Martin County Defender Issue 58

The Martin County

Defender

The e-newsletter for aware citizens

– No. 58

Traffic Quiz:

– Other than the expressways and U.S. 1, what is the most heavily traveled road in Martin County?

A –

According to the Florida Department of Transportation 2007 report, the highest AADT (Annual Average Daily Traffic) Two-Way vehicle count is for “SR714 /

Reflections on THE BRIDGE

The Traffic Quiz is my obvious strategy to slide smoothly into a touchy subject: Construction of the Indian Street/Palm City Bridge. It’s become contentious, an issue where both sides should be able to move to more common ground. On one side are opponents who all but claim that the bridge would bring ruin and desolation. Proponents seem ready to say that the economic sky will fall if we don’t build that bridge right now.

Let’s take a saner view. The Traffic Quiz numbers – which are sure to grow - make it clear that in the long run we must build that bridge. It is not only for the convenience of motorists or to promote business, but to provide safe alternate passage in case of accidents or other unforeseeable events.

A couple of years ago, road crews were doing routine maintenance on the Palm City Bridge. They tried not to be too obstructive, but traffic was lined up over a mile at this choke point. The delays were intolerable. In what could be called an I’m-not-going-to-take-it-anymore burst, I made a sign and stood at the foot of the bridge over a couple of days. My sign read: “We need a 2^nd bridge.” We still need it.

We are living in financially difficult times. Just as any family may postpone buying, say, a new car when times are tough, we may have to accept further bridge delay until the economy recycles. We don’t have the money. We’re short on the order of a hundred million dollars, give or take a few fortunes, to pay for the bridge. The bridge has been in the works for many years. Would another couple of years make such a big difference? Besides, we can always hope that Uncle Sam will come up with funding to shorten any delay.

Just as the family that wisely delays its new car purchase until better times, we can delay bridge construction. A family would prefer the postponement option to cutting back on food and clothing. Similarly, we must not sacrifice, as some have proposed, cutting back on vital maintenance and improvements to the rest of the county’s infrastructure, just to push the bridge.

Any further delay in building the bridge would be more acceptable if we spent some money on fixing the terrible traffic mess in the Monterey-Kanner area. Can’t we talk, folks? Can’t we all find reasonable common ground? There are so many other issues still left to fight over.

It’s easy to switch political parties

We’ve been hearing a good bit about how Florida’s closed primary election is being manipulated by write-in candidates – really faux candidates without any chance of winning. Even without manipulation, if both Democrats and Republicans are running in the same Commission district, Independents are frozen out, and party members can not cross the party line. We’re talking about local candidates concerned with local issues. Party affiliation should not matter that much.

In many jurisdictions around the U.S., the primaries are open. Everyone can vote for anyone. I once lived in a place where you could change your party at the polling place, vote, and then dis-enroll on the way out. If we choose, we can easily switch parties in Martin County. We have until July 28 to do the simple party switch paperwork for the August 2008 primaries.

EXAMPLE: Suppose you are a Democrat or Independent, but would really like to vote for particular Republican candidates. All you have to do is get a Voter Application Form and fill it in. The Form is available from any library, government annex, Tax Collector office, Health Department, or from the helpful folks at Martin County’s Supervisor of Elections Office at

135 SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

just off Colorado in Stuart. Their phone is 772-288-5637.

Or you can go online to www.martinvotes.com,

click on “Voter Info/Education,” then click on “Update Your Registration.” That gives you the Voter Application Form you need to change party. Click on the easy answers and “Preferred Party” (Republican in the example). That’s all there is to it. Remember, you can always switch back to your original party status after the primary.

MOST IMPORTANT:

In the General Election from Oct. 20 to Nov. 1, 2008, you can vote for any candidates in any party. The party switch for the Aug. 11-23 primary is just to help the best candidates get on the final ballot. That can be as important as voting in the general election.

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