(Note: If ever there was a tangled web, this is it! Does this look familiar in Your neighborhood? "If anyone still thinks that passing a One Billion Dollar Sales Tax -- with the County gaining $300 million after bond interest -- will enable the County to build any roads, this incident should finally awaken them. Roads are not going to be built by a Commission that has deliberately siphoned off roadbuilding gas taxes and impact fees for three years -- for projects other than roads.")

September 17, 2003

By Scott Ellis

sellis@spacey.net

Excerpted with permission from the Brevard Insider

Malabar, Florida

To submit a Letter to the Editor: ESCMC@aol.com

Continuing a ten year tradition of forcing 50,000 Palm Bay residents onto Minton Road, Commissioners Higgs and Carlson voted -- again -- to effectively continue their destruction of the Palm Bay Beltway project.

The vote to build a controlled access road, similar to Murrell Road through Viera, deadlocked 2-2, with Commissioner Scarborough absent.

While the issue is alleged to be developing a limited access (Interstate style) Beltway, the real goal is to raise the cost astronomically -- to make the project fiscally unfeasible.

The project has already been moved west to drive the costs higher -- by creating more damaging east-west road hookups (versus the original plan on the west bank of the canal) -- and eliminated easy internal access to the Palm Bay Regional Park.

The Cities of Palm Bay and West Melbourne, painfully aware of the gridlock on Minton Road, supported the controlled version along with Commissioners Colon and Pritchard.

This type of road is evidently allowed for every other County Road -- including the highly regulated and planned Viera DRI (Development of Regional Impact ) -- but not for Palm Bay.

If anyone still thinks that passing a One Billion Dollar Sales Tax -- with the County gaining $300 million after bond interest -- will enable the County to build any roads, this incident should finally awaken them.

Roads are not going to be built by a Commission that has deliberately siphoned off roadbuilding gas taxes and impact fees for three years -- for projects other than roads.

Once again, the citizens of Palm Bay are held hostage on Minton Road, and left with no alternative evacuation egresses, due to a County Commission dedicated to halting growth by creating gridlock.

Brevard Insider is published 5 times a week except holidays at 1106 Ramblebrook St., Malabar, Fl. 32950. 321-956-0815. Fax: 321-956-8762. Email ESCMC@aol.com  Copyright 2003. Publisher Pond Press, Inc. Editor: Edward S. Clark. Assistant editor: Dan Warrensford. Contributing editors Doug Doudney, J. D. Tucker, Michael Moehle, Bob Brewster, David Russell, Chuck Morley, Bill Love. Contrarian: Robert D. Clark. Researcher, Electronic distribution: Tim Wooley. Subscription price $6.50 per month.