Latest news with #BrianScott
Irish Examiner
29-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
'We ran out of time but history doesn't lie': Cork Con know how hard it is to win back-to-back AIL titles
Cork Constitution's dream of landing back-to-back Energia All Ireland League titles may have come up agonisingly short but the Temple Hill club are committed to the idea the feat has not become impossible to achieve. Clontarf's 22-21 Division 1A final victory at Aviva Stadium last Sunday ended Cork Con's hopes of becoming the first team since Shannon in the mid-2000s to successfully retain the crown they had won 12 months earlier. It was also the third successive defeat of a defending champion in a league decider as the Dublin side regained the title they last enjoyed in 2022. The Castle Avenue club had lost the 2023 title to Terenure, who in turn had their reign ended by Constitution. Those three consecutive years of final heartache underline the size of the task of defending the AIL title and Cork Con defence coach Brian Scott said: 'Last year we felt the ecstasy of winning and you feel agony today. 'It's quite evident it's a hard thing to do, back-to-back, but I don't think it was from lack of trying, to be fair. It was a tight game and our lads gave it everything and we fought to the bitter end. In a way you feel like we ran out of time but history doesn't lie, I suppose, and it's showing us that it is hard to go back-to-back. 'But there is going to be someone else, there has to be and hopefully it's not next year and we get another chance at it, but someone else will definitely back it up at some stage.' Clontarf head coach Andy Wood empathised with the Cork Con contingent and said: 'We've been there on the other side too often to mention, but a huge amount of respect for Con, what they bring. 'They do bring it to a stage where it's going to be a one-score game, all the way through the season and it proved again. 'They scored last and it took a huge defensive set and then a great turnover from our supersub Oran Walsh, who came on and did a fantastic job. So a sort of microcosm of how our season's gone on.' Clontarf skipper and try-scoring hooker Dylan Donnellan also acknowledged how tough it had been to get over the line in a gripping encounter at the Aviva. 'It was one of those games that you really just need to manage your way through because as we saw, one point is what gets you out on the other side,' Donnellan said. 'There was never really any breathing space, even when we went eight points ahead, we were eight points ahead for two or three minutes and then it claws you back in again. 'So it is a tough game to manage and that speaks to the quality of Con, the quality of the AIL as a league and the quality of our team and what we could put out on the day.' Scott was optimistic there was plenty of rugby left in the Johnny Holland-coached Con squad, despite Sunday's agony. 'We definitely have some guys who won't be with us next year but the bulk of that team is there and hopefully we'll see more and more of them. 'They just continue to impress me from a coaching perspective. I really feel like this group probably struggled at times throughout the year and they just kept stepping up and being mature. The ownership that led to the growth to actually get us back here, like we lost to Lansdowne and Clontarf and people were writing us off going into the play-offs but there we are and we got a chance to defend it today. We just didn't get over the line unfortunately.'
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pinellas County makes changes to short-term rental rules
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Pinellas County Commissioners adopted a new short-term rental ordinance on Tuesday evening. Commissioners said the new ordinance includes stronger protections sought by the community on maximum occupancy, quiet hours, and a sexual predator notice requirement per Florida Statutes. The ordinance applies to properties rented for fewer than 30 days at a time and more than three times per year. 'The updated short term rental ordinance addresses resident's concerns by bringing greater accountability with the requirement of a Certificate of Use, compliance with minimum life safety standards, providing for increased code enforcement staff, and a mechanism for data collection allowing for evaluation of future updates,' said Pinellas County Commission Chair Brian Scott. Here are the key requirements for short-term rentals, according to Pinellas County: Certificate of Use: Required for all short-term rentals in unincorporated Pinellas County. Short-term rental owners can begin applying for their Certificate of Use starting March 31, and must apply by either May 31, June 30 or July 31, depending on the zip code of their rental property. Owners should visit for details. Maximum Occupancy: Two guests per bedroom, plus two additional guests in the common area, with a maximum of 10 occupants. Guests of all ages are included in the occupancy. Parking: One off-street parking space per three guests, rounded up to the next whole number. Parking on front lawns does not count towards the minimum requirement of spaces per number of occupants. Noise: Quiet hours are 10 p.m. – 9 a.m. Inspections: A safety inspection is required before a Certificate of Use is issued, with re-inspections every two years. Renewal: Rental operators must renew their Certificate of Use annually. Fees: Certificate of Use: $450 (split into two payments) Initial inspection: $150 ($100 reinspection fee if the property does not pass) Annual renewal: $450 Reinspection (every two years): $100 For more information visit Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pierce County embarks on regional response to homelessness. Can it make a difference?
Pierce County's Unified Regional Approach (URA) to homelessness officially kicked off, but it is still unclear how the coalition will be led, what goals it will attempt to achieve and how it will operate. On March 7, dozens of elected officials from cities in Pierce County, representatives from local government agencies and some nonprofit service providers gathered for the official URA meeting. The Unified Regional Approach is an attempt to satisfy the first goal identified in Pierce County's Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness — established by the Pierce County Council four years ago. Attendees included members of the Tacoma City Council, City of Gig Harbor, Lakewood City Council, Puyallup City Council, local fire and police departments, Pierce County Council members and Pierce County Human Services, among others. The URA is intended to bring together government, community and non-profit partners involved with the region's response to the homelessness crisis. The idea is that better coordination and cooperation is needed between jurisdictions and communities fighting the common problem of homelessness. The effort to assemble the first URA meeting has been long and costly. Last year, Pierce County offered $1 million to a consulting firm to help organize and implement the URA. During the March 7 meeting, those consultants facilitated the conversation. Brian Scott is the project director from Uncommon Bridges, the consulting firm chosen by the county. Scott outlined the plan to slowly define the objectives of the URA, the roles each member would have and how it would operate. He said the members of the URA would have to discuss and determine their respective levels of commitment and how decisions about resources would be made. Even questions around how often the URA would meet have yet to be answered. That process alone is expected to take a year. Scott said consultants would speak individually with members of the URA to ask about their thoughts, concerns and expectations for the URA. He said the intention is to collect feedback that members are hesitant to share during meetings. Some of the early feedback the consultants received about the homelessness response system was shared March 7. The themes included unequal burden faced by certain jurisdictions that provide the majority of the homeless services, a need for better data tracking and sharing, and 'cumbersome processes' for procuring and distributing contracts and grant funding. Consultants also identified tensions between jurisdictions due to factors such as smaller communities having fewer resources to contribute, confusion around leadership roles, and regional approaches that could undermine local strategies and priorities. Sarah Solon works for HR&A, a consulting firm partnering with Uncommon Bridges to help implement the URA. Solon presented case studies of other regions that improved their response to homelessness through regional coordination. According to data she presented, Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located, had the sixth largest homeless population in the nation in 2011. Since 2012, the region has been able to reduce its unhoused population by 60%. Solon said it found success by creating a unified system where anyone experiencing homelessness was able to access services and support. She said the system focused heavily on reducing wasted and duplicated efforts. According to her data, the region housed 32,000 people since 2012 and experienced a 90% success rate in housing programs —meaning those individuals did not return to homelessness over two years. She told the attendees some of the key agreements regional coalitions could make include operational coordination, service contract alignments and data-sharing agreements. She also outlined a need for an alignment of financial resources and stronger coordination to request state and federal funding. 'What is happening here is not happening in other communities,' she encouraged. 'We are on the wave of innovation.'
