Birds Sleep With One Eye Open

On Tuesday evening February 23rd, council member Gradgrind went on record that he wants the city manager to get a price for the Volusia County Sheriff’s Department to take over the police duties in Orange City. He said that the investigation may turn up that the department is filled with problems and should be shut down. He alleged that the investigation could show wrong doing on the part of more than just the lieutenant who has been accused of years of misconduct by 20 officers.

The officers who filled the complaint and then an anonymous amendment to include the ineffective and inappropriate actions of the chief seem to be targeted by Mr. Gradgrind. Maybe it’s the direction of a business in his district to go after the officers or maybe it’s just that Mr. Gradgrid is a believer that it’s the victims fault when abuse occurs. (more…)

After the recent objection made at the Orange City council meeting by council person “Gradgrind”, ( origin of name a character by Charles Dickens)to the word crotch  it seemed a good idea to give more information on the word. See below.  If you stop and think of all the really vulgar choices available for the school board lying and cover up actions surrounding the choice of Orange City High School name crotch seems pretty mild.

Crotch
Look up crotch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Crotch (or crutch) may refer to:

William Crotch, English composer, organist and artist. (more…)

10. Did you cancel the city’s Beacon subscription yet?
9. What is wrong with s*cK my D*cK as a command to road officers?
8. What letter of permission to work other than your city job?
7. How do I get you to take the fall for with holding information, chief?
6. You mean its in the city employee manual about permission?
5. What’s wrong with ordering the commander to supervise your own wife, Chief?
4. What are you doing to save us, Mr. city attorney?
3. What do you mean you did not know what was going on, you are the attorney?
2. I wonder if they don’t like it cause I won’t let the officers have their new cars which the chief and I said were critical to police services?
1. Chief, how come the bottle in my desk is empty?

For info visit http://orangecitycitizens.com

“We didn’t build the districts to keep any council members’ jobs,” Allebach said. “We built this according to the wishes of the voters.” Allebach hopes district elections will encourage new blood on the council, and new interest in political office. The West Volusia Beacon, June 15, 2009 Section: News Page: 1A

Now when Jeff said this in an interview there was no election being contested. When Jeff said this he probably didn’t mean he wanted new blood on the council this soon. But maybe I’m wrong and he agrees with me.

I agree that new blood and political interest is just what we need in Orange City. Bill Crippen, Gina Holmes and Anthony Pupello represent new blood and have a keen interest in the future of Orange City. (more…)

On Tuesday night the city manager said that taxes are not going up under the budget he has brought forward. He can say this because from his point of view taxes are not going up. His point of view is revenue to spend.

From the tax payers point of view this is false. The rate of taxes went up from $4.48 per $1000 of access value to $5.1953 per $1000. That is an increase of 16% but it generates no more revenue.

Residential tax payers as a group had a tax increase, but commercial tax payers had substantial reductions. In the commercial area i checked a few properties and found a reduction of 20 to 33% in the valuation. (more…)

City manager Chester Murray ended negotiations with Gel Corp about two months ago, but kept telling people that negotiations were complete and all he needed was a signature on the one remaining document to end  an on going legal snare. He ended the negotiations  with one of his out bursts of temper.  No deal was reached. (more…)

LVS Landscape Nursery, lead by Vernon Stafford of Orange City, installs the zoysia turf on the south side of the Library and Hall in Orange City.  The Orange City Library Association has been renovating and restoring the building that was originally built in 1919.  The Florida friendlylandscape project has begun to put turf and other ground covers to reduce water consumption and maintenance expenses.  Eight Live Oak trees were planted recently and a continuing project will be to remove the current water thirsty St. Aug. grass and replace it with other ground covers and grasses as a demonstration project for the community.  In the coming week most of the west lawn will be changed to Florida Ecoturf.  Participating partners in the project are LVS Landscape Nursery, Ecoturf Sod LLC of Suwanee, Florida and the Orange City Library Association.

Native plants and shrubs will be added along with plants that are drought tolerant and compatible with Florida friendly landscape principles.  The Orange City Library Association operates the hall and meeting room parts of the building and is renovating inside, outside and recently completed some renovations to the foundations of the building.

The Volusia County Library services leases a portion of the building and operates the library portion of the building but recent comments by county staff make the continued county involvement a question for the future as a move is a foot to end all small libraries in the county system.