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Highlands Today

Avon Park Voters, It's Now Your Turn To Do The Job

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Highlands Today Staff

Published: October 15, 2007

There's no doubt that Avon Park's city elections next month are crucial to the town. All the more reason for voters to scrutinize the candidates –– even though there are quite a bushful of them –– and come out and vote.

A proposed ordinance that would have fined businesses and landlords who catered to illegal immigrants may have set the tone for some candidates to seek office, but growth remains the overarching issue for the city.

Voters should look for candidates who can help Avon Park navigate some of these growth problems, at a time when the rest of the county seems to be growing at a faster rate and tougher challenges coming from Tallahassee lie ahead.

Should a proposed amendment to double homestead exemption in Florida pass, the city could see itself losing $152,000 a year on property taxes. That's a lot of money for a town that is expecting to collect $1.5 million in ad valorem revenue this year.

How to keep the city bustling, without downgrading services in such a scenario, is going to require creative spending and strong leadership from council members and city staff.

There's pros and cons to big growth. How to attract new residents and businesses requires a strategy. Does a city acquire a neighboring water utility system with the hopes that its customers annex into the city, or is offering incentives to prospective developers a better idea.

There's other issues in Avon Park dealing with the municipal airport, code enforcement, the 911 dispatch and the city's relationship with the other county entities.

Avon Park needs a vision to help answer these questions and many more. Hopefully, the town's new council will help lead the way. That's why, choosing the right candidates becomes all the more important.

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