You Gotta Destroy to Rebuild.
Residents of the lazy seaside Town of Surfside, FL will vote today on whether or not to borrow millions to build a new community center.
Most readers could not care less but this is the big question and a stinging subject for many Surfsiders... particularly these folks.
All politics is local.
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Come to tonights town meeting where the politicians will discuse what to do now that their referendum failed. They will also mull over a 33% increase in taxes and the special loan to the Carlysle condo board for $70,000, interest free as they couldn't pay their water or garbage bills.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't all this have been discussed before asking the voters to borrow $9 million?
Thanks anonymouse.
ReplyDeleteThe people have spoken, the coffin is nailed shut. There will be no community center in the foreseeable future, town moral just hit rock bottom. A "passive park" seems apropos.
We will have a community center at the old community center site. Don't give up hope. If you think these guys didn't figure out long ago what they would do in case of THIS situation, I don't. They will now do what each and every one of us does when we want to buy a big-ticket item for ourselves.... consult first with our budget and savings. We will have a community center for $5 million, which means one level and pools. I do hope they lay out the new design so as to add-on by phases, AND, to lay it out intelligently, as Mayor Burkett has thought it out so the pool is bathed in sun and the building in shade. That way we can save bug-time in a/c and pool-heating costs.
ReplyDeleteHave faith... a bit of tough love never hurt anyone! They have already squandered the $14 million surplus they found when they took over... $120,000 yrly Gazette costs, a million dollars to the outsourced legal firm, numerous unneccessary outsourced "studies", their illegal pay of $500 per meeting, PLUS expenses,...on and on... so now,. WHO in their right mind would trust such folks to more of the public coffers?
Except for Mayor Burkett, these guys are DEAD to me!
Oh... I neglected to mention the best part...
ReplyDeleteThe $5 million for the minimalistic community center, will NOT be financed. It will be built with SAVED public funds.
I hope every resident does their best to watch the July 15th Commission Meeting on local gov't. TV Channel. 77 - this meeting exemplifies all that is so very wrong with Surfside today. It also explains the NO vote delivered to this dysfunctional Commission. Funny to note that this Comm. Meeting was set for the very next day after the ‘special election’ – to determine the new millage rate!
ReplyDeleteGiving credit where credit is due, this Commission certainly does a terrific job at putting the carriage in front of the horse! Sadly, the best in your face example of this is the ocean front lot with a crater where the former Community Center was for many years. Demolishing it with NO comprehensive plan to replace it! Perhaps some are guilty of not providing Surfside’s residents with “Honest Service?” This Mayor and Commission will leave a wake of destruction similar to that left by hurricane Katrina. And, it will take Surfside as many years, if not more, to recover than it will take New Orleans to.
You can trust Burkett if you want to but to me he is the master (baiter) who paved the way for these characters to take over complete with their wish lists and false promises. Remember that the previous plans to rehabilitate the community center was shot down by him and Blumstein and the Surfside coalition in late 2004.
ReplyDeleteFIVE LONG YEARS of nonsense.
There will be a budget meeting on Thursday, July 30,2009 to discuss the upcoming budget. One of the items they will probably cut is the library. Who needs a library right? As usual lets expect a handful of people there. No library...no community center....no town perhaps.
ReplyDeletePerhaps some of the people who bitch and moan about the Miami Dade and national politcs could actually speak up and attend?
Surfside going downhill FAST!
Burkett made this bed with his lies and deceitful smiles and BS propaganda and it was all with the lockstep applause and support of Weinber and Imberman and Levine and Blumstein and Calderon and their employed (enriched) henchmen at Town Hall. Its a disaster that was caused by lies and scare tactics and the worst of politics. Now the result is a community and financial disaster for Surfside. If anyone still believes the nonsense of any of these people, then get ready for more years of tax increases and budget busters and waste and pouring money into the hands of the chosen recipients.
ReplyDeleteCopy and paste and sign and send, fax petitions to TWO NUMBERS: 305-376-5287 AND 305-861-1302 ... all petitions need to go to BOTH numbers by fax.
ReplyDeleteSurfside residents and all citizens who care and who can see the truth can still have something to say to those who are supposed to be REPRESENTING the community instead of wrecking it.....
• We object to your intention to close the Surfside Library.
• We know that the cost of continuing the operation of the Library is far less than the cost of the Charette
• We know that the cost of "take home cars" is more than the cost of the Library.
• We know that the cost of attorneys is far more than the cost of the Library.
• We regret and object to the needless demolition of the Surfside Community Center without a vote of the people.
• We know and respect that the people of the Town have repeatedly rejected having the
Town go into debt of any kind.
• We know that elected town officials pay themselves with taxpayer money $500 per month plus "expenses" even though the Town Charter specifies that they will be paid only $1.00 per year.
• We know that despite any decrease in property values, the Town will actually receive 25% MORE total revenue next year than it did five years ago, and that while there is no actual budget crisis there is a spending crisis and a waste crisis.
• We know that the Town has paid millions of dollars to one single outside contractor
that has been given dozens of contracts mostly without any bids, and we know that town officials have made many transfers of town savings funds into town operating accounts just to keep their spending habits going. The town reserve has been siphoned.
• We know that town officials have refused the public pleas of town residents for a
forensic audit of town expenditures from 2006 – 2009.
• We object to the improper priorities of town officials and we petition for a reversal
of course on all of these items including the planned imminent closure of the Library.
• We urge all town officials to stop their ill conceived plans and to end the red ink spending, end the waste, and keep the library open.