Community Bloggers

What we are beginning to see is, although it has been "festering" is the frustration of the "taxpayers."

They are beginning to awaken from their complacency, and are shocked and angry with what they see. A lot of them are taking it to the "streets" so to speak.

What the elected officials are learning is that they no longer will be able to act without providing answers to their constituents and also transparency. Democracy in action is surfacing.

We see it happening here in New Smyrna Beach.

Many people are finding it difficult to conjure up reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving, myself included. With the condition of the country and the world seeming to deteriorate before our very eyes, being thankful is the last thing on our minds.

Are you in this group? If so you need to look around you and see how much you actually have.

The City Commission on Tuesday night committed to spend $130,000.00 of your money to benefit special interest groups when they voted 5-0 to support an Echo Grant application for the "Richenberg Fish Farm" at the old high school site.

Yes, this is the "fantasy zone project" that you have been assured for two years that NO CITY MONEY would be used to support. And where did they find the money? You guessed it, in the "bare bones" 2009-2010 budget that just two months ago Commissioner Jack Grasty whined could not be cut or "people would lose their jobs."

Let's Play!

I always loved the game of Monopoly as a child. We would play for hours and hours. I never understood the philosophy behind it then, but I do now. It was created by a "Capitalist" and that suits me fine.

We have a new Guard. The Nov. 3 municipal elections brought more voters. Yet out of 18,000-plus voters, we had roughly 6,000 show up.

It starts in your own backyard people.

NSB wanted change, leadership, and success for our city. We will see what happens.

We, in America, can only change our "future" by voting. This is a "sorry turnout."

Maybe, and I mean maybe, when it gets so bad, people will realize that change will come with the power they have, their "VOTE." This goes with federal, state, county, and municipal elections.

So where are we?

Our forefathers’ original mistake in printing American currency was to blur the “L” out of it, and so it is that we continue to insist we’re a Christian nation because our coinage hymns out, “In God We Trust.”

Biblically speaking, this was one of those “fortunate falls.” Where else more appropriate for “God” than His endorsement printed on the object Americans worship the most?

“Gold” just doesn’t ring with it!

From my vantage point on the perch, it seems that I was one of the few fortunate ones' to be able to hear any part of what was going on at Tuesday night's city commission meeting, as our I.T. department blew it out there tail feathers yet again.

Can anyone in that department explain why that in 2009, our I.T. birds are still unable to provide a reliable audio feed allowing the citizens to listen in to the meetings being held by their elected and appointed officials?

NSBNEWS.net photo by Henry Frederick. This photo was among several that went up in the Westside community the night before the general election.

Well, we have what appears to be a very close finish in the Mayor and Zone 1 commission races, with vote advantage to Adam Barringer and Judy Reiker; respectively, with congratulations to both for victories.

From the vote count it looks more than 6,000 city voters were interested enough in the outcome to go out and vote, and that bodes well for the future. What this really means, in my view, is we still have a very divided city, at least in terms of trust and expectations of elected officials.