NSB Turnbull Bay Bridge residents stand up to politicians

New Smyrna Beach resident Shira Beth Wild led a citizen rally to get the power elite to take action Tuesday night on getting the closed Turnbull Bay Bridge re-opened sooner than later by being vocal with Volusia County Council Chairman Frank Bruno (in the middle here), State Rep. Dorothy Hukill and Mayor Adam Barringer. 

Bruno, the Democrat, and Hukill, the Republican are vying for the coveted state Senate seat held by retiring Republican Evelyn Lynn. Barringer has not announced whether he will seek a second term as mayor or run for the County Council chairmanship or the state rep. seat held by term-limited Hukill. Maureen France, a Republican from Port Orange has already announced her intention to run for the seat.

Wild was so infuriated by what she saw as politics as usual walked out of the packed meeting house at the Brannon Center and spoke on video camera with NSBNews.net.

But then something happened. When she challenged authority, Bruno seized the opportunity at Hukill's meeting and suggested strongly that the county, the city and the state could come up with the necessary $200,000 in funding to place a temporary span three feet above the crumbling bridge, something that would take no longer than three months.

At least 250 people who live in the Turnbull Bay Bridge area were not too thrilled by the county's assertion earlier in the meeting Tuesday night that they'd have to wait until the latter part of 2013 for a new $4 million bridge replacement.

"I think our anger came out of left field for them," Wild said.

Bruno agreed, telling NSBNews.net after the nearly two-hour heated meeting that "we had to have a solution for these residents. It was the most logical thing to do at this point."

Bruno credited Barringer for telling the residents from the onset of the meeting that their needed to be a partnership between the different levels of government -- city, county and state -- to make it happen.