From editor Gil Smart, “ ‘Coastal elites’ just sent wrong message in Sewall’sPoint sewer fight”.

Gil Smart is a TCPalm columnist and
member of the editorial board.

If you live in Palm Beach County and care about the water in South Florida, the recent editorial (see below) by Mr. Smart will make you mad as hell.

You’ve been warned.

Over and over again for decades our neighboring cities in Western Palm Beach County have been told they have to sacrifice more and more to help save the environment here in South Florida.

The tale of two cities:
Pahokee in Palm Beach County and
Sewell’s Point in Martin County.

The city of Pahokee is on municipal sewer and has been for decades. But when Sewell’s Point in Martin County had an opportunity to get off septic, their “Coastal Elites” declined because they
thought it was “unfair”.

Remember the mantra, “Send It South!”?

Please share the editorial below will all of your elected officials here in Palm Beach County: Local elected officials and your County commissioners too, especially County Mayor and District 6 Commissioner Mellissa McKinlay and District 1 County Commissioner Hal Valache who both represent Western Palm Beach County.

Without further ado, prepare to become very angry. The opening from Gil Smart’s editorial:

See, this is why we can’t have nice things.
     I’ve been in Martin County for two years, and every day I’m getting a little closer to understanding why our biggest problem — the perpetually fouled waters — never gets solved.
     It’s the deep-pocketed interests that favor the status quo, yes. But some of the culprits, I think, lurk in the mirror.
     Dateline, Sewall’s Point: Late last month, the town commission, after two unanimous votes to move ahead with septic-to-sewer conversions in two neighborhoods and a string of businesses, reversed course and pulled the plug. [emphasis added]
     By a vote of 3-2, the council scotched the conversions despite the fact the state was kicking in $500,000 and a long-term financing deal for the affected homeowners that would have brought their costs down to about $650 annually over the course of 15 years.
     If you want to ditch your septic for sewer, you're not going to find a better deal than this.
     But a vocal group of town residents had no interest in ditching their septic systems, insisting they worked perfectly fine, aren’t polluting the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon and resenting the fact that “big government” was trying to order them around.
     Town commissioners who ultimately voted to scuttle the project claimed the process by which neighborhoods would vote to switch over to sewer was “unfair.” But ultimately, I suspect the reversal had less to do with “fairness” than it did the iron rule of local politics: When citizens yelp loudly enough, politicians jump.
     So in Sewall’s Point, the “little guy” won, the people who didn’t want government to force them to swap their septic system for a sewer line prevailed.
     Good for them.
     Bad for the water.
     Bad, in fact, for all of us.

To read the entire editorial click on this link.

Tell your local and County commissioners the next time they’re asked to make a sacrifice for the water in Martin County to loudly say, “No!”

Why? Because we need to focus on the ‘little guy’ here in Palm Beach County. Focus our attention on cities such as Pahokee and Belle Glade who deserve “fairness” as well but instead are asked year after year — over and over again — to sacrifice more and more for the “Coastal Elites” in Martin County.