Airport Cleared by Court

I don’t have any specific information, but I just got word that the case was thrown out of the Federal Court of Appeals in New York. This should clear the road to get construction underway pending the reissuance of the USACE 404 Permit.

– edited 1/26/2008 –

Apparently the decision was made late Friday and solidified early yesterday morning with the airport authority being notified just before their regular Monday morning meeting. We all, including the airport officials, expected to wait weeks if not months for this thing to draw out and certainly did not expect a decision so quickly. This speaks strongly to the quality of work the FAA and the other agencies involved in support of the relocation.

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This week in Pier Park – Buffalo Wild Wings, Starbucks signs up

Pier Park is gearing up for the grand opening expected to be held next month. The prep work is done for laying the pavement on the entrance from Front Beach Road. Yesterday evening when I was there taking pictures, workers were putting up the railing for the roof top observation deck at Margarittaville.

The signs for Buffalo Wild Wings and Starbucks are up with many more to be up next week.

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Someone tampered with the Airport Poll

It’s funny how the opposition is, and how unethical they can be. Last week I started a poll to see what the public thought about the airport relocation and had an overwhelming positive response (96% for, 3% against, 1% didn’t care). Then, today when I logged on, amazingly the opposition was up to almost 50%.

The funny thing is is that the opposition must not realize that my blog logs your ip address when you visit the site, furthermore, so does the poll, so it isn’t too difficult to figure out what happened. I just think it is funny that someone was childish enough to click NO 163 times.

I think this strongly speaks to the character of those opposing the airport and truly justifies this statement directed to those opposing the airport relocation:

You are a bunch of clowns.

Don’t mess with my polls, I’m not stupid and neither are the readers of pcbdaily.

The 2008 TDC/CVB Strategic Planning Process Begins

The Bay County TDC/CVB began its 5 year strategic planning process with a 6 hour workshop held at Edgewater Beach Resort on January 22nd. The workshop was moderated by Bob Allen, Chief Storytelling Officer, from Integrity Arts and Technology, Inc. (http://www.integrityarts.com) Approximately 33 round-table participants included local businesses and government representatives, CVB staff members, representatives from Y Partnership(the CVB’s advertising and public-relations agencies), and educators from both Gulf Coast Community College and Florida State University. All TDC/CVB board members were present with the exception of Rick Russell and Mike Nelson. There was no participant from Paradise Found Resorts in this important process which this writer believes is unfortunate.

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Front Beach Road CRA Update

The Front Beach Road CRA, or Community Redevelopment Area is moving ahead and on schedule. The current projects underway are the Churchwell Road rebuild and the widening of Beckrich Road.

The Churchwell Road improvements included rebuilding of the bridge, widening the road and adding 127 public parking spaces on the north side of Front Beach Road to provide parking for the public beach access point. Construction began in April 2007 and is on schedule to be completed early spring this year with the ribbon cutting to be sometime in March.

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Fed Slashes (and I mean slashes) Interest Rate – .75%

In a bold move today, the Fed cut the interest rate .75% to 3.5 from 4.25. “Analysts said the fact that the Fed did not wait until its meeting next week to cut rates underscored the seriousness of the situation.” Many economist expect another .25 point cut during the meeting next week. This is sending a strong message that countries all over the world are getting. Many other countries and considering a rate cut as well.

Here are the top stories:

Fed Sends Signal with Deep Cut to Interest Rate

2nd UPDATE: Fed Cut Puts Focus On Early 2008 ECB Rate Cut

What the Fed Cut Means For Your Mortgage

Rate Cut signals Economy is in Real Trouble

Fed cut shows depth of concern

Do you support the Airport Relocation?

Tell us if you support the Airport Relocation by voting in the poll on the top right of the site. I support the relocation as do most pcbdaily readers, but if you don’t, I still welcome your opinion, please vote. AND, please comment on why you disagree with the relocation.

In addition, feel free to comment on your opinion here or on the other post for the airport that was posted last week.

Vote Yes on Amendment 1 on January 29th

On the January 29th ballot, we will have the opportunity to vote on Amendment 1, that “offers property tax relief for all Floridians.” The main points are:

Double homestead exemption for almost everyone, from $25k to $50k
Allow portability so that homeowners can transfer their Save Our Homes tax benefits from their old home to a new home.
It will provide an assessment 10% cap on ALL properties (including rental homes, second homes, business properties, etc.)
Includes an exemption on the first $25k from taxes for tangible personal property for business owners.

You can get all the details at www.voteyeson1.com

You can view Representative Jimmy Patronis’ flyer on this here.

Bush calls for $145 billion tax relief plan

Associated Press

“President Bush, acknowledging the risk of recession, embraced about $145 billion worth of tax relief and other incentives Friday to give the economy a “shot in the arm. ” Bush said such a growth package must also include tax incentives for business investment and quick tax relief for individuals. And he said that to be effective, an economic stimulus package would need to roughly represent 1 percent of the gross domestic product — the value of all U.S. goods and services and the best measure of the country’s economic standing.

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Dr. Peter Yesawich of Ypartnership to present at Gulf Coast

A public presentation by Dr. Peter Yesawich, chairman and CEO of Ypartnership will be held at Gulf Coast Community College on Monday in the East Student Union Building.

The topic of discussion will be emerging travel habits and preferences and their implications for marketing for Panama City Beach. The program is sponsored by the Bay County Tourist Development Council and the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and I encourage you to attend. I will be there if I can.

Details:

Monday 1/21/2008 from 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm

Gulf Coast Community College
Continuing Education Center
East Student Union Building, 2nd Floor

For more information, call 850-233-5070.