Manatee’s elected officials fail citizens in hurricane shelter funds

In a recent letter to the Manatee School District, Chairman Betsy Benac wrote on the request for funds to upgrade the new North River High School to hurricane shelter standards.

She stated: “We also ask that you join us in a request for state funding to harden your new schools, so they may be built to accommodate evacuees in the future. We understand that local resources are scarce, and we believe that the issue of creating sufficient shelter space for Floridians in vulnerable areas should be a state responsibility.”

Apparently, our elected officials can find millions of dollars for artificial turf for our parks and other pet projects, but cannot find a few million to upgrade the $80 million high school to “harden” shelter standards. The priorities of the administrator, staff and elected officials come at a price to the safety of the citizens of Manatee County.

Interesting to note that the county has not offered to open any of its buildings to the public in an event of a hurricane.

Manatee County government thinking is like the Titanic — looks good on the surface until there is a disaster and not enough life rafts. Instead, they just choose to rearrange the deck chairs.

We pay $80,000 for each “elected official” and over $200K for the administrator to make bad decisions. We can do better.

For more information and the complete two-page response, visit the School District website under workshops Oct. 10, 2017.

This story was originally published October 14, 2017 at 2:58 PM with the headline "Manatee’s elected officials fail citizens in hurricane shelter funds."