2012 Camp-Out & 'Carti Gras' Golf Cart Parade

Rio Vista will be having our annual camp-out at Young Park on Saturday, February 11. “Carti-Gras”, our golf cart parade, will begin at 3:00pm.  As a courtesy to our neighbors, please note the following:

1.   10:00 am – 1:00 pm:  Tent and equipment drop off at the designated drop-off area west side of the park.  Due to space limitation, loading and unloading only (no parking at the park).

2.  Please set up tents in designated tent areas.

3.  2:00 pm:  Free hot dogs at the park.

4.  2:00 pm:  Golf carts participating in the parade begin lining up.

5.  3:00 pm:  Golf cart parade begins.

6.  After parade, transportation to the park by walking, bicycle or golf cart.  Please try and avoid using automobiles.

7.  Cooking area located at west end of park.

8.  Portable bathroom located at east end of park.

9.  Please keep area clean, and place trash in trash cans.

10.  As a courtesy to neighbors, please limit noise after 11:00 pm.

11.  FLPD security detail will be in the neighborhood overnight.

12.  Sunday, 9:00 AM:  Breakfast.

13.  10:00 AM – Noon: tent & equipment pick-up, west side of park.

14.  Volunteers to help clean up after campout greatly appreciated.

Thank you, RVCA

Protect Rio Vista #1 objection:

Don’t my property taxes already pay for that!?

Certainly everyone pays their fair share of taxes, and property taxes do go to pay for police services.  Let’s take a quick look:

A $500,000 house in Rio Vista pays a millage rate of 16.4392 or $8,220 in property tax.  The City of Fort Lauderdale millage rate is 4.2536, so the City takes $2,126.80 of the total property tax bill.  According to the City of Fort Lauderdale’s budget documents, the total City budget for 2009 was $327,485,911.  The Police department’s budget was $91,647,022 or approximately 28% of the overall budget.  So, if we take 28% of the City’s $2126,80 on your property taxes, the Police department gets about $595.50 of your property tax bill.  According to the Police budget, the Operations Division (the folks driving the cars out on the street) receives $45,134,284 of the overall Police budget.  That adds up to 49% of the overall Police budget, or $291.80 of your tax bill.  But remember, this is the Police budget for the entire City.  The budget shows 247 officers assigned to Operations.  Let’s say 6 of those are assigned to work Rio Vista, or 2.4%. That means about $7 of the property tax bill actually goes to policing Rio Vista!  $7 out of $8220 works out to about .08%.

We know that prior to the patrol we rarely saw police in our neighborhood.  The reality is that even though there were officers assigned to our area they spent most of their time responding to calls in neighboring areas and rarely made it east of US1.