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Highlands Today

Avon Park Budget

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Ed Dickerson

Published: September 5, 2008

I want to applaud the Avon Park City Council members for looking at making the hard decisions. I think it's interesting that it has almost come full circle in the fact that people have forgotten that we live in a small city, but it looks like some people had visions of expanding greatly, which has caused some of our fiscal issues in addition to lower revenues coming in. Even though I might not always agree with George Hall, I applaud him for saying the hard facts at the council meeting.

When David Flowers was an elected official, he made the recommendation of establishing a county-wide fire services. This is a good time to take that plan off the shelf and dust it off for consideration.

We need to remember the police department and the fire department have basically two different missions. I would never suggest moving the police department to the county, but the fire department is a service that supports a lot of people throughout the county. It would be a good idea to have the Avon Park Fire Department join the county. It doesn't put anybody out of a job, the fire department still supports Avon Park, plus it allows the county to direct fire support better especially since our fire department supports the county and other cities because of mutual aid agreements. The county needs to establish a fire assessment to make things equal for all.

I don't think we should do the same with the police department, but I do feel we should look at what our manpower is. I don't believe we should pay anything for the school resource officers, if they are still required then the school system and the sheriff's office should finance these positions. It looks like the school system and the sheriff's office are going to help with the resource officers, but if it falls through then remove the positions.

I also feel there should be a study completed with other cities our size (square feet and population) to see how big their police department is. I don't know why we don't establish an agreement with the sheriff's department for detective work. Avon Park needs to concentrate on officers on the street. I also agree we don't need three code enforcement officers for a city that is approximately four or five square miles.

Again, I want to congratulate the city council on starting to make some hard decisions, but there is more work that needs to be done. Our planning needs to be on the concept that we are a small city, and it will be this way for many years. One thing we have to remember as we move forward with city and county planning it to keep an eye on what is available for the children of the community, they still need recreation.

Children are the key to the future and having solid activities for children also reduces crime. If we have to increase some small fees for maintenance of fields or make the airport manager part time, then we should make it happen. I like George Hall's suggestion that council members serve because they are helping the city. If they have to be paid then make it $1 a year.

Ed Dickerson
Avon Park

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