Detours: a country in search of direction
On the eve of the election, a reporter and photographer set out for Washington, via America. We tell stories from seven towns, touching on seven issues from politics and real life.
Friday Night Rewind It doesn't matter which team you cheer for. We've got video previews of every high school football program in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando County.
A half-dozen years ago, Zephyrhills residents gathered to identify the city's strengths and weaknesses and to devise a strategy for tackling the quality of life issues confronting the area.
About 30 residents came to each of the three so-called visioning sessions. They worried about crime, wondered about annexations and impact fees, and wanted a performing arts-community center and more activities for the kids.
Today, they still worry about crime and growth, but bricks and mortar are taking a back seat to asphalt and road stripes.
The 345 people who responded to a public opinion survey listed traffic congestion and road conditions as their top concern. The survey, released this week, was conducted by graduate students at the University of South Florida's public administration program. It mirrors findings from a year ago when growth and development become a higher priority than library services or a performing arts center.
Stuff for the kids? Well, the city handled that, adding a skate park and water park to its recreational amenities since 2002. Now, if they could just get the darn kids to skate at the park and not through downtown.
Building more roads at a time of shrinking revenues is the same dilemma facing the state and other local governments, some of whom are doing their own goal-setting. It must be just as easy to take a drive.
Entering Zephyrhills from the north, motorists are greeted by the new commercialism of Lowe's, a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Ruby Tuesday's that sit across the highway from heavy construction equipment moving mounds of earth in anticipation of the former Gore's Dairy turning into suburban housing.
That is the new Zephyrhills.
Almost immediately, you come down the slope of U.S. 301, and along the right-hand side of the road is the Spanish Trails mobile home community and a buffet restaurant.
That is the old Zephyrhills.
The city is growing younger — the student population at Woodlands Elementary is the fourth largest of Pasco's 43 elementary schools — but it remains a retirement haven popular with the seasonal residents who live, shop, eat and yes, drive their cars in the city each winter. Still, snowbirds aren't the exclusive reason for congestion. Tuesday afternoon, even before schools let out for the day, motorists traveled no faster than 25 mph as they approached the intersection of Eiland Boulevard. Traffic remained heavy until west-bound vehicles diverted to Sixth Avenue. If it were March instead of May, we wouldn't be moving that fast.
The city is aware of its transportation needs. Zephyrhills' capital spending plan for the next three years includes work on Simons Road, Dean Dairy Road, 18th Avenue Extension and traffic signals on Eiland Boulevard. However, the main congestion on U.S. 301 through the city and on State Road 54 to the west remains outside the city's bailiwick.
The public opinion survey also indicated 13 percent of the respondents favor cutting services over higher tax payments to balance the budget. Almost 45 percent said to put capital spending on hold if it would make the bottom line better.
Therein lies a paradox. The same poll showed people also said they want more sidewalks, wider and better roads, efficient traffic signals, more policing for speeders, better maintenance of city parks and more code enforcement.
Nothing is free. Sidewalks and traffic signals are part of the capital spending plan. Police and code enforcement personnel carry salaries that must be paid each year. And the city is committed to building a $5-million library to replace its cramped quarters over the next five years.
Ninety-nine of the respondents get it, saying the city should balance its budget by charging user fees for services that are currently free. Likewise, people who rate city services as good or excellent are less likely to protest that their taxes are too high, the poll found.
Oh, yes, someone did say to get rid of the police chief and city manager. You just knew one malcontent would throw that in even though the residents who think negatively of city government, its elected officials or appointed manager registered at less than 7 percent.
Another subgroup showed up in the single digits, too. People who have attended a City Council meeting measured less than 9 percent. Even fewer read council minutes online.
In Zephyrhills, people are so satisfied with their local government, they ignore it.
[Last modified: May 14, 2008 05:38 PM]
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