Is O’Connor Opening the Door a Crack?
This sentence really caught my eye while reading a January 19th article in 32963 by Lisa Zahner.
Zahner quotes O’Connor:“Looking even further into the future, City Manager Jim O’Connor has asked the Vero Beach Utility Commission to give him some direction as to potential uses for the power plant site after decommissioning of the plant.”
I say, who the heck does O’Connor think he is to ask this commission to answer that question when a deal of any kind is probably many years away?… And remember the referendum…..yes you all better remember the referendum. FPL will be LEASING THE PROPERTY FOR AN INDEFINITE PERIOD OF TIME before, if ever, the plant will be decommissioned.
So, the real question is why would this character of a “new” city manager be asking this “newly” formed utility commission to give him direction as to potential uses for the power plant site after decommissioning of the plant? Does he know something that we do not know?
I think Jim O’Connor needs to study the Vero Beach Charter which clearly spells out what the land can be used for if the plant is ever torn down and quit trying to confuse this new Utility Commission as to what their duties are.
In fact, after reading this article on 32963 http://www.verobeach32963.com/STORIES%202012/JANUARY%202012/vb32963_Vero_Utility_Panel_issue3_011912.html I can just hear the arguments now on the commission. Hill would be in a hurry to get the uses of the property on the table now and Heady would keep him in a conversation for hours about the pros and cons of whether we will follow the charter with a park or whether Hill might just recommend a gambling casino built on the site.
Premature for Connor to push for this or….just thinking. Careful folks… I am beginning to see another back door being opened….just a crack.
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We have enough piled on our plate right now! Don’t think this needs to be discussed by the Utility Commission at this time. Agree with you, Bea – Mr. O’Connor would do well to read the Charter for himself as time permits. He should be concentrating on the duties at hand. Just what we need next to the 17th Street Causeway–”The Power-Bally Casino”….from the sublime to the ridiculous.
That’s what I thought Cathy. Especially after reading the whole article in 32963…Sounds like they all have their plates full.
Bea, You should provide a clickable link to the article so your readers can read it too. Also, you should link to the VBUC’s adgenda where you can see what we are actually going to discuss regarding the land at the power plant.
We welcome any comment from the public at our meeting on the 26th at 11:00 am. So if you are worried about a casino come and let us know. But please be aware that no one at the January 10th meeting, not me, not Mr. Hill, not Mr. Heady or Mr. O’Connor ever mentioned a casino. It is not mentioned in 32963. The only place it is mentioned is here. So Bea, please come and put it on the record that you oppose converting the power plant site to a casino. I think you will find that the Utility Commision and the City Mananger are in 100% agreement with you.
Yes, Scott, I should have provided you all with a clickable link but…..I don’t know how to do it when I am administering this site. I could learn, and I think I know how to do it….but I don’t. When I showed the link to the 32963 article I figured most of my readers are smart enough to cut and paste into their browser and voila….you will be there.
You are right also when you urge people to attend your meeting so they can go to the mic and express themselves. Having spent 16 years on the Parks and Recreation Commission I can tell you that we only had a handful of interested parties come to the podium and express themselves unless it was some kind of a special call meeting like what we had when we did the meeting to discuss the potential uses of the old Dodgertown 9 hole golf course that the city purchased during the Mary Beth McDonald era. (another waste of
taxpayers monies in IMHO)Most before that streamed before the commission with regards to it’s use were in favor of putting it back to a golf course and of course, you can see where that got them…It has now been bastardized into a quad of softball fields for the Sports Village and the golf course….Oh well, so much for the wishes of the people.
So, back to your comments. The reason I mentioned the possibility of a gambling casino is because it is being mumbled about in the community and it seemed odd to me that O’Connor wants to talk about the uses of the power plant land long before the land becomes available.
I am not saying yes or no on a casino….just mentioning that you never know where this thing is heading and your commission is not the place for this discussion nor are we any where near being able to discuss this. One more thing I might add….Mr. O’Connor needs to look up the description of what a park is. Hmmm.
this early in the process of possible availability.
We have nothing from FPL on paper so why not focus on that and not the City property on which the Power Plant is located. Parks/recreation/public use/manatee-watching….sounds simple enough to me. Good response, Bea. As far as locating the articles, most of us who use computers don’t have to be spoonfed links….we can at least type things in ourselves….if not much else, Mr. Stradley.