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Jean Ratliff, general manager of the Driftwood Resort, which <br />has over 4,000 owners, noted that the Board has signed petitions <br />from the presidents of the three different associations at the <br />Driftwood. She stressed that there are many people in the county <br />who enjoy the beaches and come to the restaurants on the beach <br />and the other businesses there, and if you lose all that, you <br />will lose a lot of tax dollars. What is proposed is not just for <br />the benefit of the beach owners. <br />Attorney Barkett wished to respond to Mr. Zorc's statement <br />that there will always be a beach. To prove that this is wrong, <br />he suggested that you just look at Miami Beach, and he further <br />noted that Professor Orrin Pinkney in talking about beaches talks <br />in terms of geological epochs of thousands of years, and he has <br />been criticized because he ignores present day values and economic <br />considerations. <br />Mr. Zorc interjected that there is no way you can compare <br />Vero Beach to Miami which has wall to wall buildings which caused <br />much more erosion. He contended that we will always have a beach <br />here. <br />Charles Vice, resident of 3554 Ocean Drive for 8 years, <br />stated that he is just an ordinary citizen who is very concerned <br />about what happens on the beach. He felt it is necessary to <br />preserve some beach area in this county, and while he knew there <br />are some business buildings involved, he pointed out that there <br />are a lot of people who own property out there; we are talking <br />about people's homes, and those people pay a lot of taxes. There <br />are also a lot of people who work in the beach area. Mr. Vice <br />did not think anyone here wants to see the ocean end up at Ocean <br />Drive or Cardinal Drive, and he urged that there be a hearing to <br />see what we can do now so we don't have to face this problem when <br />there is a severe storm. <br />Ralph Sexton, of 8005 37th Street and an oceanfront property <br />owner, came before the Board. He emphasized how long this has <br />been going on. It has been 6 years since the "Turkey Day" storm <br />when there was millions of dollars of damage done, and all we <br />have had is talk and study. Mr. Sexton noted that you have to <br />have a vehicle by which you can do something, and he felt the <br />proposed erosion control taxing district would be that vehicle. <br />He noted that the City of Vero Beach can study all they want to <br />and go to the voters all they want to, but until a vehicle is set <br />up and a method of paying for it is devised, it will never get <br />35 buctK 8? F'DuC <br />D E C 18 199® <br />