Submitted by Susan Hardee Steger
March 25, 2016 11:52 a.m.
Residents and visitors alike will see this clip scheduled to run on local cable stations from now until the end of April. The 30 second spot is part of a $10,000 campaign to promote clean beaches. “This is the final piece of the initial [clean beaches] program . . .” said Gil Langley, president and CEO of the A.I. Convention and Vistors Bureau. In addition to television advertising, signs and brochures were produced bringing the cost of the clean beaches campaign to approximately $10,000.
What a great Idea, What happens after April, when the Tourist Season really kicks in?Every Resort, and Hotel, should have this clip running on there TV Channel 24/7.
This is an effort to work on a much larger and complex issue that completely misses its target. The issue with this ad and the three ads now running admonishing residents to “be nice to our visitors because they are very nice to us”, is that they all target residents. As has been presented to the County Commissioners and Mr. Langley in the past, the issue is the abandonment of property, dangerous deep holes dug in the sand and left unfilled, etc is created largely BY visitors. Additionally, the county has no dedicated and consistent program set up to clear up the beaches routinely like the city does. In each of the last three years, TDC has demonstrated substantial increases in revenue from bed tax and yet no program to inform or educate visitors or clean up after them is in place. In fact, the BoCC ordinance as currently drafted wants to shift the entire burden of responsibility for informing and managing the problem with visitors away from themselves and the TDC who spend millions to invite them here onto the folks who rent out their places via the bed tax rolls. This is very problematic as the folks who pay bed tax are either large hotels or absentee home and condo owners rent via sites like VRBO who have no real method of ensuring the literature is delivered to their guests or that their guests are adhering to the suggested guidelines. They are creating an ordinance with absolutely no teeth, whose message will never be delivered to the right audience so that our visitor will continue to act as irresponsibly as they do now. It has repeatedly been suggested to the BoCC and their committee working on the ordinance that a simple “leave no trace” policy in the evening running through to early mornings daily is a very straightforward way to accomplish all of this. Modeling of and cooperating with the city approach would get the job done and eliminate any confusion by tourists as to how to protect our beaches and wildlife. Instead they are spending money on TV ads directed at locals. The money they are spending on these ads would be far better spent on a daily beach sweep program similar to the one operated by the city. Public hearings on the matter will be held at the BoCC meeting on April 20th at 9:00 a.m. and again on April 26th at 6 p.m. I strongly urge the public to request a copy of the draft ordinance, study it and then come out and hear more and see the photos of the problems before it is too late and the poorly worded, cumbersome, expensive and potentially ineffective draft ordinance is adopted. We can and we must demand better than what is proposed.
As a frequent visitor to the beach and resident of Nassau County since 1995, I have seen the commercial as well as the sign posted @ Scott Beach Access. My husband and I are interested if there is any action in place to enforce the proposed clean-up . Is there a phone number to call to report negligence or just plain disregard for one’s belongings ? We would like to know so that we may report this negligence . Thank-you for any reply. We await anxiously and are willing to do our part as tax paying citizens.