Handwringing and inaction

[choctawjesse]

Walton officials, residents want faster oil cleanup (PHOTO GALLERY) | want, oil, cleanup - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

Commissioner Sara Comander said she has witnessed the slow pace.
?We have folks trained and ready to go, so why aren?t they being used?? she said. ?This is a problem that needs to be solved.?

After 65 days this is the leadership we get? A leader would MAKE SURE the people trained are being used. A leader would have already arrived at a solution rather than sit around and look for someone else to solve the problem. Sara Commander is Walton County's Nero fiddling while our beaches are ruined.

Thank God our Sheriff seems to be cut from a different cloth.

 

[North Lake]

Walton officials, residents want faster oil cleanup (PHOTO GALLERY) | want, oil, cleanup - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

Commissioner Sara Comander said she has witnessed the slow pace.
?We have folks trained and ready to go, so why aren?t they being used?? she said. ?This is a problem that needs to be solved.?

After 65 days this is the leadership we get? A leader would MAKE SURE the people trained are being used. A leader would have already arrived at a solution rather than sit around and look for someone else to solve the problem. Sara Commander is Walton County's Nero fiddling while our beaches are ruined.

Thank God our Sheriff seems to be cut from a different cloth.

The Sheriff is indeed doing a great job...and is working hand in glove with the County Commission, who to date is paying the bills. There is a host of state and federal agencies, regulations, and procedures standing in the way of moving forward and just cleaning up the mess. It's a complex mess that by and large local government doesn't have any real control over without jeopardizing BP reimbursement...and those procedures are still being worked out at the state level. Your local leaders -- Sheriff, individual Commissioners, and the County Commission as a whole are advocating as strongly as they can (and doing the job) for more local control over this process. We're spending reserves right now, anticipating BP reimbursement...but it hasn't happened yet. If we have a hurricane on top of the oil spill, all bets are off. Let's not be too quick to throw stones at any of our Commissioners on this, unless you stand ready to help pay the bills for cleanup through higher taxes.

 

[choctawjesse]

The Sheriff is indeed doing a great job...and is working hand in glove with the County Commission, who to date is paying the bills. There is a host of state and federal agencies, regulations, and procedures standing in the way of moving forward and just cleaning up the mess. It's a complex mess that by and large local government doesn't have any real control over without jeopardizing BP reimbursement...and those procedures are still being worked out at the state level. Your local leaders -- Sheriff, individual Commissioners, and the County Commission as a whole are advocating as strongly as they can (and doing the job) for more local control over this process. We're spending reserves right now, anticipating BP reimbursement...but it hasn't happened yet. If we have a hurricane on top of the oil spill, all bets are off. Let's not be too quick to throw stones at any of our Commissioners on this, unless you stand ready to help pay the bills for cleanup through higher taxes.

Boy it did not take long to threaten us with higher taxes did it? That is a typical government response, if you criticize us we'll just raise your taxes for you. But I remember hundreds of people taking their time to go to the training to clean up and then nothing. And now Commander wants to grandstand and talk about someone solving this problem. That is what we elected her for. She's only had 2+ months.

 

[North Lake]

Boy it did not take long to threaten us with higher taxes did it? That is a typical government response, if you criticize us we'll just raise your taxes for you. But I remember hundreds of people taking their time to go to the training to clean up and then nothing. And now Commander wants to grandstand and talk about someone solving this problem. That is what we elected her for. She's only had 2+ months.

OK, I had a nice reponse formulated, but I timed out on SoWal before I could hit "Submit Reply" (Help us out here Kurt). I'll recreate it on Word and copy and paste to beat the time monster.

 

[Andy A]

Boy it did not take long to threaten us with higher taxes did it? That is a typical government response, if you criticize us we'll just raise your taxes for you. But I remember hundreds of people taking their time to go to the training to clean up and then nothing. And now Commander wants to grandstand and talk about someone solving this problem. That is what we elected her for. She's only had 2+ months.

Your response to a thoughtful, concise and correct reply to you leaves a lot to be desired, to say the least. If you are so uninformed as to think the present situation and that of our estemed federal government won't eventually cause a tax increase, I feel for you.
As far as Sara Comander is concerned, she is by far the most resourceful and forward thinking Commissioner we have. Its too bad some, don't have the common sense approach to problems she does.
As far as clean up is concerned, I was on BMB this morning. While I realize there is oil and tar balls at various places on the beach, it is not here and you can't clean it up if its not here. That make sense, doesn't it? When we have an oil situation, I'll be the first to call 267-2000.

 

[Alicia Leonard]

Boy it did not take long to threaten us with higher taxes did it? That is a typical government response, if you criticize us we'll just raise your taxes for you. But I remember hundreds of people taking their time to go to the training to clean up and then nothing. And now Commander wants to grandstand and talk about someone solving this problem. That is what we elected her for. She's only had 2+ months.

If the county removes the burden from BP for cleanup, where do you think the money should come from to pay for it? Higher taxes have been fought for two years now by various county boards. The school budget looks dismal from my understanding and with the real-estate market hurting budgets the last few years, assuming this debt could be a disaster for the county, IMHO. I don't know where the funds are going to come from if the county assumes all liability for it.
Does anyone have an idea or information?

 

[Kurt]

OK, I had a nice reponse formulated, but I timed out on SoWal before I could hit "Submit Reply" (Help us out here Kurt). I'll recreate it on Word and copy and paste to beat the time monster.

You're learning!

If you type more than a sentence, form habit of ctrl-a, ctr-c before hitting submit. This puts your text in your clipboard so you can resubmit if needed.

One good thing about firefox is if your reply hits the ether and then you hit your back button it usually retains your text.

 

[TheZohan]

Are our local leaders responsible for the clean up or do they just want our votes

 

[Bob Wells]

Walton officials, residents want faster oil cleanup (PHOTO GALLERY) | want, oil, cleanup - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

Commissioner Sara Comander said she has witnessed the slow pace.
?We have folks trained and ready to go, so why aren?t they being used?? she said. ?This is a problem that needs to be solved.?

After 65 days this is the leadership we get? A leader would MAKE SURE the people trained are being used. A leader would have already arrived at a solution rather than sit around and look for someone else to solve the problem. Sara Commander is Walton County's Nero fiddling while our beaches are ruined.

Thank God our Sheriff seems to be cut from a different cloth.

Ro quit that.;-)

 

[TheZohan]

They are all the same