3 trillion of mortgage debt. That’s about half the outstanding mortgages in the United States. IndyBank failed. Fannie Mae dropped over 22% on Friday. If either one. or both, of these fail they will take down a LOT of us. Bank failures WERE the cause of the Great Depression, as some of us may remember. The state of Fla forclosure rates are up 92%, compared to last year at this time. Signs of the times. Construction has fallen off a cliff. Unemployment is way up. And somehow, our illustrious City officials have missed ALL of these signals? WHAT will it take to have them realize that we ARE in a recession AND it will probably get WORSE before it gets better? Are we going to allow Moe, Larry, and Curly to drive us over a financial cliff too? Its a colossal case of NO economic awareness, common sense, vision, or responsibility. These guys MUST be bought and paid for, as no other explanation makes ANY rational sense! NONE! Normally the Three Stooges are funny in their clueless buffoonery, but the ineptitude of THESE guys is painful to watch, as in painful to watch a LOT of OUR money disappear from OUR wallets, AGAIN, even after several blaring and obvious warnings. There is nothing funny about being mugged, especially if you know it is avoidable by using some common sense. Common sense is not so common with OUR clowns, it appears, having gone AWOL 2 or 3 years ago, at least, and giving no hint of any possible imminent return this decade. Remember this.

translation

When the proponents of this new gym project say they are doing it FOR THE KIDS they mean they will leave MILLIONS of dollars of debt for the next generation to pay off, because THIS Council had no fiscal responsibilioty or apparent concern about the consequences of their actions. The young people should be outraged by the City's decision to mortgage their futures for the next twenty years. The BILLS will be left FOR THE KIDS.