COMMENTARY

MILT THOMAS

As we get older, new years seem to come and go faster and faster. One explanation is that as you grow older, each new year has less and less significance in the total. Remember how long is seemed from the four years between starting high school and the start of college? Now compare it to the last four years, 2011 to 2014. Went by pretty fast, right?

Another way to look at it, at least here in Indian River County, is that time moves more slowly, like the high school/college comparison,  because every year seems to revolve around the same issues as the year before. For instance, the key issues in 2014 were health of the Indian River lagoon, All Aboard Florida, everything related to Vero Electric and the November election, the latter because of interest in the other three.

If I were to predict the top stories of 2015, they would be the lagoon, All Aboard Florida, everything related to Vero Electric and the November Vero Beach City Council election, the latter because of interest in the other three. It’s kind of a Groundhog year. Now, assuming some kind of resolution occurs in at least one of those stories to end the repetition, here are the outcomes that would make 2015 a happy year for me:

The cause of Indian River Lagoon’s problems will be proven and all affected counties will coordinate the implementation of a cure. Of course, there are a number of causes and they will all require a cure, but scientists, government agencies and concerned citizens have already come up with a potpourri of suggestions to improve lagoon health. As long as the efforts remain as intense as they have been, determining an end game to restore our precious lagoon is certainly possible. I don’t know about the counties coordinating a cure part though.

All Aboard Florida decides not to go through with its passenger train service. If that happened it would truly be a David slaying Goliath story. But is it likely? Probably not. David is more likely to be run over by a freight train. If it is true that rail system upgrades promised for money-losing passenger service are really a pretext to plans for increasing the volume of highly profitable freight traffic, the company is not likely to give up, regardless of how effective the complaints are from Treasure Coast counties.

FPL gives up on buying Vero Electric and the city council gets serious about cost cutting. If FPL finds another way to put municipal utilities around the state out of business, they might finally let our people go. That would allow the city to fully explore all rate cut possibilities. It would probably end FPL’s support for the Indian River Shores and Indian River County proposed actions against the city. It would also put a muzzle on the Heran- Vero Electric lynch mob vigilantes. On the other hand, if FPL decides to force the city to live up to its original poorly conceived contract, the possibility exists to influence November 2015’s city council election where two seats are up for grabs. If it is successful in having two more of its minions elected to join Pilar Turner, the bad deal can continue to haunt us. Meanwhile, if the current city council is successful in either creating a utility authority and/or following through with its efforts to cut rates, then this will no longer be a top story going into 2016.

So, in answer to the question of whether the year 2015 will be a happy one for Indian River County, it is yes, or no, or maybe, just like predicting every other year. You don’t have to be a Jeanne Dixon to make inaccurate predictions.