WEEK IN REVIEW

County Cuts $1.5 Million, Adopts Budget

SEBRING - Highlands County commissioners made 16 of 18 suggested last-minute budget cuts Tuesday night as they adopted the fiscal year 2008-09 budget.

The cuts totaled $1.5 million and, coupled with similar cuts by the sheriff, clerk of courts, supervisor of elections and tax collector, dropped the property tax rate by just under one-fourth of a mill.

For the owner of a home with a taxable value of $100,000, the current tax rate of 7.33 mills results in a property tax bill of $735. By setting a new millage rate of 7.10 mills, the commissioners dropped that tax bill by $25, to $710.

If the commissioners had made the full 1/3-mill cut under consideration, going down to 7 mills, that same tax bill would have dropped another $11 per year, going down to $699.

The main reason that tax bill didn't drop by the extra $11 is the county commissioners saying "no" to two proposed cuts. They refused to reduce pay raises for county employees from 3 percent to 2 percent, and also rejected cutting 10 percent, or $74,750, from the recreation money distributed to the three municipalities every year.

At the two evening public hearings on the budget over the previous two weeks, about a dozen people each night complained of high taxes and tough economic times, and most called for deep cuts in county spending for substantial tax relief.

Commissioners responded by saying they would consider dropping the millage rate by 1/3 of a mill, from the current 7.33 to 7.0 mills, and ordered county Administrator Michael Wright to suggest budget cuts to make that reduction.

Commissioners Andy Jackson and Edgar Stokes were adamantly against cutting the planned pay raise for county employees.

Because they are having a tough time with $4 gas and higher prices for food and everything else, Jackson said, "I gave substantially bigger (than 3 percent) raises to my employees."

Jackson, an attorney in private practice, added, "I was able to do it and I was happy to do it." He said county employees deserve at least a 3 percent raise against the rising cost of living. Commissioner Guy Maxcy looked at Jackson and quipped, "You must be doing OK."

"We're eating three times a day, so far," Jackson gently quipped back.

Maxcy and Commissioner Barbara Stewart wanted to go further than cutting pay raises from 3 to 2 percent and, instead, give every employee a one-time, lump sum increase of $750 for the next fiscal year only.

Maxcy argued that because times are tough economically for many people in the private sector, "I believe the will of the people in this great county is to make further (budget) cuts."

Stewart and Maxcy lost on the pay issue, as Jackson and Stokes were joined by Commissioner Don Bates to keep the planned 3 percent pay raises.

Sports Complex Remains A Diamond For Players

SEBRING - Players and coaches in the Florida Half Century softball association, for players 50 and up, liked what they saw here when they played a tournament earlier this year at the Highlands County Sports Complex.

That's why they are planning on returning to Highlands County for another weekend tournament in 2009.

It's the same with a Seventy-Plus softball league, which brought 70 teams here for one of the largest weekend tournaments at the year-old sports complex, which opened in early September 2007.

"They're coming back for a second year," said Vicki Pontius, county parks and recreation director. There were so many teams this year, she said, that some of the Seventy-Plus tournament games had to be played on "overflow" fields at Sebring's Max Long Recreational Complex.

"This coming year, they're going to use fields in Lake Placid for overflow," Pontius said.

While $4 a gallon gas and the national recession are reducing business at sports complexes everywhere, Pontius said she's optimistic about booking a full schedule of weekend tournaments for 2009 that will draw out-of-town teams to area hotels and restaurants.

In early November, Pontius and a staffer of the Highlands County Tourist Development Council will have a booth at the National Softball convention in Panama City. They'll do the same at the convention of the Independent Softball Association in Fort Myers in early December.

Those conventions are important, since the two major softball associations will be scheduling most of their weekend tournaments for 2009 before the end of this year.

From talking with players and coaches at tournaments this year, Pontius said, Highlands County has an advantage because the five softball diamonds have been drawing great reviews.

Sebring Circle Eyed For Sprucing Up

SEBRING - The Circle was transformed into a quaint, eye-pleasing and functional park in 1985 and now more color and improvements are proposed in downtown Sebring's focal point.

That first Circle streetscape project was the first of its kind by the Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency, which was established in 1981.

With limited local funds, the project included recovering more than 60 cast iron street lights at the city dump for installation in Circle Park and on the sidewalks around the Circle. The poles in Circle Park date back to 1914. The single-globe lights on the sidewalks date back to the 1920s.

Contingent on a Department of Community Affairs grant, the proposed project would not totally remove and replace all the sidewalks, CRA Executive Director Pete Pollard said Wednesday. Portions of the sidewalks would be removed and brick pavers installed to add color and texture to sidewalks from the flagpole to Wall Street.

"We are going to expand the concrete area around the base of the flagpole," Pollard added. The concrete area will be a little bit larger and surrounded by landscaping.

New trees would be planted with grates installed around the trunks. The brick planters would be removed.

Additional green space will be created.

"In areas along the roadway where the road is striped we have proposed putting in curbed areas with low green plantings to, again, add more color and texture to the appearance of the Circle area," Pollard said.

New concrete crosswalks, leading to and from the Circle, would be stamped with a pattern to copy the appearance of the pavers along the sidewalks.

The CRA is applying for a $750,000 Community Development Block Grant to help pay for the project.

County Looks At Mosquito Control Options

SEBRING - The Highlands County commissioners got some good news, and also some warnings, on Tuesday about the increase in mosquitoes in the wake of Tropical Storm Fay.

The good news?

"There is a pest issue, but there is no evidence for concern for disease (carried by mosquitoes)," Roxanne Connelly, a University of Florida professor who specializes in mosquitoes and mosquito control, said about the current situation in Highlands County.

The warnings?

Connelly told county officials they can't count on disease-carrying mosquitoes staying out of Highlands County, and they can't count on cool weather coming soon to kill the mosquito threat.

After listening to Connelly and two other mosquito experts talk about the county's options, the commissioners instructed county Administrator Michael Wright to come back next week with estimated costs for a mosquito surveillance program.

Mosquito surveillance means trapping mosquitoes at locations around the county, then identifying their numbers and the types of mosquitoes. From that information, county officials would know if residents face a threat from either disease-carrying mosquitoes or pest mosquitoes, and if so, how big the threat is.

Surveillance is critical because without it county officials can't know exactly what they're dealing with, according to all three experts: Connelly, Wayne Gale, director of the Lee County Mosquito Control District, and Frank Clarke, president of Clarke Mosquito Control, the biggest company in its field in the United States.

Wright asked Connelly if the mosquito season is likely to end soon with the onset of cooler fall temperatures.

"Whether or not we're at the end of the season, we don't know," Connelly answered. She works at the University of Florida's Vero Beach laboratory, dedicated to mosquito control research, in Indian River County. In her home county, Connelly said, spikes in the mosquito population can break out year-round.

Gale, who directs a $15 million per year mosquito control program in coastal Lee County, and Clarke, head of a third-generation firm headquartered in Kissimmee that does more contract mosquito control than any other company nationwide, both said an effective mosquito control program has many parts.

Both said an effective program includes surveillance of the mosquito population, ground and aerial spraying of insecticides, biological controls including mosquito fish and a bacteria that kills mosquito larvae and pupae, plus education of the public.

Roxanne Connelly, a University of Florida professor who specializes in mosquitoes and mosquito control