Some Pasco County commissioners want to continue full speed ahead on the long-delayed plan to extend Ridge Road east to the Suncoast Parkway and beyond. ...more

January 8, 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

Tom Stracke said flooding was not a problem when he moved in 1980 into his home on Reynoldswood Drive, which borders Old Ehrlich Road and several acres of wetlands. ...more

December 22, 2007

Pasco County officials on Thursday gave the developers of Meadow Pointe another year to extend Beardsley Avenue eastward from its junction with Meadow Pointe Boulevard. ...more

December 21, 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

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." - John Muir, 1911. ...more

December 3, 2007

Environmentalists were successful Thursday in persuading the Hillsborough County Commission to postpone passage of new wetlands regulations that they say would make it too easy for farmers to destroy small wetlands. ...more

November 16, 2007

Thursday marked a new era in the leadership of the Hillsborough County Commission. ...more

November 9, 2007

TAMPA - A new era in the leadership of the Hillsborough County Commission began this morning. Commissioners elected Ken Hagan to serve as chairman, the first time in three years there has been a change in the board's top leadership post. ...more

November 8, 2007

Hillsborough County commissioners found themselves neck deep in political muck when they abruptly voted to get rid of the county's wetlands protections last summer. ...more

November 7, 2007