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Youthful plan

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 10, 2008

Last week, Corey Smith, a River Ridge Middle School student, went before the Pasco County Commission and asked the county to build sidewalks or bicycle paths along Moon Lake Road. That was not all that unusual. Most of the time, however, the young person merely makes the request, the adult government leaders respond with smiles and a verbal pat on the head and that's the end of it.

Corey, however, was more of a young man with a mission. While Pasco County is planning to build sidewalks along Moon Lake Road when the two-lane road is widened, given the current timetable, Corey, as he noted, would be 26 - a bit old to be worrying about the safety of the trip to River Ridge Middle School or River Ridge High School - when the sidewalks are done.

Instead, Corey showed up in front of the commission with his own plan for the sidewalks and related safety features he had put together with the help of a professional engineer. He had even identified a potential funding source for the sidewalk project.

Most young people tend to dismiss government as some weird thing old people do. They're not completely wrong about that, but Corey's foray into the public policy realm was refreshing.

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