Fellow Citizens

We must have safety and security on our golf cart paths. All the time we are reading stories in the paper about graffiti, littering, robberies and harassment occurring on our cart paths. I have witnessed cars driving on these paths. These activities must stop and it is up to us to stop them. Reducing cart path crime and crime as a whole is on my agenda.

We need to provide our police force with the necessary facilities to drive this behavior off our cart paths and out of our city.

Let me state that I am a strong supporter of our police, fire and emergency departments and if elected will work with them to allocate proper resources to assist them to do their jobs in an effective, efficient manner. They do a great job for all of us everyday.

Crime on these paths will only get worse over time then it will move to a point where it becomes the "accepted norm". We do not want that to become an issue.

In economic terms, our cart path system is a "utility". This utility is a strong selling point for PTC. It provides the citizens with an alternative transportation method and an identifier for enjoyment of life. People know PTC for its golf paths. Cities in Arizona, California and North Carolina are reviewing cart path communities similar to ours. To keep it as an identifier and use it properly, we must keep the utility in place. Crime will reduce that utility where it could possibly be viewed as a blight, and go from a positive selling point to an issue of contention.

We need to review solutions such as increased fines for cart path crimes, lighting projects, litter control, increased patrolling and surveillance equipment. Create a task-force and generate a comprehensive solution on this issue and allocate funding to the project. We can ask our local corporate citizens to contribute to the project. I will look at mandating that any development in the city has to contribute to the "cart path infrastructure program".

A new, creative approach to this issue is needed and I will put it on the council's open agenda.

Thanks for Your Consideration,
Doug Sturbaum
Candidate for City Council, PTC Post 2.
www.ptcadvocate.com

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