Around HereBy Leo CoughlinNobody asked me, but - …You read it here first - One very popular and veteran Largo hand will challenge Commissioner Woody Brown in the November election. It will be super interesting. Brown says he has not yet decided whether he will seek re-election to the Largo City Commission, but it figures he will. …The agony of determining budgets for local jurisdictions is now under way. Money is in short supply; property valuations are down; revenue will be crippled. Only two options - cut services or raise taxes. One large city on the east coast is thinking of closing fire stations, making drastic cuts in the police and cutting back on recreation type stuff. It seems to be happening everywhere. …How can a fellow go from college to a TV network on-air reporting job? Be the son of Tim Russert, the Meet the Press star whose untimely death set off a month of blubbering. …Word is that Largo city employees had a big laugh when they learned that in the recent flap over the coffee shop in the Largo Library an assistant city manager, Henry Schubert, never told Norton Craig, his boss, of the many complaints that had been made about the library's operation. Talk about being blind-sided! On top of that, Joan Byrne, the Recreation Department queen, fought Craig four-square on budget cuts. What disrespect! …You want to hear a blowhard who is the quintessential definition of an egotistic fathead? Tune in to ESPN (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and catch Colin Cowherd. You will then know what five pounds of whatzis in a four-pound bag is. …Our clever friend observes - "The military will ease up its enforcement of the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy. Homosexual behavior will be against the rules, but nobody will endorse it. It's like the ethics rules in Congress." …One of those things that sound so neat and succinct when you first hear it is the slogan - "Trust but Verify." Examine it, though, and you discover it is totally absurd and nonsensical. A dictionary definition of trust is - "Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something." (My emphasis.) That of verify is - "To establish the truth, reality or accuracy of." You see? They are mutually exclusive. …Only two members of the Largo City Commission list a way on the city's web site to contact them. If you call the number Mayor Pat Gerard provides, you get City Hall. If you call Commissioner Curtis Holmes number you get to him directly. …Why the taxes go up and up Dep't. - Used to be the health agency at the county level was aimed at general welfare; that is, guarding against communicable disease, making sure restaurants were clean, riding herd on rodents, etc. Somewhere along the line, the health concern morphed into individual care and, of course, costs skyrocketed. …Largo's big - and expensive - problem is that the Department of Recreation, Parks and Arts have become devoted to entertainment, hardly a government function. Key departments like police and fire scrape along counting pennies, but nothing niggardly about RPA stuff - spending about $25 million in the current budget. Whew! …Largo's municipal golf course has got to be the easiest links in the world - holes in one abound there. (I know, I know, they aren't links, which are peculiar only to the seaside in Scotland.) …The word is that Karen Seel is not going to run again for the County Commission and that Pat Gerard, Largo's mayor, is going to seek a county seat. …Curtis Holmes may be the new boy on the block on the Largo City Commission, but this fellow is making a huge impact in a variety of ways - all positive - on the city scene. He personifies leadership.
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