 Good Monday!
OK, let’s be honest. Who can even think straight after that Super Bowl? My goodness. Well, while they party like it’s 1999 in Seattle, we must trudge into the work week. The County Commission had a strategic planning workshop Friday in Lecanto. Much was crammed into three hours, including reports on growth and roads that contained so much data that at one point I wrote in my notes “info overload!” (Unfortunately, neither report has a link off the agenda.)  Happy Thursday! We kick off a new series today entitled, “When Mike has nothing in the tank, so he rambles for 700 words on inspiration alone.”
Mama said there’d be days like this. I write hammer-down for three straight days and then, whoosh, my brain simply says, “Enough!” Wednesday is the hardest blog day of the week to write. Especially weeks with what I call heavy government writing. After a few days, I’m ready for a course shift.  It’s Wednesday, so let’s talk about Citrus County roads.
Today’s focus is the condition of our roads which, as most know, is somewhat deplorable. The County Commission realizes that even more today than it did a year ago. In the classic example of “be careful what you ask for,” the county hired an expert to tell us just how bad our road network really is.  Hi, everybody! We’re just going to jump right into Betz Farm today.
The particulars: The County Commission plans to sell 350 acres of prime public conservation land to a well-connected developer who proposes 900 homes. In exchange, the public will receive $6 million, which will immediately be sucked into some government program. Got it? OK, let’s jam:  Happy frigid Monday! Let’s get the important stuff out of the way.
No, I do not have a snow photo. Sunday morning was balmy and 70s in Inverness, and that’s the way I’m always going to remember it. Enough about the weather. We’re talking today about strategy and vision. Try to look interested. The County Commission has a strategy workshop on Friday. They used to call these “goal setting” sessions eons ago; the name changed, but the concept hasn’t.  Happy Friday before the weekend bone chill!
Three words for today’s blog: Bunny, crate, and Bible. Let’s get to it. Buddy had been gone for six months when I brought Bunny home. Buddy, as you recall, was not a planned adoption. He appeared on the road, and next thing I know, he was lounging on my couch.  Happy Thursday!
A Citrus County School District educator reached out a few months back, asking to discuss a nonprofit she and her husband had started. The three of us met for a Cattle Dog chat and talked for nearly two hours. I was so impressed with their nonprofit, Peer Leaders in Engineering, because its aim is to teach middle- and high-school kids hands-on skills for success. That’s simplifying it, but you get the picture.  Hey, it’s Wednesday! A little bit of this, a little bit of that:
— The County Commission will get proposals from consultants to do the design work and buy right of way for the C.R. 491 widening between Pine Ridge and Hampshire boulevards. Commissioner Janet Barek, whose district this project is in, brought up what I mentioned a few weeks ago. It makes zero sense to stop this project at Hampshire when another mile or so up the road gets us to Deltona Boulevard, an entrance into a growing area of Citrus Springs.  Blame it on Cattle Dog chats.
See, I had something planned for today that I’ve been thinking about for a few weeks, so you know I’m ready to spill it. It requires a fair amount of targeted research, which I planned to handle Monday between two Cattle Dog chats. Well, the two became three, and that sucked all the available minutes out of the day.  Happy Monday, Citrus County!
Time to grab the parka from the closet, fire up the electric blanket, and line up hot soups for the week. Cuz it’s going to get cold. Floridians have an arrogance about the winter cold. Sure, we say, it’ll be daytime 50s and a little chilly at night. But we’ll be at 70 again in no time while the rest of the nation freezes. |
AuthorMike Wright has written about Citrus County government and politics for 37 years. 
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