[Slideshow "number2" not found]
Anonymous Letters to the Editor with Pictures. Published Daily by Noon Since 2002. No Saturday Edition
[Lionfish Tournament] Sanctuary Friends Foundation hosted its Third Annual Lionfish Tournament over Columbus Day Weekend with great success. The eight teams (five of which brought in fish) caught 369 lionfish off Florida Keys reefs and wrecks even with the windy conditions on the water. The biggest lionfish caught was 18½ inches! The Smallest was 3½ inches. Team Chase ‘N’ Tail brought in 172 lionfish to take home the top team prize over the two-day tournament. |
[Radio KPUT] What happened to some of the radio stations? For about the last week 92.5 and 94.5 have been off the air or their antenna is broken. |
[The Movies] Seeing how the post office and banks were closed I watched movies instead of taking care of business. I watched a Columbus movie or two. In one director Ridley Scott had the French actor Gerard Depardieu, who has a very heavy accent, play Christopher Columbus the 13th century Italian navigator in the 1992 movie “1492: Conquest of Paradise”. Couldn’t Scott find an Italian to play the roll instead of a Frenchman with such a heavy accent? Were we supposed to ignore his French accent an imagine him as an Italian? I couldn’t figure out what the director was thinking by having a Frenchman playing an Italian and it seems the public wondered too because the movie was a big flop. |
[“Columbus Day”] Columbus was 39 when he sailed the ocean blue. There are 30 cities in the US named Columbus. |
A Commissioner said grinder pumps are “the best system for the price”. Deer Mr Commissioner, a go-cart would be the best system for the price too, but we all know that a Chevy would be better. |
Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ad, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
[Stone Crab Season Opens Today] Get your fresh stone crabs at Fanci Seafood, they’re just off the boat! |
[“Gay Marriage”] Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has joined the attorneys representing a gay Key West couple suing the state for their right to marry in asking the state Supreme Court to hear the case. Bondi’s office filed a request with the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami to send the case directly to the Florida Supreme Court, and bypass that appellate court. |
[President Obama Already Has An Ebola Czar] Where is she? What’s particularly interesting about the Ebola discussion, then, is that nobody has even discussed the fact that the federal government not ten years ago created and funded a brand new office in the Health and Human Services Department specifically to coordinate preparation for and response to public health threats like Ebola. The woman who heads that office, and reports directly to the HHS secretary, has been mysteriously invisible from the public handling of this threat. And she’s still on the job even though three years ago she was embroiled in a huge scandal of funneling a major stream of funding to a company with ties to a Democratic donor—and away from a company that was developing a treatment now being used on Ebola patients. |
[“Columbus Day”] How deep was the keel of Columbus’s ships? What was their draft? The Pinta, Niña or the Santa Maria were top heavy caravels, but I know they didn’t have very deep keels like modern sailing vessels. They had keels that went the full length fore to aft, molded as part of the bow and then tapering aft. I wonder why they didn’t capsize? |
[Oil Earthquakes] Study links hundreds of small Ohio quakes to fracking. Link |
Don’t vote Libertarian if you want Governor Scott out of office. Voting Libertarian takes a vote away from former governor Crirst. Sadly, third party candidates never win. I wish that weren’t true. |
Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ad, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
Local Zombi Bike Ride Events |
[Only Music From My Youth] Today’s “music” ( it doesn’t even deserve the title) is crap. It is either Rap, Country, what “they” call rock, Emo, Pop tripe or some other weird genre. It is filled with computer generated music, auto tuners and people just talking and rhyming. Rock nowadays all sounds like they have the same singer who is just screaming in the microphone and just constant strumming of guitar accompanied by the same two drum beats. Country is full of nasally singers playing dress-up cowboys singing about tractors and cars. Pop does not contain a single human playing an instrument accompanied by a person and they use an auto tuner to make themselves sound good and on key. Don’t even get me started on Emo.
(Emo is a style of rock music characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional, lyrics. It originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement of Washington, D.C., where it was known as “emotional hardcore” or “emocore” and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace. As the style was echoed by contemporary American punk rock bands, its sound and meaning shifted and changed, blending with pop punk and indie rock and encapsulated in the early 1990s by groups such as Jawbreaker and Sunny Day Real Estate. By the mid-1990s numerous emo acts emerged from the Midwestern and Central United States, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the style.) |
[“Kolhage seems like the only Commissioner consistently looking out for the average Keys taxpaying homeowner rather than special interest groups.”] For sure. He’s the best I’ve seen in my 30 years here. A very low key, soft-spoken Commissioner who asks the tough questions, and votes according to the facts, not the politics. |
[Fonts] There will be Helvetica to pay! |
[“Stock Market”] Why does anyone care how Comm Neugent increased his net worth? It was a good year in the market, we all grew by a lot (percentage wise), and it was across the board in multiple areas – stocks, real estate, bonds, etc. There’s the secret answer. I don’t think I need to know any more details, I really don’t understand ‘time is running out’ and I’m not even sure why folks are fixated on this – sounds like they need to get a life. Jeez, enough with the stupid conspiracy theories, do you know how dumb they sound to the rest of us? |
One troubling thing to remember when our troops engage with ISIS. Those guys aren’t worried about dying. |
Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ad, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
[Africa Bad For Your Health] Since the first reported death from AIDS, which originated out of Africa, was reported back around 1980 up until 2013 over 36 million people have died from AIDS. Today there still is no cure. There is no cure for Ebola either, which also originated out of Africa. So far the Ebola epidemic is in West Africa, but it is spreading–and spreading fast. There are only a few cases, so far, showing up in different countries around the world. How many cases and deaths from Ebola will there be five years from now? |
[“First Rap song: Debbie Harry’s Rapture”] Wrong! “Rapture” was the first rap song played on MTV. (When they use to play music.) Rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks along with an instrumental or synthesized beat. And about every video of Johnny Cash I’ve seen, he’s pretty much talking over the music. |
[Conspiracy] Why allow things, people or diseases into this country that we have no idea of or has a history of doing harm to us? The answer is population control. They need people to die. Look at China and their one child policy, widespread poverty, roving execution vans and people willing to do anything, even sell their own children to pedophiles, to make a living. Look what’s happening in many other countries of the world due to overpopulation, look at Mexico drug cartels and the Middle East terrorists. ISIS is fighting because that’s the only job there is and whomever is funding them wants to trim down the population. The planet Earth is full, it needs to take two asteroid strikes and call the doctor in a millennium. |
Happy Wednesday from Springer’s Bar and Grill. Today we have a great comfort food special for you, stuffed pork chops with a sauce of apples, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sure to fill the belly and put a hint of autumn in your day. Thursday special: shrimp salad on a kaiser roll Friday special: fish and chips Happy Hour 2-7 daily with great drink specials and happy hour menu. There’s always something special at Springer’s |
[Phishing] Dear Friend, I am Barrister Cliff Henry from China. I want to inform you that an amount of US$12.5 Million will be moved on your name as the legal beneficiary of my late client, a national of your country who died on May 12, 2008 in Sichuan province of China earthquake during his business trip to the province. Bla bla bla. |
I was in the court house yesterday. Man, I should have become a political cop and sit around that marble tower hurting my butt on hard wooden seats all day earning mucho dinero and being safe. What a racket! |
Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
I like the idea of a Zombie bike ride on Big Pine (the largest island in the Keys where nothing ever happens). I was in the first and only St Patrick’s Day suds run here. It was so hot many of the “runners” melted. The worst part was being drunk and trying to cross US1 on foot to get to and from the former KD’s Steak House. I still have the t-shirt although it’s torn and spattered with paint. |
[Conspiracy] Fellow Americans, Warning: Absolutely do not trust our Government. Ebola is deadly and it is on our land now. That man on the news all the time saying it will not spread is lying. Be very, very careful. |
We are sacrificing our environment for oil jobs. No where are they being held responsible. If anything, they get slapped on the wrist for their destruction because they create jobs |
[Make War Not Peace] Republicans (Boehner) are clamoring to send ground troops to fight ISIS. Have they forgotten that we’ve been fighting them or different flavors of them for over 13 years and lost? What do they think has changed in the last year that will allow us to defeat them this time? Sending ground troops is suicide. No one’s ever been able to defeat a determined enemy with no base of operations who’s looking to die. It’s easy for the grey hairs to send young men to die, but to send them to die without a chance of winning is criminal! |
[Honest Political Leader?] How come Commissioner Kolhage hasn’t been corrupted? He’s been in public service for a long time. Could it be that there is actually a politico who’s only concern is for us? |
Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
[“Deport Muslims”] I know this has been said before, but everything I need to know about Muslims I learned on 9/11. |
[“18 tons of Crisco stolen in St. Petersburg“] Investigation by law enforcement agencies has determined that the thieves were 4 Jersey women who use the product for beauty cream and all night Crisco parties. Investigators said that their information indicates that the load would keep the ladies in lard for as long as 6 months before they strike again |
[“No music of National Quality”] We have to suffer with Rudy Valee Livingston and appreciate that other noise makers are not hurting our ears in the Keys. |
Ebola is here and it will keep coming and it will spread, don’t forget AIDS, it’s still number 1 here! |
[No-Bid contracts] A Commissioner said he negotiated with the trash company and got the best price. How does he know that? Because Waste Management told him so? He didn’t have any other bids to compare it to. |
SIS argument to be made – odd post on Tuesday, the comment that 8,000 KKK people don’t represent 300m Christians supports the view that 30,000 ISIS people don’t represent 1.6 billion Muslims.
I get that religious views of Muslims are different than those of Christians, but there’s a lot of whacky Christian beliefs that are a matter of record, but not enforced or evolved (we used to support slavery, for Pete’s sake!) I suspect a lot of Muslim Sharia falls in the same category. All I’m pointing out is to stop trying to define 1.6 billion people as one entity. I too, really don’t like the countries where women are not given equal rights, where governments are defined by religious affiliation, etc. That will change in time, as history has shown. Isolation is not a successful strategy and modern countries are much more tolerant (but not perfect – look at the US and Ferguson as an example) |
Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
[Dolphin Research Center on Grassy Key] You can help another group that really helps dolphins. The Humane Society of the U.S (HSUS) ensure the maximum possible safety for “swim-with-the-dolphins” programs. Write or visit Swim with the Dolphin attractions like DRC in Grassy and express your concerns. If they refuse to close, insist that only captive-born bottlenose dolphins be used, to limit as much as possible any increase in captures of wild dolphins to stock present and future attractions. There are currently almost 400 bottlenose dolphins in captivity in the United States, with many more in facilities around the world, many of whom are used in breeding programs. If these programs are as successful as captive facilities claim, then capture from the wild can and should be eliminated. Link |
[Is America Becoming Hitler’s Germany] “Teenage vandals swarmed a Brooklyn deli yelling anti-Semitic slurs and destroyed $700 worth of candies and cookies. ~from The Daily Telegraph |
Of course real boobs float. They are mostly body fat (Crisco) which floats on water just like oil. That’s why slim chicks usually have tiny ones. Can’t have it all after all. |
I was at Camp Lejune, NC, during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the place was going nuts. Here is an interesting story on that time from a Russian. Link |
[“Retail store sales”] Could you please identify that store with the incredible mark-up and profit? I invest in the market (along with G. Neugent, apparently) and am really interested in any company that turns a 90% gross profit. Most of the companies I invest in turn 20-30% GP, and the net profit is usually under 10%. I’d very much like to invest in that company asap or were you just imagining it?
Of course, there’s an outside chance that you’re wrong too (hate to burst your bubble), but when companies liquidate stock, that doesn’t mean they’re making a profit. I’ve been part of write-downs in many of millions of dollars just to get rid of stale stock |
[No Reply] Why is it that I never see reply postings to political posts? Seems very few give a damn about what the politicians are doing with our money! |
Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
How come it is OK to dance naked on Duval Street, but not on the highway in Marathon? Sounds like a double standard to me. Time for that Marathon dancing guy to lawyer up. He could file a no-class action law suit. |
Not a week goes by without someone on the CT lamenting about the way it used to be in the Keys. I’m curious if posters can list some *specific* things they miss so I can better understand what they mean. I don’t miss the old days where I live. Schools, hospitals, roads and the business climate are all greatly improved and marijuana is legal here now! |
I’m starting to get very concerned about this Ebola thing as we all should be. We should prepare ourselves as best we can. Prepare as you would for a hurricane. Water, food and shelter. These items are primary to surviving any disaster. Now think, “What if?” What if Ebola spreads and Martial Law is declared or we’re told to shelter-in-place? You’re going to need more food and water. Stock up now. What if Ebola spreads and entire cities are locked down, thus inhibiting shipping and delivery of goods? Stock up now. What if Ebola spreads and we are told to protect ourselves using N95 rated masks, Tyvek suits and goggles? Stock a few now. What if this is really bullshit like H1N1 (Bird Flu) that the Bush administration feared so badly that they paid the pharmaceutical companies billions to create a vaccine — that was wasted. How much do Obama’s pals in the pharm/med/insurance industries stand to make off the very disease that has been imported to the U.S.? Educate yourself on Ebola, prepare yourselves as best you can to stay safe in any disaster and live your life. Protect yourself and live your life knowing you have done all you can to protect yourself and live |
[Ebola] The authorities keep emphasizing that the nurse who caught Ebola from Thomas Eric Duncan was sealed in her hazmat suit the whole time she cared for the poor fellow and blah blah nobody knows how she could possibly catch the darn thing. But the newspapers and cable news networks are not asking: What about all the people, ordinary civilians, that this nurse was consorting with off-work, after she took off her hazmat suit and, let’s say, at some point stopped by the Kroger Store’s fabulous steam table display of take-out goodies behind the helpful and reassuring sneeze-guard on her way back home? It sounds like a new Netflix drama – The Fatal Mac and Cheese.
If one more person in that chain of circumstance falls ill, Rick Perry will have to ring-fence Dallas faster than you can say Guadalupe Hidalgo and then we’ll be off to the quarantine races in America. It will be interesting to see who’s shorting the airline stocks a few hours from now. I’ve got to pass through Dulles airport tomorrow myself, and then two more foreign hubs after that, and return to freakin’ Newark International at the end of the week when a full blown Ebola panic may be underway. |
The bums on Big Pine have been there so long they consider themselves locals and act like it. |
[Mark Zuckerberg gives $25 million to fight Ebola] What a great American and new hero of our times. I don’t do Facebook, because I don’t want to be found, but I’m pretty sure the rest of the world’s population does. |
Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
Found. iPhone 5 in a pink case was found on No Name Key this past weekend. If you are the owner you just need to know the phones password to get it back. if you have any information on who the owner might be call Classified Ads > Lost and Found |
[KW Orchid Society] We want to thank our summer hosts for opening their homes to us during the beastly hot days of summer: Rochelle Eannarino, Marianne Bertini & Jay Pfahl. We learn a lot when we see how other members are growing their orchids. Now it’s October and we’re ready to start our regular meetings at the West Martello Fort. We expected and hoped that our meeting room would be finished and air conditioned by now. That didn’t happen, so we will have to make do. Our October newsletter can be found here at Ongoing Events or online at www.keywestorchidsociety.org |
Commercial Sewer Connections on the BOCC Agenda for this Friday] It’s great the BOCC is making an attempt at some equality for businesses that paid the same or more assessment than residences! Equality- what a concept! However they are proposing to install EOne brand residential grinder pumps that are considered a public safety hazard by three national safety agencies in such applications. This was confirmed by two well qualified electrical engineers both before and during recent DOAH Hearings of Dump the Pumps, Inc. complaints. The judge has not yet released her ruling, but the facts are clear and FKAA and DEP have finally admitted to improperly classified pumps. Their cobbled solution to preventing explosions was to keep the illegal pumps submerged at all times. That does not change their installed location, national codes, nor OSHA and DEP regulations. Regulations that DEP has thus far waived. Why? Because the Keys are so “special” that we do not deserve the safety and quality reserved for the rest of the country?
Placing and maintaining the commercial pumps adds another 191 grinder pump stations that FKAA will not be able to keep operable in an extended power outage. It is highly inequitable that the businesses that have paid the most sewer assessment and have package plants will have no help at all, just extra expenses and the maintenance bills along with the full sewer bill. Thirty-seven businesses “will be able to connect with a simple gravity connection” (in Kevin Wilson’s words). ALL of the businesses should be able to connect with “a simple gravity connection! Just like ALL of the residences should be able to connect with a simple gravity connection- even if it is to a pump or vacuum pit in the road right of way. Why doesn’t FKAA put in real lift stations with normal pumps that are properly listed per OSHA, NFPA, and NEC regulations and connect multiple buildings to the lift station by gravity? Why don’t they do the same for package plant owners? Why don’t they do the same for residential properties? Was the Venture Out community intentionally left off the list of package plants that will get no financial aid to connect because they no longer have to connect? Or was the County hoping nobody would notice? Venture Out residents got hit for $4500 assessment each but also have to pay to continue to maintain their gravity collection system, unlike Key Haven, Hawks Cay, Shark Key, and soon the Navy. You might notice that for one unidentified business, it is proposed to supply a $100,000 lift station like would serve an entire neighborhood on gravity! Who owns that highly favored business? The Agenda item claims that $2 million was already reserved to help some businesses with connection costs. The additional properties are not eligible for assistance per the meeting minutes between FKAA and DEP in Ft. Myers in October. Here are quoted excerpts: Apparently DEP does not realize that Charlotte County rejected grinder pumps and instead uses STEP (septic tank effluent pumping) which is a truly low pressure system with the lowest risk to the environment and lowest cost to the property owner next to vacuum. It is also far cheaper to install than a grinder pump pressure sewer. The STEP pumps are about 10% of the grinder pump price and can share a typical 120volt outdoor circuit. Sensibly implemented, you still have sewer service with STEP when the power goes out – your effluent simply reverts to using your existing drainfield. You also save over $1,000 on septic tank abandonment. The collection system could still be converted to STEP and use much of the already installed piping. This is still an option that would withdraw most of the litigation complaints and result in much, much less environmental risk, maintenance cost, and citizen abuse. The only reason I can think of to stubbornly cling to EOne grinder pumps must be the suspected under table sales commissions. |
[“ISIS is winning”] So were the Nazis in the beginning. It’s not where you start, it’s where you end that matters no matter how hard you cheerlead for them. |
The world is tearing itself apart and the best place to watch it unfold is on Fox News with their bizzarareeno pumped-up anchor women on hand to titillate your fantasies and add confusion to the whole process. It’s absolutely fascinating |
Coast Guard Cutter Ingham, the historic floating museum ship at Truman Waterfront now has a beer and wine license and now has sunset happy hours on Fridays and Saturdays. Beers are $3, sangria is $4, and craft beers are $5. No kidding. |
Does anybody care that the CT will not be published on Sundays? Or Saturdays? Has the volume of reader comments declining so that there is no need to publish? (Ed: Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Quite the contrary. We’re receiving too many posts and the CT is getting too long.) |
The 18 tons of Crisco that was stolen in St Petersburg was diverted to New Jersey to feed the fat chicks for Fantasy Fest for the body painting. |
Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ads, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
I think a popular costume this Halloween, and a practical one at that, will be the hazmat suit. |
[Captain doom and Gloom] DEF: Profiteering n, The ability to start a war, to supply both sides, to continue that war, and to sell the vanquish lands through your real estate companies! DEF: Court n, A place of inadequacies with a drone presiding over inept morons dictating their future. DEF: Humor n, A conglomeration of verbal or pictorial irrelevances depicting unmentionable subject matter through suggestion. DEF: Sex n, A situation causing lust, happiness, and sorrow after the pill hasn’t worked! DEF: Welfare n, Money which is taken from one moron and given to another moron by morons with suits and guns! DEF: Keyboard n, A tool to make music or input information that is either horrible or inaccurate that will always change your life! Wild cats from house cats is becoming a problem. Seems that the old hang-a-sleigh-bell-on-their-collar is too much trouble to protect our wild life. Maybe if you stuck it up….never mind! |
Contact Us. Click this link to post any opinion, ad, changes to an ad, complaint, kudos, or anything else. One link fits all. We read them all. Contact Us |
Obola said he would end the wars. He has not. Our involvement in creating war has increased during his administration Obola said he would close Gitmo. He has not. Forced feedings and deaths have occurred at GITMO under his leadership. Obola said he would create “hope and change”. The only hope Americans have is for Obola to be foreclosed upon in the White House and lose his job. Obola’s vision for this nation is not the one we’ve striven for our entire lives. It’s time to accept the fact that we were lied to (again) and move on with a whatever happens, happens attitude. Thankfully, the U.S.A. is only suffering from Obola, which is curable. |
Please accept my apology for not posting yesterday, I made a computer error while sending what follows to the CT so Deer Ed never received it. FTR.
My compliments to Mr. Cousineau from “Coconut Telegraph Land” for taking the time to post in the Coconut Telegraph. His posting presents more questions than answers. Unfortunately, Mr. Cousineau did not tell us his position on expanding the new Big Coppitt facility so as to house a couple of fiscal personnel so that they will be spared the drive to the new operations and administration facility in Marathon. We know that Mr. Goodman sees this as a massive waste of your tax dollars. We know that Mr. Goodman is working to right this wrong. We know that this issue is of concern to many voters. Mr. Cousineau failed to tell us of his position on term limits for the board. Mr. Goodman has long been an advocate and champion for term limits, and if re-elected will once again attempt to implement term limits on the board. We know that this issue is of concern to many voters. Mr. Cousineau did tell us that he intends to learn the job while on the job by attending expensive “conferences”. Mr. Cousineau tells us that his background is in “communications,” and/or as an English teacher. That is interesting, but none of it prepares him for the very complex and technical issues that board members must ponder. Mr. Goodman has an education and multi decade background and history in chemistry, chemical applications, and management. He is fully up to date on the latest technical data from technical publications and web sources. That doesn’t cost us a penny. Mr. Cousineau told us that, if elected, he will focus on FKMCD matters. Curiously, he wrote: “I am not simply running for Mosquito Control because I thought I would lose to George Neugent in a primary; I am actually fully engaged and interested in Mosquito Control.” Perhaps Mr. Cousineau should be reminded that he is a Democrat and Mr. Neugent in a Republican, a primary contest between the two would be impossible. Mr. Cousineau’s posting suggested that there was some chicanery in the donation of funds from the Republican Executive Committee to Mr. Goodman. He wrote: “Now compare that to the incumbent, who received four thousand dollars from the Florida Keys’ Republican Committee (from donors who are unknown and outside the Sunshine Law) upon announcing his desire to run. Tell me who has more political gain in this regard?” It would be expected that Mr. Cousineau should know that the Sun Shine Law has nothing whatsoever to do with election laws or the reporting of political contributions. Certainly Mr. Cousineau is aware that Republican and Democrat Executive Committee financial reports are also on the Supervisor of Elections website. Every contribution made and spent by either Party is fully reported, as are all in-kind contributions. It should be noted that an important purpose of local political clubs is to raise money for political candidates who they believe will be competent public servants. Indeed, it would have been perfectly proper for the local Democrat Executive Committee to make a donation to Mr. Cousineau had they chosen to do so. Mr. Cousineau told us that he has precious little knowledge of the operations of FKMCD. Rather, he proposes “learning on the job.” He has not told us that he has any knowledge whatsoever of the costs concomitant with mosquito control in the Keys. Nor did he suggest any cost cutting measures. Indeed, he tells us he intends to spend even more money by “learning on the job.” Mr. Goodman has a sterling record on the FKMCD Board of Commissioners for cutting expenditures and saving money. Mr. Cousineau must not be aware that FKMCD has just lost a huge and long standing contract with the Navy. A contract that had been in place for many years and was an important revenue stream for FKMCD. The loss of that contract will result in a $600k shortfall in the budget. Certainly if Mr. Cousineau knew of the loss and its impact he would have mentioned it and suggested remedies. But he didn’t. He is silent on this grave problem. Smith opposes term limits, we can expect that Cousineau will follow Smith. Goodman is a firm and committed advocate for term limits. Another of Cousineau’s supporters is the previous Director of FKMCD, Fussell. During his tenure, spending grew beyond all reason. He opposed term limits, and opposed cutting the salaries of the Board members. We can safely assume that Fussell and Cousineau share beliefs. During Goodman’s tenure, board members’ salaries have been cut; the Director’s salary has been slashed from in excess of $180k to about $130k; FKMCD’s work force has been reduced by about a quarter. Deer Friends, if you want efficient and cost effective delivery of mosquito control, I urge you to vote for Phil Goodman, District 2. I also urge you to vote for Tom McDonald, the candidate in FKMC District 5. McDonald is a fiscal hawk, and a CPA. He and Goodman will represent your interests and make damned sure that you get the most efficient and effective mosquito control here in Monroe County at the lowest cost possible. That’s my opinion |