Mayor Edmonson, you offer us platitudes and, of course, nothing specific- allow me. For 10 years, a vast majority of NE Clearwater residents begged and pleaded with the city council not to put curbing where we have never had it or needed it.

 

You chose to ignore us and listen to the only person who stood to profit from the NE street project, Kevin Bittner. In the end, he gave us such poor quality streets,  that short of tearing it all up and starting over, it can never be repaired. Kevin Bittner  turned out to be a  far better salesman than an engineer. We now must live with these poorly built streets.

 

Mayor Edmonson, you tell us how proud you are of John Schmidt’s maintenance department, who have a long history of neglecting our city streets. I’ve lived here for over 20 years and I’ve never seen a city employee make an effort to clean up our sewer drains. I’m not naive- I know that they have many different jobs to do.

 

But their priorities have always been upside-down. They continue to do the easy work, picking up sticks and emptying trash cans, while the brand new curbing and storm sewers, in front of our homes, remain choked with mud and debris, getting worse every week. I can only assume that they have no plans of cleaning up the mess.

 

If you drove by our homes, you would think we had no maintenance department. Clearly, John Schmidt, just like his predecessor, needs over-sight and supervision, but no-one on this city council will recognize that and take the initiative.

 

Mayor Edmonson, you tell us how proud you are of how well you and the other council members work together.

 

Yet not long ago, you and the council were bickering and squabbling, like children on the play-ground, unable to settle your personality conflicts. Your egos and personal agendas getting in each others way, to the point where you couldn’t get the smallest thing accomplished. You were an embarrassment to yourselves and the city of Clearwater.

 

Mayor Edmonson, you have very little to be proud of, and your words remain empty and meaningless. Stop insulting our intelligence.