While attending the Spring Lake Improvement District's board meeting, I was disappointed to hear the statements of a group of people who apparently banded together to dominate the microphone during the open discussion period. Many times, there were rounds of applause after one of the group members made statements based on their agenda opposing the SLID purchase of the golf course. In most all cases, their points or references to them had been already addressed and answered by the qualified experts: Gary Ritter, director of South Florida Water Management, Craig Wrathell, the district's financial advisor, and Gene Schriner, district engineer. The board members made many statements and points indicating their extensive involvement and research regarding the purchase of the course. ...more

March 24, 2009

Smoke shut down 10 miles of Interstate 75 in Sarasota County for six hours Saturday night into Sunday morning as a brush fire tore across more than 700 acres. ...more

March 23, 2009

The emotional rhetoric offered historically and in recent editorials to continue the Environmental Protection Commission's wetlands permitting program is missing one important thing: facts that document that Hillsborough County is more successful in protecting wetlands with EPC than other counties that don't have such a group. ...more

March 21, 2009

As Tampa takes the hose by the nozzle by banning lawn watering with sprinklers, other municipalities are holding off on adopting similarly severe restrictions, at least for now. ...more

March 21, 2009

As Tampa takes the hose by the nozzle by banning lawn watering with sprinklers, other municipalities are holding off adopting similarly severe restrictions, at least for now. ...more

March 20, 2009

The question was asked by several of the 200 audience members in several different ways: Why should the Spring Lake Improvement District buy the golf resort? ...more

March 20, 2009

Moving water across county lines has always been a point of contention in Florida. ...more

March 20, 2009

With the region's monster reservoir reduced to a puddle, the drought is hitting home, especially for many who have collected watering citations. ...more

March 19, 2009

For the fifth year in a row, the Florida Legislature is attacking local government control of wetlands permitting, especially aiming at Hillsborough County's Environmental Protection Commission (EPC). In the name of streamlining, legislators maintain that local wetland review duplicates that of other state agencies and is a reason for the state's economic crisis. Ha! ...more

March 19, 2009

A new water plant is online and soon will be supplying some 10 million gallons of water a day to homes and businesses in eastern and southern Hillsborough County. ...more

March 18, 2009