I am trying to be positive here. We obviously have a lot of experience and talent on the Board. We are able to articulate opinions, quickly "see" things, and are not shy about jumping into an issue.
I am wondering if we can design a way to serve the community BEFORE things happen...serve as a citizens advisory panel; a focus group; a sounding board...for some of the officials.
Most of us have commitments of home and family and jobs...many of us are only here part of the year...but we all have a vested interest in our community.
I have lived here for almost eight years and at first I attended meetings, signed up for committees, and offered my services...I stopped because I could not seem to get anywhere...and sitting through 3, 4, or 5 hour County Commission meetings is just not possible for me to do on a regular basis.
But, I would gladly serve on a focus group or sounding board, if "the powers that be" would seek input in a more focused way BEFORE decisions are made.
Thoughts anyone????
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SoWal Expert
I agree with WaltonGOP. If you think property taxes are high now, wait until you they double from having City tax on top of County Tax. Currently, property tax is less than .9 % (that is, point nine percent). The city from which I moved, had a combined tax amount of 2.8 % (city and county). I'm not sure how you think incorporating would benefit SoWallers. If you think it will make SoWallers take more of a stand, or show up at City meetings, than those who currently attend County meetings, I think you haven't been to a County meeting yet. It won't happen. In my opinion, it would just lead to more wasteful spending, and make things even more confusing.
Beach Fanatic
No offense, but if someone isn't internet/computer savvy in 2008 they are missing out on a whole lot more than a discussion of topics. There is not a more cost effective, rapid, or democratic way of having a discussion than via a free community message board.
And the "unfavored" ones have free access to a computer and help on using it at the public library.
It's interesting, I have to work hard to remember the days before the internet (how did I get through school without myspace or facebook?) I suppose I have been a user of it since around 1992, when I remember thinking about how cool it was to be able to print out ski resort snow reports from text-only sites on prodigy! I actually started a business that provided commercial RE sales data online back then; everybody said "that's cool, but can I get it in a book?!" So it's hard for me to understand that there are a lot of folks that still see/use the internets as a gimmick or toy. Even if they have free, tutored access to it, we shouldn't give them less of a voice or weight of opinion if they choose not to use it.
Edited
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