Began this blog in 2006 and still get surprised: “Thank You Alex Hagan. . .”

The blog post below from last Monday rocketed to the top for blog traffic and remains there. Why? The Nov. 8th referendum was a month ago but would seem there remains a lot of interest in this topic. Without further ado, the post titled, “Thank You Alex Hagan at WPTV/NBC5 for news segment about our City’s bond referendum”:

After an election or vote it can sometimes take many months before the results can be seen in perspective: what went right and what went wrong. On September 28th Alex Hagan did a news segment that received a tremendous amount of attention on this blog leading up to the November 8th bond referendum.

How much did it help? It’s hard to tell. But one thing is for sure: it didn’t hurt. Here are two excerpts from the text of the TV news segment:

LAKE WORTH, Fla. - A crucial vote deciding the fate of Lake Worth’s roads is coming soon.
On November 8, voters will decide whether to approve a 40 million dollar bond referendum.
     The city posted a tax calculator on their website to give residents the chance to estimate how much more in taxes they would be paying the next few years.
     “Time for new roads.”
     David Richert is clearly aware of the issue, but as he plugs in the taxable assessed value of his home he's not too thrilled about the dollar amount.
     “Looking at $109 annually.”

[and. . .]

     However, Mike Luciano is okay with how much he would have to pay.
     “$187,” says Luciano. “It’s not so bad for the service that we’ll be getting. Think it will bring more investment.” [emphasis added]

The media gets a lot of things wrong. But they get a lot of things right too. So kudos to Alex Hagan for taking the time to educate the voters on a very important topic here in the little City of Lake Worth.

And “Letters to the Editor” like this didn’t hurt either:

The Nov. 8th referendum passed overwhelmingly. Now the City can fix that “shabby street surface” on 1st Ave. South because the car “started rattling” and “will probably cost about $100 to fix”.