Issue Position: To Save the Lagoon, its time for Local Control

Issue Position

Like many in Central Florida, as a young man often my Saturday's would include loading up the car to head to the Indian River lagoon. If I was up to the additional drive and hike Mosquito Lagoon was a wonderful place to greet the daylight with a line in the water and experience the excitement and quiet of Brevard's fisheries. Unfortunately, those days have passed.

A top economic driver in North Brevard is fading away, yet we are not seeing our state do enough to stop and reverse the detrimental effects on these waterways. Politicians talk, but it is time for action!!!

Divided into five districts to govern the water use and storm water runoff, Florida's Florida Water Management Districts are given the authority by the Florida Legislature to assess, study, implement policies, and oversee our state's waterways and watersheds. The Indian River Lagoon, Mosquito Lagoon, Banana River, and all other coastal Brevard estuaries are currently governed under the St. Johns River Water Management District. A district which stretches from the southern most line of the Indian River, northward encompassing Orlando, Gainesville, eventually ending at the Georgia state line. Based in Palatka, the board, scientists, and staff work hard to ensure the future of our natural resources, but I believe, it has become too large to handle.

When elected as your representative in the Florida Legislature, I propose it is time for a new district: The Indian River Water Management District. It's establishment does not create a new bureaucracy, it establishes local control. A district focused on three things:

- Scientific determination of estuary problems

- Development of long term strategies to revive and protect

- Implementing those strategies to ensuring success

I propose that this district would run from Ponce Inlet in the north, to the Jupiter Inlet to the south, and roughly westward to Interstate 95.

I want to help, but need your help. Quite simply I need your vote in November. I will fight to protect your jobs, but I need your vote. I will fight for the lagoon and estuaries, but I need your vote. I will work with local governments and protect the riches of North Brevard, but I need your vote. In order to ensure that on future Saturday mornings our sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters have a healthy place to enjoy the outdoors as we did not too many years ago, I NEED YOUR VOTE!

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