Victoria Gardens: Pay up

It isn't often an old cat like me agrees with the School Board AND the Volusia County Council.

This is one of those exceptions. Victoria Gardens needs to ante up and pay the school-impact fees. Why? There should be no protected classes or groups of people who can say, "Schools aren't my responsibility."

Schools are the responsibility of everyone. I don't care if there aren't gonna be any kiddies in the gated, senior-citizen enclave. Nor do I care if there weren't any kids in the Ormond Beach mobile-home park case.

The fact is, taxes helped pay for those seniors to get an education, and helped them become the fine, property-owning folks they are. Saying, "I've got mine, now, get yours," isn't the way it should work.

Schools are everybody's responsibility.

And, if you want to get into the technical arguments, Victoria Park doesn't have a good legal reason to avoid paying the fees. The developer agreed to pay school-impact fees on the development as a part of the master development plan for the area. Now, the developer wants to wiggle out of it.

Paugh!

Of course, if the county wants to exempt EVERYBODY from paying the fees, that's fine.

Farmton, bears etc.

Now that the loonies have given up burning other peoples' holy books, and with no terrorist attacks, we can get back to griping about more local things.

Like land use.

The Farmton hearing began today. My cat ears pricked up when I heard they were holding in a third-floor conference room. Too many people showed up, and they moved it to the Historic Courthouse.

Why not in the County Council Chambers, which has much better acoustics, a recording system and more comfortable/newer seating?

I guess they don't want to audio-broadcast or record this meeting. And who wants the public to attend anyway? bah. Anyway, we'll see how things go. Since they don't let cats in the courthouse, I'll find it difficult to attend. Please post your thoughts and information about what's going on.

Farmton leads us to bears and that famous mile-wide corridor for black bears. I don't known how many of 'em are like me, who can read and write. The bears would need a map to follow the corridor.

Here's the good news for developers and the Farmton Hunt Club:

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is considering a "hunt and kill" option regarding black bears, correspondent Michele Moen reports:

Dear friends,


Your money is not needed but your compassion is.


Please take 10 minutes of your time to read the attached brief info


The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is seriously considering the hunt and kill as an option for Florida's rare and threatened black bear.

And the majority comments they are receiving are from the hunters!


HELP!

1. READ the attached info. It is brief
2. PLEASE, visit the site and comment. Below is a short letter for your use in whole or in part as you please.
3. PASS this info on to others. You don't have to be from the State of Florida to comment.

Thanks so much for your kindness!
Michele

Send in your comments (you don't have to be from Florida to comment)



FLORIDA BLACK BEAR MANAGEMENT PLAN
CRITICAL DEADLINE October 1, 2010


SUGGESTED COMMENT LETTER TO THE
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission


The draft bear management report recommends that state wildlife managers "explore options regarding bear hunting as a tool to stabilize populations and maintain them within target levels."
The Florida black bear is a listed threatened species. Florida laws defines threatened as ". . . exists in such small populations as to become endangered if it is subjected to increased stress as a result of further modification of its environment."
In addition, under Florida law, the intentional killing or wounding of a listed species incurs a third degree felony.
Yet the FFWCC draft plan suggests that the Florida black bear, a threatened species that can be found no where else is the world, should possibly be hunted in order to manage populations? This is ludicrous.
Please remove any language considering the hunting of Florida's unique and threatened species.
Thank you
NAME

end.

The irony is lost on them

Sometimes it's hard to figure out if some of these preachers are just plain stupid, or if they just love publicity enough to endanger American lives at home and abroad.

I'm referring to the nuts in Gainesville, led by the Rev. Terry Jones at the Dove World Outreach Center. They want to burn Korans to commemorate Sept. 11. Sure, that will bring peace, just like Jack stealing food from my dish brings peace to our household.

Apparently, they don't have the intellect to notice the irony of a church called "the Dove World Outreach Center" doing this stuff. Yeah, the symbol of peace and love and hope, the dove.

Even Glenn Beck is condemning them, comparing their plan to "burning the flag or the Bible." You'd think that might wake them up. Never mind everybody else who's saying "don't do it," including Gen. David Petraeus and Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton, the Washington Post reports.

Hey, where's the stuff of your faith, people? Remember Jesus saying to love each other? If we act like a bunch of Al Quaeda types, aren't disobeying ? Aren't we becoming the enemy?

This afternoon, Jones promised to go through with the book-burning. Hmmm. Remember who else liked to burn books?

Wake up and smell the coffee, Rev. Jones and your 50 followers.

That reminds me, I better check my dish.