Isn't it time our county commissioners belly up to the bar, so to speak, and start making some decisions on their own? After spending over $100,ooo of our taxpayers money on an outside consultant for a countywide fire master plan, the Hernando County Commissioners have now decided to appoint another volunteer board. Why? Is it too much to ask for our county commissioners to make some executive decisions on their own without calling for another study, committee, commission, consultant, whatever? Appointing new committees has become synonymous with waffling on issues for the commissioners. Apparently their wasn't enough discussion from the public yesterday to officially throw this master plan report in the trash so they appointed another committee to talk the issue to death.
Does anyone remember the citizens appointed by the county commissioners to Committee of 25 to review capital improvements and a workable Facilities Master Plan? These dedicated individuals spent months to compile data for long term plans, including the outcome of the old Brooksville Regional Hospital. The county commissioners completely ignored this report and sold the old hospital for $1.2 million. We are now being told a private-public partnership would be the answer for the judicial space crunch by Interim County Administrator, Larry Jennings. David Russell was quoted as saying he wants to see the facility built downtown to keep the county government services in one area. Too bad he, and the other commissioners, didn't think of the 10+ acres of prime real estate they sold in Brooksville which just happened to be the old hospital.
Is it too much to ask of our local elected officials to make some sound decisions in the name of the public they represent instead of worrying their political backsides on every issue that comes down the pike?
2 comments:
The old hospital was not a viable site. The building was simply not a practical design for a government center. The building would have required demolition and environmental cleanup, effectively increasing expenses.
Please don't criticize our elected officials and administrators when they actually, finally DO something progressive instead of staring numbly at a problem for years.
No one really knows for sure if this would have been a viable site (old hospital), or not, since the BOCC did not wait until the final engineering report was completed with cost assessments.
Being progressive does not mean "to act" on a situation just to move forward. The BOCC needs an accurate Capital Facilities Master Plan that includes funding sources planned into the process before spending anymore taxpayer funds.
Although I did not personally like Paul McIntosh, his administration did have Facilities Master Plan.
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