Sailfish City - Stuart Florida Community Site

Stuart Fl - On June 1, 2008 the city of Stuart will begin adding fluoride to the city water supply.  Back in January, a referendum vote was held to decide the issue of fluoride and the city water supply.  The big stink is that not everyone who uses city water was permitted to vote, thus not getting a choice in the matter.  That in and of itself is enough to make you angry. 

David Peters, assistant director of city public works stated that the their is an ordinance in place that if Stuart provides water service to an area the resident is required to use it as their primary water supply.  This means that upwards of 5,000 people who live outside the city in connecting areas of the county don’t have a choice on fluoride.  They could not vote on the matter and cannot use an alternate source of water such as well water.  There is just something fundamentally wrong with that. 

The phrase just keeps ringing over and over again in my head, ‘no taxation without representation’.  I know we aren’t talking taxes here, but for a government body to force citizens into using something they don’t want, in this case a form of medication, without giving that citizen a voice in the matter is wrong.  There needs to be a re-vote with all people affected having a voice whether they live in the city limits or not.  If that isn’t an option, than people who don’t want to take fluoride should be allowed to use their well water systems.

I’m not going to side one way or the other on whether fluoride is good or bad for you in the water supply.  I’ll be honest, I don’t know enough about it.  I’m no doctor and I’m no scientist.  But I am an American voter and I don’t want to see my rights or my fellow Americans rights trampled on by anyone. 

First, how can a Stuart Ordinance be binding upon people who do not live in and are not citizens of the City of Stuart?

The people who don’t want fluoride have numerous choices–turn off the tap and dig a well—Call the Culligan man.

City Attorney Paul Nicoletti said the city code states Stuart will be the sole water provider for residents and adjacent unincorporated county areas.

Basically they want to recoupe the money they put into the system.

“If anyone has the ability to just punch down a well, we have no control over how much water is taken from the aquifer,” said Nicoletti. People who already have a well can only use it for irrigation and not their primary water source, in or out of city limits.

Brad,

thanks….but you do not answer my question. Nicoletti, city atty of Stuart, can talk until he is blue in the face about what Stuart wants to do and what it wants to control….but explain to me how Nicoletti or the city of Stuart has legal authority to tell a person, who
lives outside the city limits what I can or cannot do?

That I cannot answer. If you don’t live in the city and don’t have a say-so in city business then I agree 100% with you, you shouldn’t be bound to city ordinance. I don’t why but apparently the city has it’s hands reached out beyond city limits. Regardless, my point is that if you have to use the city water, for whatever reason, then you should have a voice in the decision making process just like any other citizen who lives within the city limits. My 2 cents.

We are on the same page–just looking from different angles. If somehow the City can tell me–a person outside of the City’s jurisdiction what I must or must not do–then I should have a voice in thatr discussion. My point is simply I do not see how the City can exercise regulatory authority over people who are outside the city limits.