George Mindling Column 5-6-2005 - Ideas On Fixing I-75

Got Any Ideas On Fixing I-75?

While sitting idly on I-75 on a recent Friday morning, I couldn’t help but think about the future of southwest Florida. There was no accident and it wasn’t rush hour! Traffic simply jammed and stopped. With estimates running at somewhere around 10 to 14 million new residents for our state within the next ten to fifteen years, it isn’t hard to imagine what traffic will be in 2015. 

The completion of I-75 just a little over twelve short years ago changed southwest Florida forever. Traffic now zips east/west across the southern half of the state effortlessly. The biggest change, however, isn’t the east/west flow: it is the flow to and from the Naples/Marco area and the high growth corridor north to Tampa and the connector at I-4. With the soon to be completed $386 million expansion at Southwest Florida International Airport, I-75 will again be asked to absorb a greater traffic load.

Prior to I-75, US 41 had been the prime connector between southwest Florida and the rest of the country. Planning had centered on that one north-south highway as the main artery of most coastal communities. One can only thank the Commissioners of Charlotte County for six laning US-41 when they did.

Got an idea to fix the problem? Want to get involved in the planning process? The State of Florida Department of Transportation wants to hear from you! Go to the web site “Get Involved!” at http://www.ftp2025.com/get-involved.asp. Take a look at the planning for year 2025. There is an on-line survey that, unfortunately, only works with Microsoft Internet Explorer. The survey is limited in scope, but does have a page for comments and citizen input at: http://www.ftp2025.com/comment.asp. I’m sure you have a view you’d love to share.

According to the DOT, “The Florida Transportation Plan (FTP) is the long-range plan that identifies the goals and objectives for the next 20 years to address the needs of the entire state transportation system. Perhaps more importantly, the FTP provides the policy framework for allocating over $100 billion in funding that will be spent to meet the transportation needs of residents, tourists and business people between now and 2025.”

Perhaps you can attend one of the public planning workshops at either Sarasota or Ft. Myers. They will be held:

May 9, 2005 -- Sarasota (9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.)
Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport
Dan P. McClure Auditorium

5900 Auditorium Lane
Sarasota, FL 34243 Contact: Johnny Limbaugh 239-461-4300

May 11, 2005 -- Ft. Myers (4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.)
Florida Gulf Coast University, Sprint Room
10501 FGCU Blvd. South
Ft. Myers, FL 33965-6565
Contact: Johnny Limbaugh 239-461-4300

Just remember if you plan on using I-75 to get to Sarasota or Ft Myers for the workshops, you’d better leave home early.

George Mindling

George Mindling Column 5-20-2005 - Punta Gorda's Not Escaping

Punta Gorda's Not Escaping Area Changes

Will Rogers, the great American humorist, is supposed to have responded to a small city mayor who asked him what he thought of their fair town with, “It’s a good place for one…”

While I can’t verify the town or the quote, the quip certainly brings to mind Punta Gorda.

While getting my wife’s car serviced in the “Great Auto Mile” on US 41, we decided to grab a bite to eat and do some shopping. The several restaurants on the block at Marion are very nice and well priced, just be sure to check the schedules as most are in summer schedule. Several other shops, sorry, shoppes, appeared to be on hiatus as well

Since the central shopping area appeals to those looking for specialty items, we wandered over to Fisherman’s Village, which caters to the tourist crowd, or trickle, depending on the time of year, to see if we could really do any shopping. After an ice cream cone and a leisurely stroll along the shoppes, we decided we really didn’t want a tee shirt or a bumper sticker. Now where to?

With all the autos for sale and being serviced in the concentrated area on Tamiami Trail, I expected to find abundant proof of life in the neighborhood. There seemed to be plenty of traffic, especially pick up trucks laden with ladders and PVC pipe, even sheets of drywall, but everyone seemed to be in a hurry to get into PGI or leave town.

According to a local, well known real estate broker, Punta Gorda Isles, the high dollar salt water canal front part of town, is just now, for the for the first time, seeing clusters of kids waiting for school buses. The comments were broadcast during a local cable television show that highlights our area and activities. The significance of the observation may not be seen immediately, but our area is changing and so is Punta Gorda.

While the residents of Punta Gorda have always raised families here, the next generation of PGI residents offers a new paradigm to retailers. That will dictate the changes that will transpire in the quaint town of Punta Gorda. Retailers know where the money is. Home Depot and Wal-Mart will be the first of the new retailers, but don’t be surprised if other national chains have their eyes on the changing profile of Punta Gorda.

The hurricane rebuilding effort is underway, but what will it bring? What will rise from the rubble of a hotel and the County Auditorium yet remains to be seen. What had been a central shopping area for Punta Gorda remains barren. The vacant land is more than an eyesore, it is a reminder that now is the time to do things right. Empty lots will hopefully grow new structures and buildings to be the face of a new City.

The heart of Punta Gorda is still there. It just isn’t beating very hard at the moment.

George Mindling

George Mindling Column 6-17-2005 - Annual Salary

How to Figure Your Annual Salary

If you are an hourly worker trying to decide how much you need to earn to afford the lifestyle you want, you need to know your actual annual salary. You may decide further education is needed to enhance your skills and increase your wages, but you still need to know what your time is worth in the work force.

While there are several different methods of converting hourly wages to annual salary, one of the old standards still works as a yardstick in converting wages based on the old forty-hour workweek. The forty-hour workweek, though, may be disappearing from the American work place. In the retail world, or perhaps in the realm of exempt, or true salaried positions, employers expect far more than a forty-hour week. The use of an hourly employee often offers an employer more flexibility than a fixed annual salary. If you are a part time employee working less than 40 hours a week, then multiplying number of hours times wage times number of days worked a year is the best way to determine your annual salary.

Many payroll programs simply use 2080 hours a year, (the basic concept of 8 hours a day times 5 days a week times 52 weeks a year). These programs do not count non-work days. Several programs use 2020 hours a given year to account for non-paid vacation and other non-paid days. Many companies pay vacation from a different accounting fund than salary, although the employee only sees the difference in the tax statement. Many hourly workers simply have unpaid vacations.

Several large companies have used the twenty-one day work period at eight hours a day, twelve times a year to determine annual salary. That results in 2,016 work hours a year. Twenty-one days is a basic formula based on the actual number of workdays in a “generic” month. That eliminates weekends and the average number of non-worked, non-paid days in each given period. Multiply 2,016 times the hourly rate to see what the annual salary would be.

According to recent numbers published by the Sun-Herald, you can expect to start at $7.00 an hour for as a retail salesperson if you have no experience. That calculates to $14,112 annual salary. Of course you can flip that around and divide an annual salary by 2,016 to find the hourly rate. $32,000 a year works out $15.87 an hour, $48,000 would be $23.81 an hour. Using 2080 hours, the flat annual calculation, the rate would be $23.08 an hour.

There are several on-line services that will also convert your figures at the 2080-hour rate. One is Financial Calculators, Inc which has two pages, one for annual to hourly at http://www.fincalc.com/pay_03.asp?id=6 and one for hourly to annual at http://www.fincalc.com/pay_04.asp?id=6.

There are different formulas but you will find they are all very close in their estimations of annual salary. Good to know before you go car shopping or house hunting, especially in today’s housing market.

George Mindling

George Mindling Column 7-22-2005 - Retirees Face Property Tax Crunch

Many Retirees Face Property Tax Crunch

Retirees trying to cope with dwindling income and spiraling expenses have always had to adjust lifestyles to balance their budgets. Increases in property taxes are never offset by increases in retirement income, even when the Save our Homes three percent cap in property tax increases applies!

Many retirees own their homes outright. They pay only insurance premiums and the annual property taxes on their homes. After years of mortgages, where PITI (Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance) were withheld from payments automatically, many now find the annual property tax a lump payment that becomes the largest single expenditure of the year. When they were paying a mortgage, the tax amount came out of the mortgage payment and the property tax was paid by the mortgage holder out of an escrow account. The effect was the homeowner being separated from the actual responsibility of paying the property tax. No checks had to be written, no withdrawals from savings to cover taxes.

Now the retirees themselves must handle those payments. Sometimes it can be overpowering and finances can get out of hand. Savings accounts are often used for these lump sum payments, and nothing is more distressing than watching savings melt away. Even if you make monthly deposits to offset the quarterly or annual payments, it’s difficult to watch your funds take that big dip every year. For many, saving part of every social security or retirement check just for taxes hasn’t been considered.

One way to avoid the annual shock is to create your own escrow account. Use it only to pay taxes and leave your savings account alone. Most banks offer free additional savings accounts, and you can use it anyway you want.

If you are still working and paying estimated taxes, as most self-employed and many part time workers do, you pay the equivalent what would have been withheld from normal wages every three months. You may also want to consider an escrow or tax account. Many people have no problem putting part of every check into savings to cover the quarterly tax expense, but savings accounts often fail to grow to cover both needs: quarterly and annual withdrawals, plus saving for other future money needs. Separating the money into two separate accounts makes it easier to control and plan.

You know how much estimated taxes will be before hand, so deposit one third of the amount you owe in the escrow account each month. Make a habit of monthly deposits and you will always be covered at tax time. Retirees can do the same with the property taxes. Divide the annual amount by twelve and deposit that amount into the escrow account every month as well. Pay your tax amounts first, then put whatever you can spare into savings and leave it alone.

It doesn’t matter which account you save into. It just feels better knowing the savings or checking account isn’t taking a beating every time you pay taxes.

George Mindling

George Mindling Column 8-24-2005 - Spam e-mails

George Mindling Column 8-24-05 For Immediate Release

Spam e-mails present a unique problem to the small business owner. Deleting e-mails from unknown sources is a quick and easy way of avoiding unwanted viruses and worms from the Internet on your home e-mail. Your business e-mail address is a different story. 

Every e-mail is a potential inquiry about future business, and unless the subject line is obviously a spam attempt, the business owner is compelled to open the message and see if it is a valid message.

I maintain a web site dedicated to the old Air Force unit I served in. On the web site I have several photos of my particular class, one of which was taken in Pueblo, Colorado. We were enroute from Lowry AFB in Denver to the Tactical Missile School at Orlando AFB and stopped for one last class photo session. We all piled onto a MG-TD while the owner of the car snapped the photo. I had posted the photo and forgotten about it until I received an e-mail I almost deleted without opening.

The son of the car owner had stumbled across the photo while surfing the net. His dad had it on his bedroom dresser thirty some odd years ago. He found my address and sent me an e-mail about the photo and his dad who lives in California. He called his dad, who is just now getting on the Internet for the first time, and we have spent the last several days catching up, both on the Internet, and by telephone. But it almost didn’t happen.

I went back to review my Spam filters and how to prevent deleting messages that are not harmful or just outright marketing junk. Spam, not the meat product from Hormel Foods, is a name for e-mail junk messages and advertising.

There are several web sites devoted to spam and how to combat it. One such site is http://spam.abuse.net/. The problem Internet web site owners have is malicious software, called “bots,” scan web sites looking for e-mail addresses that get added to marketing lists that dump out everything from fake pharmaceuticals to growth potions and gadgets for anything you may want to increase. Except your wallet.

Traditional E-mail marketing uses the premise that it is far more price competitive to market to an existing customer than to advertise for new customers. That is a valid marketing technique, one that allows a customer to voluntarily sign up for mailing lists and announcements. Those e-mails, however, do not come from culling unsuspecting web sites.

I have now added several JavaScripts, small computer programs, on the several web sites I maintain to test a method of preventing the “bots” from harvesting my e-mail address. The small JavaScripts are available from many sources on the web, simply search for Javascripts and spam blockers to find what is available. Most are free downloads. If they work the way I hope, I should reduce my junk mail considerably.

Hopefully, I haven’t deleted any messages I should have read.

George Mindling

George Mindling Column 03-24-2006- Weighty Issue

Weighty Issue for Charlotte County Folks

According to an article in the February issue of Florida Trend by Amy Keller, we are fatter than our neighbors on either side in Lee and Sarasota Counties.

Not being sure of the significance of that information, I started digging through the article to see if that was an indicator of potential economic growth or newly discovered political trends. Apparently, between 21.9 and 25.5 percent of the adults in Charlotte County are qualified as obese. Obesity is measured by the Body Mass Index, or BMI. A BMI over 30 is obese.

BMI is measured by multiplying your height in inches by your height in inches, then dividing the result into your weight in pounds. Multiply that number by 703 to get the BMI. There’s a web page at the Center for Disease control that will do the math for you. Just key in your weight and height and hit “calculate.” The page is at: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/calc-bmi.htm

Now I know how to find my BMI, but I’m not sure what significance that plays in the statewide numbers game. Surprise! The article in Florida Trend states “ the counties in Florida with the highest percentages of obese people tend to be rural and poor…” The same headline states, “but more than half of all Floridians are either overweight or obese.” An accompanying chart shows neighboring DeSoto County as up one level from Charlotte, at an average of 25.6 to 30.2 percent obesity, with nearby Hardee County in the worst range, 30.3 to a whopping 38.9 percent obese population!

Does that mean that Sarasota and Lee counties, with a 15.2 to 21.8 percent obesity ranking is more urban or wealthier than Charlotte or her neighbors? The article lets the reader reach their own conclusions, but Keller states, “the thinner, wealthier counties are also better educated. In the seven counties with the highest BMI’s, only 10 percent of resident’s, on average, held bachelors degrees.”

According to http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/12/12015.html, the percentage of Charlotte residents with a bachelor or higher is 17.6, below the state average of 22.3 percent. Sarasota on the other hand is over 27 percent with at least a bachelor degree. Do better-educated people eat smarter? Well, maybe, but I think there may be more.

Buttermilk biscuits and fried chicken tend to be standard southern cooking, and the rural counties mentioned are bound to traditional family cooking more than the highly fluid coastal communities that are more geared to the social set than the tractor seat. Thanks to progress, today’s farm work takes less physical work than just a generation ago. The food stays the same, the calorie burn rate has gone by the wayside and the result is obesity.

How does that mesh with education numbers? Most rural farming communities don’t have the higher percentage of college graduates simply because the traditional farm doesn’t require a four year degree in liberal arts or philosophy to birth a calf.

George Mindling

George Mindling Column 03-10-2006 - Pushing Against A Brick

Pushing Against A Brick Building

While cleaning out old files, I can across an article given to me by my first business mentor. I had saved the tattered, well-worn pages of the old typewritten essay on staff work for many years. I found the advice invaluable, not just in its simplicity, but because of the insight into how executives look at staff work.

I once had a manager give me an “Average” performance review even though he said I was an extremely hard and conscientious worker. If he told me to push against a brick building with my bare hands, he commented, I would push and push with all my might, but at the end of the job, the building would not have moved a single inch, therefore I was not really accomplishing my job. I have often been criticized of being intolerant of poor management, but most managers aren’t concerned about the professional growth of the employees, only in the bottom line of any business: numbers! It was quite a surprise to work for someone who thought with a little professional guidance, I might actually be more of an asset to the company other than just a body to push against a brick building.

What then is a mentor? A mentor is someone who actually cares about your business or professional development. A mentor must like you personally and may actually become a good friend. The key word is trust. Mentors within a workplace most often act as silent partners. Often a mentor may have several people serving in similar positions and helping one without helping others would surely create a legal situation that would not be beneficial to either party. That is not truly mentoring, that is group training. Often, attention from a boss or manager that showcases or favors one employee in front of other employees is detrimental not just to the unit, but to the very person the manager favors. Favoritism is not mentoring. The two may be based on personal views of a person in a supervisory or management position, but the end result of the two is diametrically opposed. One is a short-term reward or favor; the other is an education that will affect how a person grows professionally and personally over a lifetime.

A mentor sees the hidden or undeveloped talent or skill that may not exist in others. It is also a personal interest that rises above the workplace. A mentor’s opinion is considered as an honest and educated, often invaluable experience. A mentor is a true advisor. They won’t make your decisions for you, but they want you to understand what your decisions are. The mentor’s interest is genuine, not based on ego or money. They want to see you succeed. They invest time and attention and do not expect rewarded with accolades or awards.

How about you, do you have a mentor? Or, more importantly, have you ever been one?

George Mindling