1/5/09 The Palm Harbor Coalition per the article in todays St. Pete Times, has lost a lot of steam but are continuing on. It appears they are only now interested in including Ozona and Crystal Beach, with no mention of East Lake unless they consider us part of their Palm Harbor.
Unknown posting date (5/08??)
The following is an email from Jim Kleyman, Palm Harbor Community Coalition concerning the Incorporation of the unincorporated areas of Palm Harbor. TWAC does not at this time have an opinion as to whether this will benefit the East Lake Area or not, further review of the feasibility study is underway. Please feel free to send us your insight at tarponwoodsac.com.
All;
As spokesperson for the Palm Harbor coalition I want to clearly reiterate that we are submitting our feasibility study with both census districts (EL and PH) delineated, and that the feasibility will be analyzed with EL both a part of and excluded from the study results. As submitted in our Local Bill, EL residents will be given the option of either voting to join PH in incorporation as one entity, or not, separate from the PH Census District vote. We can debate the pros and cons after the study is completed and vetted by the Florida League of Cities and the Legislative committee.
We are neither for or against incorporation of PH at this point, but we want our feasibility study critiqued so we can make an informed decision and educate the general public as to the costs and benefits/drawbacks of being incorporated versus remaining unincorporated.
We do not want any disharmony between the communities created over the incorporation proposal or the analysis of the data. We are presenting this as transparently and openly as possible. I hope that, should you choose to incorporate EL separately, you can use data we collected, and we can help you complete your study and support your efforts to have a local bill passed independent of ours. I recognize that our reasons (PH) for seeking incorporation may be different than EL's, and that you already have identified grievances with the County that have little bearing on residents of PH, but that doesn't mean that we can't find a way to work together - to find some common ground. We included EL in our Penny funding requests to the extent possible in the short time frame we had to prepare for the Penny hearing, and would have been more aggressive on EL's behalf with more time and response from some of your community members. We have much more time to prepare for an incorporation referendum, and want to form some consensus before proceeding with a vote.
It is encouraging to see that you are well organized, have identified needs, and might be pursuing an incorporation study on your own. Ultimately, we all have the same long range goals - better fiscal management, more responsive government, and a good quality of life. Again, we support your efforts, and hope that we can work together on behalf of the entire unincorporated area of N Pinellas.
Jim Kleyman
Palm Harbor Community Coalition