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Every meeting, Overheard at Gulfport Council includes things said, by staff, council, citizens, or presenters, of note. Some of these items do not fall under any specific agenda item, so we created this feature to call out these quotes.
Gulfport Lions Club
“The pancake breakfast raised $1,500 for the Southeastern Guide Dog Association. We had a huge crowd — 130 people there. We are having a dance on March 25. We don’t raise this money for ourselves. This is for other people. We started this dance last year for the first time to raise scholarship money for Boca Ciega High School. We were able to raise $4,000. Four students applied and each one got $1,000. … Anybody who has a generous heart and would like to give money, or something we can auction off in the silent auction, we sure would appreciate it. And I think this year’s seniors at BCHS will appreciate it.” – Tommy Bixler
State and Federal Funding
“We have made our state appropriation request to Sen. DeCeglie and also Rep. Chaney. This year we have submitted the expanded funding for sanitary sewer lateral Priority 2 repairs, and also some major improvements to 58th Street. … We’ve also been advised and notified that Congresswoman Luna will be accepting earmark requests this year. In the past her party has not. So we will be drafting a project, and number one right now would be the senior center.” –City Manager Jim O’Reilly
Pets Running Loose
“I’m really proud to live in Gulfport where our police department care enough to track down our owners to the dogs that are lost and find the lost dog owners. That’s great; I’m proud of that. But then there is a real disconnect, because why are these people not fined when it’s repeat offenders, which we see on Facebook all the time — the same people over and over. Our police do good things to help the irresponsible pet owners, but then when those pets bite another pet or bite people, we’re told the city can’t do anything about it, it’s a county issue.
“I’m having some problems understanding why we don’t have enforcement. … The victims of some of the loose dogs should be able to get some help from the city as well as how good our police are to the lost pets and their owners. Do you see what I’m saying — the conflict? It doesn’t work.” –Karen Love
“The director of Pinellas County Animal Control will be coming before you on March 7 to do a presentation in regard to different aspects of animal control and what can be done in the city.” – O’Reilly
Short-Term Rentals
“It was decided in December where we would go with regard to short-term rentals. We have staffed the [code enforcement officer] position. We are in the process of training on the software. We will be bringing you a report on the processes once we have those things in place. I anticipate that it will be the first or second meeting in March.” –O’Reilly
Watch the video of the Feb. 21 meeting.
