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Highlands Today

Arcadia bus trip to see Obama canceled

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: October 27, 2009

SEBRING - Spirits sank Monday when organizers of a local bus trip to Arcadia to hear President Barack Obama's speech at a Florida Power and Light solar power plant learned the event was by invitation only.

"I just received a call from (Avon Park Vice-Mayor) Brenda Gray that taking the bus was not going to work," said Arnold Wilson, vice president of the NAACP Highlands County branch on Monday. "She learned from the DeSoto County Democratic Party that it was by invitation only."

The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center is located about a half-mile south of the Hardee-DeSoto county line, and four miles north of Arcadia.

To rent a bus to just see the president's entourage drive by was not going to be feasible, he said.

"We had 25 commitments from people to go," he said. "They were going to pay $12.50 a piece."

Some individuals may still try to get down to Arcadia to catch a glimpse of the president, he said.

The president will make history today when he becomes the first commander in chief to visit Arcadia.

When the news broke Friday, many people in surrounding counties penciled in a trip to the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, where an array of more than 90,500 solar panels replaced groves of orange trees.

When Avon Park City Councilman Al Joe Hinson, who is president of the Highlands County NAACP chapter, heard the news Friday he was excited at the prospect, as was Gray.

Gray said she was disappointed when she found out Sunday afternoon after speaking with Jeff Griffif, president of the Democratic committee for DeSoto County.

Gray said she sent out an e-mail blast at 9:16 p.m. Sunday to let folks know the disappointing news.

She was hoping Obama was going to address the public, but that's not going to happen.

Gray said she saw the president when he campaigned in Sarasota. She was hoping this visit would be something like that one.

"I took off work to go down to see him," she said. "There was a long line to get in, but it was worth it."

The Arcadia visit is part of a two-day Florida trip.

On Monday, the president met with soldiers and sailors at the Jacksonville naval air station followed by a flight to Miami for a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser.

Today, Air Force One flies to citrus and cow country, starting at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, and then the president will travel to Arcadia, which is Florida Power & Light's solar energy mecca. A White House news release says the program begins at 11:45 a.m.

The president promised to cap greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, which would force electric companies to seek cleaner energy sources. Politics make strange bedfellows, so the president could help Gov. Charlie Crist's clean-energy agenda, which stalled in the Florida Legislature.

The governor reportedly will not attend in Arcadia due to a conflict with a Tallahassee cabinet meeting.

Neither Griffif nor Hinson was available for comment by press time.

Highlands Today senior reporter Gary Pinnell contributed to this report.

Highlands Today reporter Joe Seelig can be reached at (863) 386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com.

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