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Re: Rivalry spills over into issues of water. (June 4, 2001 St
Peteresburg Times)
To the editor:
I am let down at the small amount of publicity given to the momentous
declaration made by Oldsmar's current mayor, Jerry Beverland. Such a
small article, in the local section, does his pronouncement a
disservice. It should have run in 4-inch headlines across the Times'
front section: "Oldsmar mayor declares: Florida drought is
elaborate hoax."
If his outrageous claims (made April 6) are true, then all of
Swiftmud should be thrown in jail under the RICO statute. But if his
accusations of a vast criminal conspiracy are false, his words should
be treated as libel and slander against the Pinellas-Anclote River
Basin Board and he should publicly retract them, prove them true, or
be held accountable for his stated positions.
The fact that water board members regularly receive such accusations,
that they've come to expect and accept it as part of their job, is
the real indictment here. To conclude that because the water board
still financed an Oldsmar water project, no "harm" was
done, misses the real "harm" in Oldsmar and Pinellas County
in general.
I, too, was the victim of such ostrich thinking when my homeowners
association sent a reminder to people in my neighborhood that in
respect to the drought conditions, all "responsible'' homeowners
should logically INCREASE their lawn watering. No, I am not kidding!
And the Pinellas County commissioner to whom I forwarded the
outrageous directive agreed with them. (Swiftmud representatives, on
the other hand, were outraged.)
But it was Mayor Beverland's offhand comment about his willingness to
eat turtle soup made out of the last two turtles on earth that raised
my eyebrows. Will the honorable mayor be sharing these "personal
views" with Oldsmar school kids?
I should hope that the parents and citizens of Oldsmar will follow
up, one way or the other, on the personal opinions held by their
mayor. It seems that we can all agree on the fact that the inmates
are currently running the asylum. |
