Letter to the Commissioners of Pinellas County + Video of Manatees Sheltering in the Bay

Reproduced by the kind permission of Ron Stephens his letter to The Commissioners of Pinellas County & Video by Dan Justino

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen of our Pinellas County Commissioners and Members of our Planning Board:

We have spoken many times during our e-mails about the "RENEWABILITY OF OUR COUNTY", the attraction of people to want to live and prosper in our County. 

Our County is "RENEWABLE" if we have a place where people look to raise their families, have a good working environment and a place where they can recreate as a family! Viewing nature and spending time on our beaches is a big attraction to why people come to Pinellas County. 

The clarity of our waters and beautiful areas to boat, fish and just plain swim in our waters are other attractors! But one of the neatest things for me, and my children and grandchildren is the wild life that surrounds us! 

Our Tides Golf Course has been a Gem of A Piece of Property that allows young and old to enjoy it's surroundings. Recently, a young couple walked by our property in the evening holding hundreds of golf balls they had gathered from a pond on the golf course! You should have seen them. They were wet, dirty and absolutely giddy in gathering so many golf balls! God Bless them-that is what life is all about! 

We live in an age where there are so many tragedies, worries and difficult times just coping with life! To be able to live on or near a golf course like the Tides teaming with birds, animals and aquatic fish and mammals, life takes on a new meaning. Dan Justino sent me the attached video of two Manatees slowly swimming behind the Tides Golf Course. They are back there every day. 

I know people say that golf courses are dirty places or polluters of our water ways-well I take exception for the Tides. This land as you can see butts up to our inter coastal water way. It helps keep our waters clean. Grasses are coming back! The waters are clean and fresh smelling!

The mangroves act as a guarding wall, helping to filter certain things, keeping the property together and affording protection to fish and mammals alike. Raccoons, and birds of prey use these back waters to feed themselves and their young! 

The Tides is truly a beautiful watershed helping our County keep our waters clean, absorbing rain and storm water run off from our neighborhood, cleaning it and allowing it to go slowly into our inter coastal water ways. 

For 40 years, the Tides has been that protector! See how the Manatees love the area in the video. Thousands of mullet thrive behind the Tides Golf Course. Thousands upon thousands of little fish live in the estuaries that the Tides allows. It's an incubator area for tiny flounder, redfish, snook, trout, black drum to grow and reach adulthood! 

What a wondrous place we call the Tides Golf Course! 

Please Commissioners, be true to the legacy of the 1985 Commissioners that saved the Tides Golf Course from Development. Let the Comprehensive Plan for Pinellas County Continue to be your Guide to"Protect and preserve our golf course Recreational Open Spaces" from the clutches of greedy developers! 

Please vote NO to any designation, rezoning and development of the Tides Golf Course! 

Respectfully,

Ron Stephens

Save The Tides Golf Course

www.savethetides.com/ for more information

http://signon.org/sign/pinellas-county-save to sign our on line petition

Download the movie