Prior to incorporation the Miami Lakes development was in unincorporated Dade County and residents paid extra property tax dollars to fund a Miami Lakes Parks Special Taxing District that performed a variety of services only in Miami Lakes. We seem to recall fairly speedy recovery and cleanup efforts by the county and by the special taxing district park employees assigned to Miami Lakes. Debris was rapidly picked up and it only seemed like weeks before downed trees were replaced and new replacement trees planted and growing.

The Town of Miami Lakes was incorporated on December 6, 2000, and even Stevie Wonder can see the decline in timeliness of recovery efforts. Hurricane Wilma struck South Florida on October 24, 2005, and while the Town of Miami Lakes' initial response was fantastic in getting the roads cleared of downed trees, that was about it. Debris eyesores were still visible months after Hurricane Wilma. Sidewalks remained broken ten months after Wilma.

We have yet to see replacement trees being planted in the original Miami Lakes seven long years after Wilma. This means seven years of growing time lost forever. This is obviously discouraging because we erroneously thought incorporation would improve the response and replanting services to our community. Quite frankly, we've never seen Miami Lakes look this bad in the past 35 years.

Shame on you former Mayor Wayne Slaton and current Mayor Michael Pizzi and all the former and current Town Council members for the Town of Miami Lakes who will be named here in the near future. How incompetent and lackadaisical can you possibly be as elected officials of an otherwise fine community?