The Coral Gables Times

THE Coral Gables TIMES

Established Jan. 15, 1926 Published Weekly at 364 Seville Ave., Coral Gables, Fla. Second Class Postage Paid at Miami, Fla. ROLFE NEILL | Editor & Publisher JOHN T. WATTERS | President Robert M. Slane | Advertising Manager Roy Speier | Circulation Manager

This Needs Attention At City Hall Now

If a citizen—and it could well happen to you as it has to others—well if a citizen went to City Hall Monday and had asked to see the minutes of the Aug. 1 City Commission meeting he would have been told they were not available. That's right. The minutes of a meeting held seven weeks ago are not available for public inspection. What's more, he would have been denied the right to look even at a draft of the minutes. This is a situation which should be corrected immediately by our City Commissioners. In the first place, it's lackadaisical handling of the public's business. In the second, it's inconvenient, nay frustrating to someone who has reason to see those minutes. The minutes are kept by the clerk, Miss Loretta Sheehy, Miss Sheehy says she does the best she can in getting them up to date but that inadequate staff keeps her from being more prompt. Item: June 27 and July 11 meetings readied Aug. 22. Item: July 17 and July 25 meetings readied Sept. 12. Item: Aug. 1 meeting readied Sept. 19. Well, common sense would suggest that the interested party see her notes of the over-and-done-with official proceedings. In most instances, this would suffice for someone seeking information. But you can't see those notes. They won't show them to you. Why? Because, Miss Sheehy explains, the City Commission has instructed her not to show minutes which have not had its official approval. In the opinion of the Times, two items require the attention of our City Fathers: 1. If it's more help that Miss Sheehy needs, let her be given it. Certainly, there's no reason why minutes of one commission meeting should not be ready for the next. 2. Abandon the idea that draft minutes can't be shown until approved by the commission. Afterall, the decisions reached by the commissioners are effective upon their approval. The execution of them does not await the approval of minutes seven weeks later. There is no suggestion by us that there's anything to hide; we don't believe there is. So let's be more accomodating to Gableites.

Many Happy Returns

We were happy to note over the week end that this sophisticated city hasn't outgrown one of the most delightful of village and rural practices—the spreading of dinner on the grounds. The occasion which caught our eye was the celebration of the sixth year of Dr. T. Rupert Coleman's pastorate at the University Baptist Church Sunday. The congregation brought basket lunches. You can be sure some boy ate too much chocolate cake and that another looked furtively about for a way to dispose of a sandwich whose taste he had misjudged while it lay prettily on the table. And as the society writers used to say, a good time was had by all. And by the by, Dr. Coleman, many happy returns.

School Dropouts May Lead Back to the Pocketbook

By PHILLIPS RUSSELL Correspondent In the same paper that we read of the wrecking of the inside of a private club by some 200 teen-agers having a sort of convention there, we note that more than one-third of the youngsters who enroll in high school drop out before graudation. So serious has this drop-out rate risen that the U.S. government has issued a booklet relating to it. It is called "National Stay-in-School Campaign — a Handbook for Communities." The U.S. Department of Labor, the Office of Education, and the Department of Defense have contributed to it. It can be had from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., for 15 cents. Any movement that will encourage teen-agers to remain in school till graduation should have support, for this tendency to leave school and lapse into idleness or joblessness can in time become a national weakness. We doubt, however, if this effort, even if it succeeded, would reach the heart of the problem. The heart of the problem, as we see it, is economic. Youngsters drop out of school too soon out of indifference, no doubt, but it may be assumed that most of them quit because their parents cannot support them properly and they must seek employment in order to live. Then when they cannot find a job they fall into idleness and cynicism. From that point it is only a step to trouble with the police. The nation is just now making an attempt to jack up its weak spots and repair its faults. It had better look to this leak in the teen-age group.

'I wish my folks would realize I'm just an ordinary teenager with an ordinary teenager's odd, jumbled viewpoint and normal idiosyncracies.'

OFF BEAT

By MAURICE LABELLE If you don't think the image of the American father isn't fading fast, get a load of this: My two year old boy calls me Ma-Pa! — ML — You're never too old — 86-year-old Edmund Crittenden, a familiar face at the Police Station, is growing a mustache. It's snowy white and soft as down. — ML — You can always depend on City Attorney Ted Semple to lighten a ponderous City Commission meeting with one of his quips. Semple brought down what little of the house was left last week during the impassioned discussions over the gas and tire at Giralda - Douglas Road intersection. Area neighbors were complaining about the noise a tire store would generate when Zoning Director John E. Vinsant pointed out that this installation was not permitted under the code. "I have never known a person to walk out of a store with a tire under his arm," Semple injected. — ML — An easy trap to fall into is assuming that a person's nationality follows his name. This is particularly true when the name is heard but not seen. The spelling can make a lot of difference. Take Harry LaFountaine, who addressed the Republican Women's Club last week. His name is as French as you'll find — but he's a Dane, or was before he became an naturalized American. LaFountaine's great grandfather was French ambassador to Denmark and married a Danish girl. — ML — Have you noticed the latest way of graciously knifing someone in the back? As is usually the case, you begin by saying how nice someone is and then you twist the handle ever so gently by adding: But you know how terribly inadequate he is." Doesn't hurt a bit. — ML — The recent hearing on the transfer of a beer and wine license from the Campus Canteen to Varisty Inn produced some human interest aspects. Attorney for the new twin owners, William and Robert Ott, is Henry A. Amoon. The articulate Amoon, who took the boys through some very troubled waters in their quest for a license was complimented by Commissioner Franklin Evans on the way he presented the case. What Evans was saying was that Amoon learned some of his lessons well when Evans taught him some law at the University of Miami. Evans is a doctor and lawyer, among many other things. Amoon, a former State Beverage Department agent, was delayed temporarily some years back when he tried to get his shingle. As an agent he had once shot and killed a bootlegger during a raid and the matter had to be cleared before he could practice law. Another attorney, William (Buddy) Weissel, also a former student of Commissioner Evans appeared at the same meeting to appeal a transfer for the Steer's Restaurant. — ML —

Editor's Mailbox

(Editor's note: The writer of the following letter is headmaster of Riviera Day School in Coral Gables. The school has recently been in the news concerning its tax status. The Gables tax assessor ruled the school unentitled to tax-exemption, a ruling contested by the owners. A story in next week's Times will deal at length, and by name, with tax-free properties here.) EDITOR: Dr. Lud Spivey, president of Florida Southern College, quoting from research statistics, stated that 82% of our college graduates come from State-supported schools but that 67% of those listed in Who's Who are graduates of private institutions. Private institutions in the state of Florida include, University of Miami, Rollins College, Stetson University and Florida Southern, on the college level. These schools are constantly making drives for funds. If it were not for their property TAX FREE STATUS, they would certainly have to close their doors. Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth are also in the private school category and depend upon support from other sources than student tuitions. Contrary to public opinion, a good private school, meeting all the rquirements for state accredition, is not the money-making business some would have you believe. True educators are usually not good businessmen. They are in the education field because of their desire to mold the lives of the youth of our country and educate them to the limit of their ability. The Soviet schools have far surpassed our American schools. They are not "averaging out" the genius. They are separating the gifted pupils and educating them regardless of cost. The finest scientific and mathematical minds in their country have been chosen from the ranks and are being educated to the limits of their ability while we sit complacently by. The Riviera Day School in Coral Gables is the one school that has placed a premium on the exceptional student and has endeavored to educate this gifted child so that he may achieve his greatest potential. This school, since its inception, has operated under the Constitution of the State of Florida as a tax free educational institution. This law was promulgated to encourage and promote the growth of private education. Time after time the courts have upheld this inherent right granted by the Constitution. Therefore, educators have been able to buy land and build buildings in the firm security that the Constitution has given them a privilege that they subsequently earn by performing a valuable and necessary service. The Coral Gables City Commission has allowed the City Tax Assessor and City Attorney to place this school on the tax rolls back through 1958, '59, '60 and for '61 even though TAX EXEMPT receipts were issued by the City for these years. The inability of this school to pay these taxes would allow someone to pick up these tax certificates. In that the reason this one property, out of more than 1,500 tax-free properties, was placed on the tax roles? THE TAX EXEMPT Legion Hall, Women's Clubs, Church schools, Doctors' Hospital etc. would bring down a storm of protest by voting adults, but not a schoolhouse full of children. We beseech you, citizens of Coral Gables, to follow closely the decisions being made by our City Fathers, whom we considered men of integrity, when we elected them to office. L. E. COPPOCK JR.