Peter Mallory's blog

In the last few years, my dear companion, Sandra Roberts, 72, has had her gall bladder removed, a rotator cuff surgically repaired and been hospitalized more times than I can count for congestive obstructive pulmonary disorder, commonly referred to as COPD, respiratory affliction that affects her breathing. She'd be the first to tell you that she is pleased with the care she receives.

It's never easy to say goodbye to some who is loved, especially when that someone is the North Beach's Grayce K. Barck, who personified New Smyrna Beach's "charm."

A big crowd turned out for her memorial service Friday at the Settler-Wilder Funeral Home with the Rev. Robert A Hann of the First United Methodist Church presiding.

Courtesy photo. Grayce Barck, 82, a North Beach stalwart, died Monday. 

Former students at New Smyrna Beach High School as well as everyone else in New Smyrna Beach are feeling the loss of Grayce Barck or Grayce Kenemer as we knew her in high school before she got married.

Politicians keep their word, sometimes. When he ran for mayor of New Smyrna Beach, Adam Barringer, elected in November, promised to have an economic development plan drafted within 100 days of office. He delivered on the 97th day.

The general public, though, sees politicians mostly in a negative way. This negative opinion is reflected in the remark by Sara Wells at the Touch of Italy restaurant when she told me: ”The politicians have all the say and we have none.”

Mayor Adam Barringer's proposed Economic Development Plan for the city of New Smyrna Beach is expected to formally be presented Tuesday to the City Commission. The draft version, posted on NSBNEWS.net, sounds promising, but unless the city can get a better handle on personnel costs, including pensions, then everyone is just spinning their wheels.

When Mayor Adam Barringer addressed the Republican Club of Southeast Volusia on Thursday, he raised an interesting point when he said he read a news report that the nation's municipalities collectively are $2 trillion deep in unfunded pension commitments.

In the middle of a recession it is natural for people in a retirement community such as New Smyrna Beach to give some thought to their own retirement systems. Fortunately, for many New Smyrna residents, the State of Florida retirement system is in good shape.

We as greater New Smjyrna Beach residents are proud of the community activism as shown by the examples of Matthew Thurmairer, of Habitat for Humanity, not only here, but abroad.

Like many others, Thurmairer is trying his best to help the suffering victims of the terrible earthquate that ravaged Haiti and he should be applauded.

But sending money, is not necessarily the cure-all. Though in an emergency like this, evey penny counts. The question then becomes, for how long?

The NSB Caps awards for 2010 at New Smyrna Beach High School demonstrated what can be achieved if you work hard and long and are enthusiastic and passionate about what you do. All six of this years award winners showed copious amounts of these qualities.

Jack Mitchell, class of 1944, is no doubt the best known of the six honorees. His photographs have appeared on virtually every national and international publication that deals with the arts.

Mitchell's photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the cover of People Magazine a week before Lennon’s death made that issue their biggest seller.

It is no secret that Obama and I are polar opposites when it comes to which direction we should go to solve out problems. He believes strictly in government based solutions to solving all of our problems, from health care costs to job creation and energy independence. I believe in market solutions to these problems.

The reason I believe in market solutions is because to the best of my knowledge they work much much better than so-called government-based solutions.

Martha Coakley might have had a fighting chance at keeping Ted Kennedy’s longstanding Democratic seat if Barack Obama had just stayed out of Massachusetts.

Republican Scott Brown’s stunning upset win over Coakley has some exciting ramifications for the rest of the country. With any luck it will halt or at least slow down America ’s rush to become a Marxist state with Obama at the helm and his first year in office a dismal failure..