Photo: David Tucker, St. Augustine Record
“No tacky displays”
“‘Unbelievable’ or ‘You’ve got to be kidding’ – These are the only phrases which come to mind when reading [the St. Augustine Record] March 19 article about the Volusia County Council approving the use of floating billboards along Volusia County’s invaluable 47 miles of Atlantic seashore! Other adjectives such as ugly and tacky also come to mind. As mentioned in the article, once this Pandora’s Box is opened there will be no basis for refusing other requests, leading to a parade of these monstrosities cluttering up our otherwise pristine views of the Atlantic Ocean, where we should be looking at dolphins, right whales and swimmers, not tacky advertising. Maybe as a crowning achievement one of these barge/billboards trafficking up and down the beach could strike one of our endangered Right Whale population…
There seems to be no benefit to Volusia taxpayers and voting constituents, only to the promoters of the concept and a handful of businesses who might advertise on the billboard. I suspect that County Council members will find out at the next election what the broader views of their constituents are on the subject. ”
— Richard Schook, Letter to the editor, St. Augustine Record