Harvest Moonshine

Tis the Season of Decay

With the end of summer now official, it is time to appreciate autumn in the swamp. The cooler nights are a welcome relief from the record breaking global warmthing. The anticipation of a bountiful tourist season prods us onward.  Yet all is not well in this seaside oasis.  Life in South Florida looks a drab austere when colored with the rusty palette of fall... and the predictable regressive groupthink.

Scamera Wars

Miami Beach is going headstrong with their embrace of Red-light Scameras. The blasted gizmos are being installed one at a time.  One a day that is.  These insidious eyes-in-the-sky are a blight on our quality of life and harbingers of Orwellian things here today.  Wake up people and smell the extortion. 

Severe Beach Erosion

"If your voice is not heard, if you do not take the time to listen and learn what is going on and get engaged, you may see our fine Town decline into chaos."   surfside mayor Dietch  9/13/2010

As with Florida Hometown Democracy and Amendment 4 on the November Ballot, the Town of Surfside is once again a microcosm of the bigger blunder.

How We Doing?

Construction of our Community Center – we will be swimming next spring

Modern parking meter pay stations – contracts are executed and work will be completed this calendar year

Fixing the long neglected water and sewer infrastructure – these projects will be completed over the next five years

Document management equipment that will allow us to properly maintain public records – this will reduce costs and allow the Town to be fully compliant with state statutes

Purchasing a new telephone system – this will replace the functionally obsolete system

Procuring new architectural and engineering consultants – this will ensure that we always receive the best value for needed services.

And don't forget to throw some money grubbing' red-light cameras into the strained budgetary.

Developer Missed the Bus 

The site of the old Surfside 6 Motel on Collins and 92 street sits empty for 3 years and counting.

"The first thing is, we wouldn’t be having this conversation if Mr. Deitch hadn’t given special zoning accommodations to the proposed hotel across from the houses on Harding and reduced development requirements elsewhere."  Charles Burcket Previous Mayor of Surfside

Little Amendment That Could 

Letter to current Mayor from a resident community organizer.

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Daniel Deitch, Mayor

Daniel;

I read your latest note and I respectfully disagree.

We did not elect you and the other commissioners to continue to spend on over-paid engineers and/or department heads. We hoped you would be fiscally aware and cut expenses. Yet each of the items in your "good news" entails spending more of our limited resources. Nowhere do you propose any cuts-only further expenses. This will not restore Surfside as a great community.

Following is my personal list of misplaced activities:

Hiring a new Town Manager without an advertised search is dictatorial!

Nearly 50% of the town budget goes to the police department!

The historical deficiencies you refer to are really the overly bloated and unnecessary expenses being sucked out by administrative salaries, perks and pensions!

It is better to show fiscal responsibility than to accuse concerned residents of devising.

We are desperately trying to make you aware of the true needs of our Town.

A PETITION IS THE AMERICAN WAY OF PROTEST!

DO NOT PUT US DOWN! We knew enough to rid the town of the former commission and we also know enough to VOTE on issues of importance. We are not a small group - we are more than 610 registered Surfside voters who signed petitions in only 10 days rather than the 20 days to which we were entitled.

While I have the floor, I must digress to address Marta: You of all people, who left your homeland of Cuba and the life you had because of the loss of rights - Marta, how could you not vote to let us vote? I will never understand.

Thank you.  DORIE LURIE

 

Shady Isles

Through decades and numerous administrations, Surfside has managed to resist persistent requests by developers to build taller and taller condos. It would be an embarrassment to have our current town attorney (who is partly responsible for the uber-development of Sunny Isles into a condo canyon) to do an encore performance on Surfside's building code.

Down the Drain... 

And for the latest twist of this bizarre tale of sleepy town:

The five Surfside residents who sponsored the "Right to Vote" petition received knocks on their door this afternoon fromSurfside police officers. The police officers handed them a letter stating that the whole petition drive had been disqualified.

Alas with the fall comes the realization that we should not cry over spoiled swamps, we should learn from Forest Gumps, keep an eye on the chumps.

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