EYEONCITRUS.COM

By Guest Editorialist: Jeff Doolittle

Four out of Five Citrus County Commissioners again stretch the realm of rationality by voting to obtain a loan of 3 million dollars to hire an out of state firm to tell them how to economize the county government buildings in order to save energy! The premise that this firm guarantees that county will save over 200,000 a year in costs again indicates that these Commissioners still believe in the Tooth Fairy and Never Never Land. Even if true, which is highly unlikely, the 200,000.00 a year saving, if possible, would still take 15 years to recoup 3 million dollars, not counting the interest that would be owed on that amount. The county just finished the renovation of the building on State Road 44, in Crystal River, which is officially the West Citrus Government Center, which opened in 2012. This building has the latest in technology in respect to efficient heating and cooling, lights that turn off automatically, when no one is in the area, bathroom fixtures, and other advances that would not be found in the county’s older buildings. The county could use the same people that renovated this old commercial property that was leased from the Olsen family, to repair and renovate the older buildings in question.

Dennis Damato, Rebecca Bays, J. J. Kenny, Joe Meek all voted for this proposition and that is exactly what it is, much like the quick rich schemes that abound on the net, too good to be true. Scott Adams seems to be the only one on the commission who hasn’t lost touch of reality.

Port Citrus, another waste of money in schemes that would be too good to be true realm, this has been talked about for the last forty years, the feasibility firm hired to analyze this deem that it would only be practical for barges to transport lumber and such to this area, where non-existent warehouses would store these goods to be freighted across the rest of the state. The ports in Jacksonville and Tampa don’t come to mind? With all the hype that these GOP commissioners espouse concerning the use of private industry development in the county, would not this be the course of action? But, of course, if private industry really thought this would be a viable course of action, wouldn’t they have tried this over the many years? One wonders about the reach of the long and powerful arms of the wealthy, such as Dixie Hollins, and others in these many aims of the commissioners?

Lest we forget that the county has been making cuts because of the shortfall from Duke’s Energy failure to pay their property taxes. Apparently these Commissioners have fleeting memories in their apparent spending spree which they will lay on the backs of the Citrus County Taxpayers, through property taxes, with an expected increase in the millage rate of 8 to 10 mills and the addition of an MSBU fee of $60.00 that will hit everyone, to cover the services of the fire department and by the time you read this, most of you will have received the notice in the mail advising you of this new expense. Dennis Damato was out and about, gloating how this will ere the backs of the taxpayers and how the county government offices will be slammed this year with angry citizens? Makes you really wonder what is wrong with an individual when there is absolutely nothing funny about families encountering another expense along with all the others they have to face just to survive in this economy and the devaluation of the dollar?

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