Mayor of Mary Esther, Florida
Like every successful city government, those elected to office must concern themselves with a variety of issues -- some that never appear on the every "radar" of our community's citizens. But it is the job of anyone elected to office to identify the critical issues facing our municipality and research and craft solutions to problems so that our community can continue to thrive. My name is Edward B. "Ned" Stieglitz, and I am a candidate for the position of Mayor of Mary Esther, Florida in the upcoming March 8, 2022, election. These are some of the issues I feel need to be addressed...
My Platform & The Issues
Everyone needs WiFi these days, it’s become an educational and business imperative in these trying new times. The city government of Mary Esther currently allows a select, yet horribly abusive, ridiculously self-serving, and poorly rated Internet providers to monopolize the availability of Internet service within our city, and at a premium price.
A good reason would be hard to find in justifying the continued fleecing of our citizenry by the constantly increasing costs and continually decreasing services provided by Cox, CenturyLink, and the other anointed local service providers.
I propose that every resident -- homeowner and business owner in Mary Esther, have the opportunity to organize and form a local cooperative NPO utility, using the existing fiber optics running throughout our city. If elected, I will spearhead negotiations to move this solution forward.
Mary Esther has AT&T fiber optic cables running throughout, serving the USAF Special Operations Command Headquarters, AFSOC, Hurlburt Field, and the adjacent technical park, including Boeing, Lockheed, etc. The only people not served by the fiber optic infrastructure are the taxpayers of Mary Esther.
5G for Mary Esther
During a city council meeting, I asked how we, as a city and through our government, work with Hurlburt, talking to them about our problems, many of which are caused, in part, by the base itself. The Mayor replied, “Oh, you can’t talk to Hurlburt.”
As a former Hurlburt SERE instructor, I can assure you, you can, in fact, talk to Hurlburt! Hurlburt has an office of community affairs. We need to be taking advantage of the help available from our neighbors. If I am elected, I will facilitate the opening of a dialogue with Hurlburt to address issues such as acquiring federal infrastructure dollars to repair damage caused by base operations.
Almost every house in the Oak Tree Park subdivision is experiencing sinking foundations. This results in cracked and uneven walls, requiring as much as $100,000.00 in supporting screw piles installation.
Perhaps working with Hurlburt, we could negotiate the application of some of their newly allocated infrastructure money to help mitigate the costs to homeowners and, thus, leave insurance premiums unaffected.
A Dialogue with Hurlburt
There is absolutely no reason we should put one more penny into the antiquated, structurally compromised, problem-plagued sewage treatment plant that currently services Mary Esther.
The plant, situated in a wetland next to a stream, leads to the inter-coastal waterway and into the Choctawhatchee Sound and Destin Pass to our East and Pensacola Bay and Pass, to our West.
The current structure constantly fails, leaking millions of gallons of raw sewage into our local waterways, streams, wetlands, the inter-coastal waterway and ultimately, the Gulf of Mexico.
The current solution being considered will likely cost the taxpayers of Mary Esther and Okaloosa County (if not also the State of Florida) over $40,000,000.00 to repair what should be removed.
If I am elected your Mayor, I will include in the above-mentioned communications with Hurlburt our intention to pursue a connection to the new $35,000,000.00-plus sewer project from which they benefit; the new environmentally safe, inland wastewater treatment plant that was built with our tax dollars by Okaloosa County!
Mary Esther's Sewage Plant
