Ed Martin's INSIDE VENICE FLORIDA Blog          These are all the Blogs posted in February, 2010. Saturday, 27 Sadly, A Necessary Function is Having a Truth Squad Letter Writers Missed the Point (Reprinted from the Gondolier Sun, February 27, 2010.) The Gondolier Sun recently printed two letters with misinformation directly attributed to me. I apologize to readers for having to even respond, something I have learned is a waste of time when such misstatements are not in print. When in print, however, such comments become part of the electronic record, which will forever misinform readers. Mr. Read more | 2 comments Posted By Ed Martin at 1:38 PM in Category:Inside Venice Monday, 22 Are the Schools working well? You may not want to support the schools but if you think the facts support you that the funds are not effective, click on the story in the HT Click Here to Link directly to this article publisheed in the Sarasota Herald Tribune. Read more | 0 comments Posted By Ed Martin at 10:25 PM in Category:Inside Venice Wednesday, 17 COUNTY EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR VENICE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN--CLEARING ANOTHER HURDLE IN FLORIDA DCA APPROVAL PROCESS. County Commissioners voted to approve the Venice "Comp Plan's" future land use strategies. They found the Venice plan's identification of ranges of growth for future annexations and other areas covered by the Joint Planning Agreement between the County and the City to be in accord. Some wording in the JPA may need fine tuning to refect the shared agreement. Commissioner Thaxton's note indicates the County does not see an inconsistency between the JPA and the Venice plan. From Coun Read more | 0 comments Posted By Ed Martin at 2:11 PM in Category:Inside Venice Monday, 15 Referendum on Airport? A reader of John Patten’s website, www.veniceflorida.com suggested having a referendum on the airport, expansion, jet center hangars, etc. Another reader asked me what I thought. It would need some legal researching, but my belief is that it would not make much difference to the FAA. That is not to say that it might not influence our Senators and Congressman and that, in turn, might encourage them to support the voter’s will with the FAA. Many of you have followed the airport i Read more | 2 comments Posted By Ed Martin at 7:52 PM in Category:Inside Venice Wednesday, 10 C’est La Vie Department--You Win Some (see “Progress” below) and Lose Some. Tuesday at Council Meeting, the Council Members faced a tough choice--pass a resolution officially supporting a one-mil ($1.00 per $1000) extension of a tax dedicated to support of instruction in the County Schools, or not--given the hard economic times. Council decided to affirm their individual commitments to supporting the tax in their private citizen votes on March 16, but felt a formal resolution was a kind of “lobbying” the public, since the issue was not a City matter, p Read more | 4 comments Posted By Ed Martin at 10:31 PM in Category:Inside Venice Wednesday, 3 Are Superior Schools Important To A "Retirement" Community? Not long ago a multi-national corporation chose to build a manufacturing facility in a new location. As amember of the corporate board, I was party to the decisions influencing the company. Good schools and an educated workforce were among the top positive items that led to the decision. As mayor, I visited with the owner of a newly located manufacturing plant in Venice. He was working with the Economic Development Corporation which is supported by funds from the county, city Click Here to Link directly to this article publisheed in the Venice City E-News. Read more | 0 comments Posted By Ed Martin at 7:47 PM in Category:Inside Venice