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Show THE DARE I'M GLAD I TOOK By Gene Matthews Editor, Bradford Co. Telegraph Starke, Florida (Reprinted from Town Journal) It was along our Florida coast that Pone De Leon searched for the Fountain of Youth a wonderful spring whose waters were said to make people young again. The frizzled Conquistador never found his legendary spa, as every school child knows. And nobody has since. But here in the north-central part of the state we HAVE discovered how to restore in TOWNS, if not in people, the vitality they had in their younger days. (That was the lead in a Town Journal story telling how Starke, Fla., reawakened a latent community spirit in their town, and started forging forg-ing to the front.). You sense the magic in Starke when you talk to recent high school graduates, more and more of whom plan to work in our new industries. You see it in the many new homes we're building for young marrieds. And you feel it as you watch our new $350,000 hospital go up, or hear that the town council coun-cil has just voted to expand our municipal power plant for 1970's needs, not today's. You'll observe changes in many town's these days, but ill wager you'll find more of them here in Starke than in most other places of 5,000 population. popula-tion. That's because we don't just drift. We have a plan one that I hope you'll wish to try in your town. We take stock of our town once a year, just as a store takes annual inventory, or as you size up your personal traits in order to formulate New Year's resolutions. We rate Starke's good points and its bad ones, decide what needs improving most, then do something about it and have a lot o'f fun in the process. I'm excited, because I think we have here a plan that any other town can use. I'm sold. I want to "spread the gospel." It all began when I picked up a copy of Town Journal's "Do You Dare Rate Your Town?" I recall commencing with some smugness to fill out the questionnaire. ques-tionnaire. "Starke will do well .on this," I figured. "Starke is a good town." Completing the quiz, I suspected sus-pected I had fudged a little in checking "yes" after 30 of the 40 items. I took a closer look. Then and there the community inventory idea began to take shape. First, we got a good- cross-section cross-section of people to rate our town. P.-T. A. groups, American Amer-ican Legion, student groups, civic clubs, all received questionnaires ques-tionnaires and their ratings of the town were tabulated. These 86 men, women and young people came up with only 28 "yes" answers a failing grade. We began hammering away at eliminating undesirable traits that had caused "no" ratings. The general reaction was, "We know what we need to do, but how are we going to do it?" "Which improvements first" ballots were passed out. Town officials and civic groups took over various improvement projects. proj-ects. Leaders were astonished when the ballot tally listed "A recreation center for young people" first in the list of needed need-ed improvements. One after another, an-other, various projects were completed. We h'ope to create a Community Council to continue con-tinue planned improvements, and once each year we "take stock" and lay out the year's program. We did it in Starke changed our town from a complacent, "we're getting along okay" little lit-tle community to a live-wire city that constantly searches for new improvements which will make Starke a more desirable, more prosperous community. Can you do it in your home town? The News believes that the people who live in Milford want a more progressive community. com-munity. We reprint the ' Do You Dare to Rate Your Town" questionnaire, and invite our readers to circle "yes" or "no" after each of the 40 questions, and mail or bring it to The News office. Extra questionnaires will be available avail-able for clubs, schools, or any group desiring to use them in .rating our home town. |