Firefighters have contained a brush fire in the Alafia River area, even though they were stymied by the unreclaimed phosphate mine landscape of steep hills and deep gullies. ...more

November 9, 2009

After years of lax growth controls, Pasco County officials charted a refreshing new course more than two years ago by approving a much-needed rewrite of the comprehensive land use plan, the road map for orderly development. ...more

December 3, 2008

Editor's Note: We are republishing this letter to the editor due to an error. We apologize for the error. It is good that our county leaders are seeking sound suggestions for the future growth of our county. It would have been more significant if they had actually accepted and followed through on suggestions in the last five years. ...more

December 27, 2007

It is good that our county leaders are seeking sound suggestions for the future growth of our county. It would have been more significant if they had actually accepted and followed through on suggestions in the last five years. For instance, a number of citizens had pleaded for alternate arterial roads parallel to U.S. 27. There are still no through arterial roads unless you count the Sebring Parkway, which has a number of traffic lights, and is a number of years from completion north of Avon Park. Even the 2025-year bypass from south Sebring will stretch west into Hardee County and come back to U.S. 27 in Polk County. Great concern had been expressed about development in wetlands and flood-plains, to no avail. The recent decision to rebuild State Road 8 at twice the cost, because of the low-lying topography, apparently ignored that concern. Even after the county government bought a number of houses in that area due to flooding, the county commission approved another permit to build in Venus. The fact that some areas in this county are un-developable apparently is not a logical deterrent to development. The issue of conserving water run-off has been in the news recently, and the related agencies have expressed concern about employing a number of measures to achieve that goal. This includes preventing pollution of our lakes. Rain run-off must have a place (wetlands and flood plains) where it can be filtered into the aquifer. ...more

December 21, 2007