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Click Above to Fire Safety Web Page
  The Florida Legislature recently passed new statutes regarding fire safety standards relative to high-rise buildings. At the next scheduled annual fire inspection of your building, you will be officially notified about the necessity of installing a Full Sprinkler System or establishing an acceptable Engineered Life Safety System as an alternative! Your building will have to pony up between $15,000-$25,000 to a �Fire Safety� engineering firm to compose an acceptable plan that will meet the statutory requisites. A second expense is the actual cost (neighborhood of $800,000 - $1,200,000) of implementing the approved plan within the next 11 years. Ouch! Is this life saving legislation or an ill-conceived pork barrel project dumped on us in the dead of night? To get the full story, Click Here to go to the Fire Safety Page.
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 Articles
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Click Above to Shore Protection Web Page
This is a series of articles and updates related to the effort by the residents of Fort Lauderdale and surrounding communities to rescue their shrinking beach from the ravages of tidal erosion. The ramifications of our beach disappearing are staggering. The beach not only frames a wonderful �environment� in which our families live and thrive, it provides the financial wherewithall that supports our schools, maintains the civic necessities that nourish our neighborhoods, and is the single greatest protection for our coastal infrastructure from the ravages of storms and hurricanes! The articles are offered in chronological order. To get the full story, Click Here to go to the Shore Protection Page.
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Click Above to Barrier Island Emergency Room Web Page
�And then there were none.� The Cleveland Clinic, along with the only emergency room on the Barrier Island, was gone. The Cleveland Clinic moved here via the acquisition of the old North Beach Hospital. Their stated intention was to �grow with the Barrier Island�. They did...and then they left. What happened? In response to the Cleveland Clinic abandoning the community that sustained its growth for many years, GMCA President Bob Rozema caucused with 3 other concerned local residents (representatives of various neighborhood associations) to form the �Special Committee to Keep an Emergency Room Facility on the Barrier Island�. This is a chronicle of their efforts. To get the full story, Click Here to go to the Emergency Room Page.
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Click Above to the GMCA City of Fort Lauderdale, "Venice of America" Web Page
Nestled halfway between Miami and Palm Beach, the 168,000 residents of the City of Fort Lauderdale have acclimated to enjoying the best of both worlds. No longer the bedroom for America�s gateway to the Caribbean and South America or a vacation dreamland whose existence depends solely on a continuous infusion of tourist dollars, Fort Lauderdale has matured into a thriving vibrant municipality with incandescent prospects. The Galt Mile Community Association continually works with City officials to maintain those community qualities that enrich our lives while deflecting adverse political fallout, intended or not. The articles in this section cover those impacts exerted by the City of Fort Lauderdale on the lives of Galt Mile neighborhood residents. Upon reviewing and analyzing city services and/or policies, the Galt Mile Community Association�s response will be published in the City of Fort Lauderdale section. Articles prior to the City�s fiscal recovery (2002 through mid - 2005) can be found in the Archives or in the Fort Lauderdale Budget Bust section.
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Click Above to Budget Bust Web Page
The 168,000 residents of the City of Fort Lauderdale pay more taxes per person ($570 in 2003) than any other large city in the State of Florida. A 3 year period of gross mismanagement has transformed a city with an $18.3 billion tax base into a municipal basket case. On December 16th, the City Commission approved a package of tax & fee increases along with service cuts, layoffs and program freezes that stunned residents and employees alike. Contrary to appearances, this fiscal deterioration didn�t occur overnight. Despite protests of surprise and shock by municipal representatives, the budget disaster we now face did not ambush Fort Lauderdale. City officials have had a ringside seat to a three year fiscal mismanagement spectacle. They were not, however, spectators. They were participants. �How did we get here?� acting City Manager Alan Silva asked rhetorically. �As I have said many times, we had been living beyond our means.� This page will provide information about the history that brought us to this sorry state, the participants in that history, the effects that we had to live with (and pay for) and the steps that were taken to dig us out. From 2003 to 2005 - this is what happened...
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Click Above to the GMCA Broward County Web Page
Like biosystems all over South Florida, Broward County�s prehistory is remarkably rich. Skeletal remains of big-game hunters who lived 10,000 years ago have been found as near as Vero Beach on the east coast and Charlotte Harbor on the west. Hundreds of years after the Tequesta and Calusa Indians succumbed to the diseases with which they were �gifted� by the Spanish, Colonel James Gadsden (who conducted the first survey in 1825 of today�s Broward County) decided that Broward was a nice place to visit, albeit no one would want to actually live here. Building a road would be impractical, he wrote, because �the population of the route will probably never be sufficient to contribute to [its maintenance], while the inducements to individuals to keep up the necessary ferries will scarcely ever be adequate.� 1.7 million people later, Broward is one of the most sought after locations on the planet. In 1977, the Broward County Charter gave Broward�s government broad powers to monitor and improve the quality of life and the environment. County government centers around a Commission whose members take turns wearing the �Mayor�s� hat. You can see what they�re up to right here. Click Here to go to the Broward County Page.
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Broward County Property Appraiser Lori Parrish answers questions posed about property appraisals (of course), Save Our Homes amendment ramifications and the ubiquitous �Homestead Exemption�. Whatever is on your mind has most likely already been asked by somebody else. Read what they asked and how she responded. If you�re still confused about your home�s value - go ahead - ASK LORI!
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Click Above to Politics & Parlor Tricks in Tallahassee Web Page
Every year, we send an assortment of well-educated men and women to Florida�s State Capitol to represent us. They speak for us, act on our behalf, educate themselves about importatnt issues, learn how to work together and try to execute productive resolutions. If they like the job, they run for re-election. Sometimes, their reasons for being there differ from those given to their constituents prior to Election Day; their actions become inconsistent with their promises while questions about their legislative intentions are buried in a blizzard of platitudes. When this occurs, its usually a good time to consider �changing the guard�.
 Legislation affecting Galt Mile residents oozes out of Tallahassee annually, often unnoticed. The issues surrounding that legislation will be examined in this section. Before next year's legislative session, the articles will be relegated to the site's archives, setting the stage for the new session. WELCOME TO 2013! To review what our State officials have in store for the Galt Mile, Click Here to go to the Tallahassee Politics Page. To review events from prior years, Click Here to access the Tallahassee Archives. For instance, to see what happened in 2005, Click Here.
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Click Above to AED Automated External Defibrillator Web Page
 It happens quickly. Without warning. It can affect anyone - healthy adults, even teenagers. It cannot be prevented. There is no vaccine. Most do not survive.
It's called Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) and there's only one way to treat it. Defibrillation.
 Unfortunately, 90 - 95 percent of SCA victims die because they didn't have quick access to this easy-to-administer lifesaving treatment. By making more people aware of sudden cardiac arrest and by improving access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), we can increase the survival rate for these people.
Survival rates of over 50% have been achieved where easily organized AED programs have been established. These rates are twice those reported for the most effective EMS systems, and ten times better than the national EMS system average of 5%!
Every responsible household has an easily accessible fire extinguisher. In many ways, it is appropriate to think of an AED as a medical fire extinguisher! To learn more about AEDs, Click Here to access the Defibrillator page.
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The Fort Lauderdale Beach Gas & Oil Field
 
Can You Blame Them for Trying to Sneak One By?
Click Above to Calypso Gasworks Web Page
The residents of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the Galt Mile and Lauderdale Beach - and their elected officials - knew almost nothing about the approval and subsequent construction of a dangerous gasworks adjacent to their shoreline until it was close to being a fait accompli. At a Presidents Council meeting in December of 2007, City Commissioner Christine Teel addressed dozens of attending association officials, briefing them about a planned deepwater port and pipeline that was being actualized "below the radar".
 | | 131 KILLED, 680 LEFT HOMELESS, 225 INJURED |
After delivering the sum total of the information she was given by Calypso representatives, she focused on the disquieting prospect that her district - as well as the rest of the city - was disturbingly close to being saddled with a facility afflicted with a host of undisclosed dangers.
In a nutshell, the history for Deepwater Port LNG facilities is paper thin. We will be �beta testing� this strategy for the industry, transforming Fort Lauderdale into a LNG laboratory in which residents serve as lab rats. Ominously, the first onshore LNG facility in America suffered a major accident, incinerating one square mile of Cleveland in 1944, killing 131 and leaving 680 people homeless. Although findings confirm that leaks are mostly absorbed into the atmosphere and dilute to the extent that ignition is unlikely, if a tanker discharged its full cargo, the gaseous �spill� could travel for miles before reaching its ignitable dispersion level. A 1977 Oxnard, California Environment Impact Report determined that a LNG accident in which a full tanker�s contents were released would send an ignitable gaseous vapor cloud some 30 miles before dissipation defused the threat of ignition. Since the energy content of a typical 125,000 cubic meter LNG tanker is equivalent to seven-tenths of a megaton of TNT, or 55 Hiroshima bombs (as per a 1982 Lovins & Lovins Pentagon study entitled �Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security�), any miscalculation inherent in this untested technology could instantly transform Fort Lauderdale into one of Jupiter�s moons.
The Galt Mile Community Association set out to verify Calypso LNG LLC�s depth of experience with operating LNG Deepwater Port facilities, the consequences of a full-vessel cryogenic liquid discharge, why SENA decided to park their gas pump next to our beach despite the incremental negative environmental impact and whether an onshore wind can carry an ignitable gas cloud 7 miles to the Galt Mile beach and the �Venice of America�.
Several meetings with Calypso representatives and an investigation into the project's prospect for catastrophe clarified the community's disposition. Residents universally agreed that affording a French energy conglomerate improved product distribution was not worth risking a 2000 BTU conflagration capable of completely incinerating the Barrier Island neighborhoods adjacent to the Gasworks.! To learn more about the issue, Click Here to access the Calypso Gasworks page.
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Click Above to 32nd Street Alley Partnership Web Page
 The alley separating the shops on the north side of Oakland Park Boulevard from the shops on the south side of NE 32nd Street between A1A and NE 33rd Avenue has long been a repository for turgid standing water and backwash resulting from inadequate drainage and occasional merchant misuse. This problematic alley has historically been a thorn in the side of the merchants whose establishments abut it's persistently polluted ponding water. In 1996 the sludgefest actually precipitated a collapse between numbers 31 through 37 in the alley. Since this environmental enigma is hidden from view behind several popular establishments whose entrances are clean and attractive, the public is sheltered from (and ignorant of) the alley's problems. Despite a series of unsuccessful past attempts to uprade the alley, a coalition of merchants, community associations, and government has resolved to address this problem. If this new combination of �community resources� is successful, the format can be utilized to address other outstanding repair and improvement issues! In an effort to broaden support for this project through exposure, we will follow the �Partnership's� progress. To get a synopsis and current �meeting summary notes�, Click Here to access the 32nd Street Alley Partnership page.
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Fort Lauderdale Police Department
& Crime Statistics
  The Fort Lauderdale Police Department (FLPD) Crime Analysis Unit produces reports which depict our crime and service statistics. The reports are avaiable here. The reports detail robbery, burglary, auto theft totals, arrests, traffic enforcement and calls for service by homeowner group and by police district and zone. For a current overview of our local crime statistics, click on District 1 Crime Statistics. The Galt Mile Community is located in Fort Lauderdale Police District #1.
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 | | POLICE ANALYZE RAIDS ONLINE CRIME MAP |
A useful website called RAIDS Online provides access to crime statistics and crime trends in every jurisdiction nationwide. A catchy acronym for Regional Analysis and Information Data Sharing, the website offers a less robust version of the same data used by every law enforcement agency in the United States. Sponsored by BAIR Analytics (another acronym - Behavioral Analysis & Intelligence Resources), the information it offers is unadulterated, with the exception of domestic violence, rape and other crimes impacted by shield laws and privacy acts. Available at http://www.raidsonline.com/, clicking on any incident displayed on an interactive crime map reveals the date, time and crime category, the source of the crime data (the �Agency� that provided the information) and links that enable the site user to provide tips about each incident to the relevant police department or agency.
  Receiving the data directly from each law enforcement agency ensures that the information is always up to date, accurate, complete and FREE! Using this intuitive tool, Galt Mile residents that are sick of lying by the pool � like a lox � can easily explore neighborhood, citywide, statewide and national crime trends. Although last month�s neighborhood and citywide crime statistics are still available on the City website, since this user-friendly resource provides a nearly real-time mirror for crime in the Galt Mile neighborhood and surrounding communities, the Advisory Board plans to use RAIDS Online to better tailor its public safety expectations. So can you, Sherlock!
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State of Florida Crime Statistics
 FDLE's (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) system provides standardized reports on crime statistics based on data gathered from across the state. Reports that provide both summary and detail information are issued yearly. You can find data from 1994 up to the most recently released reports. The Florida Statistical Analysis Center (FSAC) also provides statistical reports with an emphasis on analysis relevant to policy makers, planners, program developers, and researchers. FSAC maintains its own information area on the FDLE web site. Domestic violence information is available on FDLE's Domestic Violence Data Resource Center's web site.
To FIRE SAFETY PAGE
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To BROWARD COUNTY PROPERTY APPRAISER PAGE
To TALLAHASSEE POLITICS PAGE
To TALLAHASSEE ARCHIVE
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To TALLAHASSEE ARCHIVE - 2005
To TALLAHASSEE ARCHIVE - 2004
To TALLAHASSEE ARCHIVE - 2003
To AUTOMATED EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATOR PAGE
To CALYPSO GASWORKS PAGE
To 32nd STREET ALLEY PAGE
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| Webmaster EPB |
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Some of the obstacles separating us from our goals are formidable. Educating ourselves about these obstacles and the interests from which they spring is an emotionally and intellectually healthy exercise. Unfortunately, as individuals we represent little more than an annoyance to those that purvey or support those obstacles. No relevant political authority pays serious attention to the concerns of a community that is unclear about its expectations as a result of internal dissention or ignorance of the issues. It is much safer to �sit on the sidelines� as opposing community interests either neutralize or extinguish one another. The Galt Mile Community Association allows us to replace the communal cacaphony with a coherent fusion of focused positions on those issues that touch our lives. This section will attempt to provide a window to those issues and clarify the Galt Mile Community Association's perspective, position, and if and when appropiate, our intended response.
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