Mike Gambino for Eustis City Commission, Seat 4

As your city commissioner for seat 4, I plan to move the city to:

• Stop, or drastically slow down the unabated growth in mass housing developments.  The city needs to work with the Lake County Commission to address strains on the existing road capacity.  The city also needs to improve the capacity of the services and public works it offers citizens before bringing in tens of thousands of new residents.
• No tax increases.  The current commission tells you that it didn't raise your property taxes because it did not increase the millage rate.  However assessed property values increased year over year, so unless the city commission votes to roll back the millage rate to the previous year's budget, your tax bill goes up.  They are playing semantics, but they did increase your taxes by not voting to roll back the millage rate.  Over the last several years, inflation has forced us to trim our personal budgets and we have had to learn how to do with less--the city needs to learn how to do the same.  Raising taxes on people when they are already struggling to pay the bills is wrong, and I plan to address that as your city commissioner.
• Clean up blighted areas of the city.  We live in a beautiful city that is over 140 years old.  The city has some wonderful architecture from past eras and we should be proud of that.  On the other hand, there are also areas of town that just look neglected and run down.  I'm not proposing gentrification by any means, but the city could invest in some fresh paint and a more regular maintenance program for areas that it controls.  We want people to be excited to come to Eustis and stay for a while to visit local businesses and restaurants.  We don't want them to be scared into just driving through to the next town.