 Let’s start off a brand new post-holiday week with 14-day-old county commission email.
Last week was somewhat hectic and I never got around to looking at the weekly commission email batch, which by random selection was from Commissioner Jeff Kinnard.  We talk plenty about communities here and I sometimes forget the biggest one.
Then a tragic incident takes place, as it did Tuesday night following the Lecanto High School commencement ceremonies, and it all comes back. Prayers flooded Citrus County on Wednesday for Sheriff’s Deputy Andy Lahera who was directing traffic on C.R. 491 after graduation when a car struck him. He was reportedly in critical but stable condition at a Tampa hospital, where he was airlifted Tuesday night with multiple injuries.  It’s Wednesday and I have a list that’ll blow your socks off.
First: The County Commission had a great conversation Tuesday about residential road repaving. Probably the first time I’ve seen a full board, staff and public engaged in identifying issues about repaving and ways to solve them. (Here’s my Florida Politics story.)  Timing is everything, as I have learned.
Years and years ago I had a story about a superintendent of schools who was padding his annual income in a legal but somewhat unethical way. School board members didn’t know anything about it until I told them, and they weren’t happy.  A friend reached out over the weekend.
“Are you going to write about the question you asked Ralph Massullo?” Rep. Massullo was the guest speaker at Friday’s monthly Chamber of Commerce luncheon. He delivered a boilerplate speech about legislative session highlights, then took questions.  It was shortly before the start of last week’s county commission meeting when Commissioner Holly Davis said to me:
“Ponies? Saturday?” I’m thinking, “I didn’t know Holly went to the track…” Then I snapped to attention. “Oh! YOUR ponies! Heck yeah!”  Today we see what happens when a county commissioner gets fed up.
A certain amount of luck goes with my weekly commission email review. I generally pick each commissioner week by random, so it’s just a coincidence if I happen upon a commissioner getting specific emails during the week I’m reviewing.  It’s Wednesday so let’s talk about the Suncoast Parkway.
I attended a Florida Department of Transportation groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday morning for the next leg of the parkway from S.R. 44 to C.R. 486. The event was off C.R. 486 near Pine Ridge, where the next interchange will be when this section is completed by late 2026.  It’s out of the frying pan and into the bonfire for Citrus County commissioners after last week’s 5-0 vote against the Sugarmill Woods apartments.
The Planning and Development Commission (PDC) meets Thursday morning and will hear for a second time the Ozello glampground zoning request.  One of the biggest Citrus County political stories of 2024 may be unfolding a year earlier.
Sheriff Mike Prendergast continues his head-scratching political decisions, this time sending an email to county Republican leaders in the hopes of convincing them he is really, truly a conservative Republican. |
AuthorMike Wright has written about Citrus County government and politics for 35 years. Archives
May 2023
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