Rant and Rave

So now people who snorkled the river for decades searching for Indian artifacts are considered common criminals for “harming” the ecosystem of the river but deadhead loggers who damage boatramps, destroy shoals, cause bank erosion and permanently misplace the river bottom are considered celebrities by locals. I appreciate the county and state for clarifying this injustice and their stance on this issue regarding these “evil” arrowhead hunters.

The Crapps family has been generous to our community, no doubt. Buying the mansion is another fool’s errand though. This is more of “Free Money Sonny’s” handy work, we don’t need this white elephant and it will be a millstone forever. The free money is fixin’ to be gone, boys, along with a lot of ag subsidies. Ya’ll better start looking to attract profitable, self reliant business here & quick! The catalyst park is another prime example of this. It ain’t working out real well. The liquor vote is a signal to investors that we are trying to be a part of the real world. No one is going to invest in a county that uses the “law” to dictate morality. We need to look real hard at the immigrant thing here in light of tragic events this week, this is costing legal tax payers a fortune in many aspects. The #1 healthcare provider here are the taxpayers. We need solid growth & private investment, not grant money.

DUH!!! Alcohol is legal and has been since the nationwide repeal of prohibition. Only a very few places in this country try to remain stuck in the past, like here. Even the Mormons in Utah passed a law requiring mixed drinks to contain 1.5 oz. of alcohol. This was done to bolster tourism & send a message that they welcome visitors. Prohibition was directly responsible for the rise of organized crime and todays drug smuggling operations

I find it amazing that people believe that by legalizing alcohol we will have any more people drinking in the county than we already do. Those who drink now will continue to drink they just won’t have to travel so far from home to do so. It seems to me this would cause less accidents rather than more. Those who don’t drink won’t start just because they can now go to a local store instead of one in another county.

As a non-drinker that toes line in Christian values, I truly believe we must change the liquor law. Grants & subsidies are going to vanish quickly, especially for the counties that refuse to pull their weight. We must get manufacturing jobs here, but it would be quite hard to get people to relocate to a dry county. Tourism is the #1 source of income in Fl. We have a lot to offer, but it won’t happen without this change. It represents a vast source of revenue & jobs, not just serving liquor. Construction jobs pay well and someone must build the hotels, restaurants,manufacturing facilities, and the businesses that serve & support them, it’s not just jobs in bars. Medical and the related tech services are badly needed here. We have the highest crude mortality rate in N. Fl., millions of $$ leave here annually because we lack medical care for a 40k population. They will not set up shop in a county where Medicaid is the primary health care provider. Please,calm the emotions and act rationally about this.

 This is addressed to all those who are opposed to changing the Wet/Dry status of Suwannee County.  Those who are against this changed have been in a state of delusion for quite some time now and have staggered the growth of Live Oak and the surrounding townships.  The first thing I would like to say is that I am in agreement with most residents who do not want to see too much growth that would destroy the “Mayberry” like atmosphere, but growth is necessary.  Growth provides a number of positive areas that outnumber the negative.  

  • Growth provides badly needed jobs and tax revenue.   The youth here graduating from school today do not have much to look forward to as way of jobs that would help them in their quest to further their education to go off to college or universities.   We could have finer restaurants such as a Texas Roadhouse,

Outback, Logan’s, Olive Garden and more.  Having a Denny’s or IHOP would be nice to have here.  Let’s face it, Live Oak or Suwannee County does not have much in way of fine dining.  Having these restaurants here would stop a lot of the tax revenue from going to other counties and you wouldn’t have to drive almost thirty miles if you wanted to go out.  Everything would be more localized for

the residents here and would accommodate the passing travelers off of Interstate 10 which would bring in a lot of tax revenue to Suwannee.

• The tax revenue generated from all this could provide funds to repair the streets especially the one behind the Courthouse where we pay our taxes.  

Repairs could be made to bring back the historic beauty of the downtown buildings.  Take just a minute and think about how much tax revenue leaves Suwannee County everyday and especially over the weekend when the residents travel from here to our neighboring counties to vacillate their businesses.  We

don’t even have a place to go to the movies. Why?   I hate to say it, but the opponents to changing the alcohol status in Suwannee County are a bunch of hypocrites.  

• I say this because little do they know or want to acknowledge it,  Suwannee County has been a “Wet County” for some time now.  I can feel the blood pressure going up now of those opponents who are saying “no way”.   Without naming the businesses who sell beer and wine which contain a lower amount of alcohol maybe 5% it is still an alcoholic beverage.  You can get just as intoxicated drinking beer and wine which would put you over the legal limit to drive than you can drinking harder liquors such as Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, Wild Turkey and more, that only gets you more intoxicated faster because of the alcohol level in them.  

  • If an officer of the Law who stops you for suspected DUI  and gives you a breathalyzer test, he or she doesn’t bother to ask if you were drinking beer, wine, or hard liquors etc.  The alcohol level in your blood speaks for itself and off to jail you go.

• People are going to drink one way or another and you are not going to stop it.  They will drive the extra distance to get whatever they want and drive back from other counties.  Even State Attorney Robert L. Jarvis in the Suwannee Democrat dated March 18, 2011 states:  “by taking a strictly economic viewpoint, allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages could be beneficial to Suwannee County.”

I rest my case to those how oppose this change.

This is to Suwannee Yes. How do you determine that making alcohol readily available will lower the number of alcohol-related vehicle accidents in the county. On the contrary, we may see the numbers skyrocket if the county becomes wet. How will a wet county allow us to better address the problems of underage drinking. Seems to me the opposite message would be sent. It is hard to fool young people. We don’t need to send them the message that drinking is okay, which is what we would be doing if we go wet. Come on Suwannee Yes, you know that going wet will not allow the county as a whole to prosper, only a few people will benefit. Does not seem worth the compromising of morals to only allow the rich to become richer. Let’s stand tall. Send the message that we are proud of our dry county. We don’t want the type of growth that a wet county will bring. Let’s change the slogan to Suwannee No and Proud.