September President's Message

St. Pete Homeless Connect
Saturday, September 22nd
Project Homeless Connect will be at the St. Petersburg Coliseum from 8:30AM to 3:30PM. It is a one-stop “customer focused” venue connecting homeless individuals with a variety of services such as, medical care, legal counseling, substance abuse treatment, employment and a variety of social services that can help lead to self sufficiency

Your participation is important and we hope to see the community step forward to volunteer their time and talents to ensure that this will be a successful and meaningful day and a means to a make a marked difference in the lives of those who are homeless. Thank you for volunteering.

City Council Elections
CONA along with other groups has been working to have the City televise candidate forums for all residents to view. There are a number of hurdles (legal and otherwise) to this. CONA feels televising these is in the best interest of the residents of St. Petersburg. An informed voter is what we all want.

With current budget cuts and possibly more in the future, the City needs good stewards on City Council. With 4 seats (out of 8) up for election, this November general election is very important. Please take every opportunity to learn about the candidates and their vision for this great city of ours. The next years will be really tough. We need tough Council members.

My next request is to get out and vote. Let’s prove the odds maker wrong and make this a fantastic turnout. Look around you – if only 10% of those able to vote did, that means that one person voted and 9 did not. 20% voted means you voted and 4 did not. 25% voted means you voted and 3 did not. Encourage your family and friends to get out and vote. Volunteer to drive friends to the polls who do not have transportation. Vote absentee ballot if you will be away and encourage housebound voters to do the same.

My final request – please do not complain about those elected, if you do not vote in this our upcoming election. My first question to you will be “did you vote in November?” If you can answer yes, then talk away. If your answer is no, then walk away. We want you to make a difference. Your vote will do just that. Please vote November 6th.

CONA Goals
We are making progress on these. We had quite a few diversions over the past months starting with the CPO changes, through the homeless situation up to the budget crisis/cuts and department reorganizations. We are back on track and working hard on each. Over the next few months, CONA will have various speakers at our meetings to educate us on these areas. We are working on a “report card” to tell us where we are and what we have to do to reach our goal. Right now, we still have a long way to go to reach that “A” grade.

Snipe Signs
Technically they are the ones tacked onto the poles that advertise a “for-profit” business. We have morphed that name into any of those signs that seem to “pop up” in the right of way at busy corners or entrances to neighborhoods. Some are professionally printed, some are handwritten and ALL ARE ILLEGAL ! ! !

Travis Jarman is working closely with City staff on this project. While I would love for us all to be able to go out and pull up those signs, we would be putting ourselves in danger. Many locations are very busy. Stopping your car in the middle of a busy street to pull a sign off the median is not safe. Some signs may have jagged edges meant to cut you. That is not safe. So, with the encouragement of City staff (and Legal Dept), we are going to just report those worst locations and let the professionals remove them. They are doing that now, but need our eyes to direct them to those really bad snipe sign locations.

Can you help us? E-mail your list to Travis Jarman and he will let the city know. Just report only those “for-profit” signs that are in the median or right of way. If the sign is advertising a restaurant and it is in front of the restaurant, it is legal. Do not report political signs either.

Barbara Heck
CONA President