West Melbourne leads 2 - 1

What a week for our next door neighbor West Melbourne. Two home invasions this week. One dead one critically wounded by gun fire. What the hell is going on. Its usually the West Melbourne folks at the border on Palm Bay Road, Nose in the air saying damn glad I don't live in Palm Bay. Why West Melbourne is just a "bedroom community" with a kick ass youth football program. Its a " blue thang". Looks like your little piece of paradise is getting a reputation now also. And do not try to blame this shit on Palm Bay either this is not spill over.


Well maybe a little, one of our fine young men Patrick Feeley, 27, was involved in the murder of Rusty Locke and shooting another man during the home invasion. Rusty was a nice guy and was a friend to all who knew him except these punks. Most likely the whole deal was over drugs. RIP Rusty. Lets thank God those small children were not killed during this tragedy.
Then another home invasion on Martin Lane 5 men wearing ski masks break down the door and demand money from the homeowners 19 year old son. Gee wonder who he ripped off. I know this sounds like Palm Bay but it really is West Melbourne. These home invaders must have been sweating their asses off wearing ski masks in July in FL. Where do you find 5 ski masks in FL? In July?
We wont even count the Titusville or Rockledge home invasions/killings being that they happened way North of here.But those people also have nerve looking down on Palm Bay. What the hell is happening to our County and our State and our Country?
We did have our own Palm Bay Home Invasion. A house with a disabled couple and lots of pain killers found some masked punks inside their home at 6:30 am. The punks ran off and the home owner shot his gun into the ground. Smooth move there. I am surprised that the Palm Bay PD did not arrest him for discharging a firearm within the City Limits. It would have been easier if he would have just blown the home invader away.
I say arm your selves Citizens of Palm Bay. Do it before the time comes when you will not be able to. Be safe about it.
If you have children please please keep your guns locked in a safe and out of reach but where you can get to them if you need to. Teach your kids about firearms and firearm safety. The more they know the less likely they will get hurt for being curiousTeach your wife, take her to the range sign her up for the concealed carry class and make her comfortable and able to defend her self need be. Ever go to the Winn Dixie on Malabar road at night?

If some body decides to enter my house looking to steal my stuff or harm my family they are going to end up DEAD because
I do not think I will think twice about pulling that trigger. Just read the news its every where a total disregard for any ones life . These punks will kill you in a heart beat for a couple of bucks or your bottle of prescription meds. Look at their faces in the mug shots they are kids but they will kill you like you are just a video game character.

On The Road Again

Council woman Kristine Isnardi panties are in a wad and its about freakin time. Finally someone on the City Council thinks that there should be a little belt tightening with in the City budget. While we are trying to cut our own budgets and manage to live on what we have left after the Feds, State, County and City of Palm Bay have picked our pockets the City just keeps throwing our money around to take trips for business purposes all over the damn country. Our City Manager Lee Feldman keeps racking up the frequent flier miles like crazy. He is Palm Bay's jet setter. Of course they claim all of this travel is necessary for the good of the City. I would be real interested to see just exactly what the return rate is on how much is paid out against how much revenue all this travel has brought in.
The City managers office has spent $18,000 between October 2008 and May 2009. Hey Feldman I hope your not charging what you take out of those little refrigerators in the room to us. And why does Feldman need to bring staffers with him on those trips?
Feldman says that his departments travel and training budget included two departments that he now supervises: Economic Development and the City's public information office. He claims he is attracting business to the city, and get this..... Lobbying Congress. What did you do there Lee, take some Congressional staffers to a titty bar? and he is obtaining training to learn how to milk some cash from the big government tit known as the federal stimulus package. Hows that working out for us? You cant even successfully keep the adult softball leagues here with your managing. Is there training for that? What happened did you forget to sign up for it? Then there is all of this training for professional development like attending conferences such as the National League of Cities and the Florida League of Cities He and his staff learn new processes and "better smarter more efficient ways to run things". We can all see how that's going. Then there was the trip Feldman and Zonka took when they winged on up to Ohio to tour the Willard & Kelsey Solar Groups plant. That trip cost us $1800.00 Did they fly coach? You can get a flight out of Orlando on Southwest to a few Ohio destinations for $200.00 round trip. Must have been some nice hotel. Oh well they were invited to tour the place and Milo and Lee had get up there because ... they are going to lure them here to Palm Bay. It is not going to Happen! The state of Ohio just threw $10 million dollars at Willard & Kelsey Solar Group and Ohio officials are providing a $5 million economic development loan and a $500,000 grant to the company. So I doubt you can come up with that kind of Jack. Ohio needs jobs real bad so while you were up there didnt you notice the state kissing their asses. Again I want to know what our rate of return is here. I know its nice to get Fledman out of town and all.
The City parks department has spent $5,109 on training and travel so far. The Utilities department has spent $6,950 which is only half of what they have budgeted.
Growth Management's building division has spent $13,950 out of their $30,000 budgeted for travel. Growth Managements Administration and Land Development have spent $2,785 of their $6,000. The City Spent $1,831 for three board members of Palm Bay Community Charter School Patriot Campus to attend a three-day conference in Orlando. What the hell is the City doing running Charter Schools anyway? Don't we pay taxes to the County to educate the Palm Bay youth. Where's all those lotto bucks? We have no business as a City running a Charter School. Especially when the school failed. Thats money taken from something else. Feldman and Zonka could have taken a trip up to Alaska to see if he could lure the dog sled manufacturing business here. The City can barely keep the town afloat as it is.
Looks like Isnardi has got her finger on the pulse now and she finally spoke up. Watch out people! I doubt if it will do any good. If all of these trips were paying off so well the City would not be raising our taxes again the maximum allowed by law. Instead we would be running a lean efficient City with stimulus money falling out of the sky right into our laps. The City leaders would not have been begging and plastering the town with Vote Yes signs last May and they would not be raising our taxes again when we the residents are trying to cut corners at home just to survive this recession.

Its Fun City

Our roads suck, our streets are dark, we have a lot of crime, a good portion of the town floods when we get major storms. our home values have plummeted 40% in two years and over 10% of the homes in Palm Bay are in foreclosure, and the City is broke but hey......... Palm Bay has been named as Playful City USA.
KaBOOM! Named Palm Bay one of 93 communities a “Playful City USA

Wow what a freaking honor that has been bestowed upon us. Just who the hell is KaBOOM. I swear I thought it was a spray cleaner that the late Television pitchman Billy Mays was hawking on infomercials.
Turns out KaBoom is a nonprofit organization whose vision is a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Rather lofty goal but how far is walking distance here in Palm Bay.
KaBOOM! is the national non-profit that empowers communities to build playgrounds.

They passionately believe that play has purpose, and that unstructured play in particular helps make children happier, fitter, smarter, more socially adept and creative. Ok we are honored we made the cut and joined 93 other communities in 33 states in the Country that made the list. For Us it was the second year in a row we made it. I don't know about you but I am beaming with pride. I did not see any Beach side communities make the list nor did I see any cities at all from Brevard County on that list of 93. And they are always putting down Palm Bay. Didn't anyone tell them All they need to do is apply? And meet these requirements:Communities become Playful City USA communities by meeting five commitments.

1.Create a local play commission task force
2.Design an annual action plan for play

3.Conduct a playspace audit of all publicly accessible play areas

4.Identify current spending on capital projects and maintenance of playspaces

5.Proclaim and celebrate an annual "KaBOOM! Play Day"

Attention citizens: Get started in getting your community recognized by forming a play committee!
So maybe Palm Bay does not suck too much Today Because We are a Playful City USA and that's an honor no one else in Brevard County can claim! We are Palm Bay!

Death and Taxes in Palm Bay

Its July and the City of Palm Bay has now had six homicides. The latest last Thursday at Woodlake Apartments off Palm Bay Road. A Twenty something female gunned down in the parking lot. This latest killing comes a mere two weeks since the last apartment parking lot shooting that happened on Agora Circle. I am telling you these apartments just attract the crime like magnets. Anywhere on Agora Circle is pretty much the hood now. Woodlake was supposedly getting cleaned up. They should invest in a guard tower as highlighhted in a previous post they work great, it could have saved lives. Most of the apartment complexes in Palm Bay are havens for the lowlife. Any punk who has knocked up his girlfriend a few times can just move in to her free or Section 8 housing and feast on her food bought by the food stamps that our tax dollars pay for. And he doesn't have to worry about paying for anything because the good citizens of Florida and the USA pick up the tab and we pay for the babies and everything else.
That leaves the money that he gets doing who knows what, for those tattoos including the one on the back of his old ladies neck, The Bling, $200.00 sneakers, The dental work, gold of course and maybe some nice rims on that piece of shit car. Somehow they seem to get cash. Maybe it came from your house when it got broken in to, or perhaps just from selling some drugs. The bottom line is these "affordable Housing" apartment complexes are poorly managed and poorly maintained and full of low life scum. Just take a drive by the place behind the ABC on Babcock and be sure to do it during daylight hours and you will see exactly what I have just described. My prediction is that's where the next shooting takes place, what a shit hole.

So much for the Death lets talk taxes.




The City is coming after us again for more money. We all have to tighten our belts and lower our standard of living so we can survive on our measly paychecks but never ever have I ever seen any Government agency whether it be local or State or federal do the same. They just come and take more of our money. Here is something really funny, Milo Zonka is blaming the previous city councils for our current financial mess. Sounds alot like he is learning from the president. Milo how long have you been sitting on the council? The Mayor says he does not want to raise taxes but is blaming the mess on the Firefighters saying its their pension that's killing us. Weren't you the Mayor Mr. Mazziotti when that contract was negotiated? Its a little too late to be bitching now. And if you were not Mayor then its still too late. Its a done deal. But they sure did get a sweet retirement deal didn't they. Who negotiated that one anyway 100 % pay when you retire. I will say one thing the Mayor is against raising taxes but he did not make any friends at the fire house. I say its time for the city to tighten its belt up like the rest of us.
Home values have plummeted about 38% in the last 2 years in Palm Bay so that means our investment, our homes here in Palm Bay have lost almost 40% of its value so the City wants to hit us harder because they spent like drunken sailors when times were good. What the hell were they spending it on? Landscaping and sprinklers in the medians? What were they spending it on? Now the cash flow has slowed and they are hurting for money. Well so are we. If you don't have the money you don't spend it. Pretty cool concept, right? If you can not afford the cable TV what do you do? You have to cancel it and learn to live with out it. We can not go to our boss and say "you have to give me a raise because I can no longer live like I have been on what you are paying me so you have to give me more money". Well you could say that, but you might be looking for another job because he is going to tell you to F' Off He is hurting right now too. I know this is not going to be too popular and it is impossible because of the unions but a pay cut and or salary freeze seems to be in line for City employees or unfortunately layoffs will have to take place. They work for the City and that's what should happen when the city does not have the money to pay them. That is what any business would be forced to do. And that is what Businesses in Palm Bay are doing. Know anybody who works at Harris Corp.? Know anybody who got laid off or now has their salary frozen? Its how things work in the real world. How about we stop paying for a City employee who drives around in the big truck on Saturdays ripping up and stealing the garage sale signs. Is that service really necessary? I think we could probably live with out it. There already is so much trash along the roads whats a few more signs. How about instead of awarding contracts to mow the medians and landscaping some city employees who would have to get laid off can do it to stay employed. I am sure you can cut corners else where. I think Milo makes enough at his business, does he really need the token salary they pay the council members and Mayor? Don't they do this job because they love their City and they like the power. Does Milo Zonka run his business the same way he expects the city to be run? The City Manager just got a 10K raise do we think Lee Feldman deserved that? I do not remember anyone asking the residents if He should get a raise. Are we afraid he is going to leave for greener pastures? Highly unlikely but if he did would he be that hard to replace. Just this year Feldman our wonderful City manager cost us about $50,000 in lost revenue because he tried to put the squeeze on the Adult softball leagues. He figured he could jack up the prices and everyone would just shell out the cash. They did not. The softball leagues left and now play in Melbourne where they did not have to bend over and spread em to play softball at night. So that's money Feldman lost the City and we gave him 10 grand more for doing such a great job? Its our City and we own it and we are paying these people to run it. Obviously they have not been too responsible with spending our money. Its a tradition in politics, they just love to spend OUR money away in every level of government with no regard because they can just take more from us when ever they want. And we cant stop them we can only vote them out. So now with out any say from us, The City Council has voted 4-1 and has raised our taxes the maximum allowed by law. I hope everyone remembers this bull shit when election day rolls around again. Because people seem to forget about it. How much has the City spent studying Baseball stadiums? Seems like we spend a boatload of cash on studies for this and that $10,000 here and $15,000 there for impact studies and feasibility studies. Maybe its time the Puerto Ricans really do pay for their own parade this time. Sure Sam is going to sue again and the lets make the Haitians pay for their shin dig and all the rest of the people who want to organize their own little celebrations in the City can pay for the clean up, the porta pottys and the overtime for city workers and police. Because we can not afford it now. Times are tough. Maybe the big 50 birthday bash the city is planning should wait. It is time to worry about what we have now and how to maintain what we already have and quit dreaming about what we could have in the future. In this economy and with Obama's plans and the Democrats running things in Washington things are not going to get any better any time soon. With over 10% of Houses in Palm Bay being foreclosed on and its only going to get worse.

Where Did the Clerk of Courts Office Go?

Once again the good people of Palm Bay have been shafted by Brevard County. The County has treated Palm Bay like shit forever. The largest City with the largest population and they decide to close the new Clerk of Courts office in Bayside. It only took 50 years to get the County to open that office. Why not make the people from Melbourne drive over here for their business? Why is it that we always have to drive over to Melbourne. The people drive over here 5 days a week to work I think they could drive over here to do their business with the clerk of court. The road goes right by our beautiful golf course maybe that will put the thought in their heads that they should come over here to golf too.
Chalk it up to another weak performance by our City government showing who's the boss in our city. Aren't you tired of the same old crap from Brevard County. Where are our boat ramps? Well maintained County Roads? The truth of the matter is the County Commissioners could not care less about Palm Bay unless there is an election coming up then they stand on the corners waving their signs... Well screw you! Why do we bother to keep sending in the tax dollars. We don't get our moneys worth except when it comes to keeping the jail filled. They now keep most of the freaking traffic fine money the City gets screwed. And now we have to drive to Melbourne again to pay the damn thing. We get screwed on what they spend here verses what we pay here. Meanwhile our City government says "oh well" and starts looking into building baseball stadiums and we have got the police paragliding over crime scenes. Maybe its time to raise a little hell with the county. Do you think Feldman, Mazziotti or Zonka have the balls to rock the boat a little bit. Doubtful. We need to let the County know that we are pissed off. The Palm Bay City Government will not do shit!

District 3: Commissioner Trudie Infantini
1311 E. New Haven Avenue, Melbourne, Fl 32901
Phone: (321)952-6300 Fax: (321)952-6340

District 5: Commissioner Andy Anderson
1515 Sarno Road Building B
Melbourne, Fl 32935
Phone: (321)253-6611 Fax: (321)253-6620

Call your useless county commissioner and say I remember when you were waving with your sign at the intersection of Palm Bay and Minton Roads begging for our vote Well now your in and the people of Palm Bay are tired of being treated like the Little red headed step child.
Maybe we deserve the reputation we have in the county. Because everyone thinks Palm Bay sucks!