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HIGH SPRINGS – Looking to increase revenues in city coffers, impact fees are on the table for the High Springs City Commission. At the April 11, 2013 commission meeting, commissioners discussed the impact fee study prepared by City Manager Ed Booth, which was provided to each of them for review during the March 28 meeting.

Booth explained that while impact fees were originally set at $9,000 per household, they were never collected by the City. “This study presents a more affordable and realistic alternative and takes into consideration a joint project with the City of Alachua and considers grant opportunities,” he said.

The matter brought little discussion as commissioners realized the revised impact fees would be significantly less than the original amount. Following unanimous agreement, commissioners tasked City Attorney Scott Walker to develop an ordinance based on Booth’s suggested impact fees at under $3,000 per average household.

Walker is expected to present the ordinance at the April 25 commission meeting for the required first reading. If it passes at that time, a public hearing and second reading of the ordinance will be scheduled to receive citizen input. Most likely the public hearing will take place at the May 9 regular commission meeting.

If fees are approved at second reading, “developers will have to pay the impact fee if they want to be guaranteed the use of the sewer system,” Booth said.

Impact fees are not intended to be used for ongoing operations and maintenance. Instead, the fees are to be used to further develop or expand the existing water and wastewater systems to accommodate new demand created by new development.

Booth earlier said as the cost for infrastructure expansion within the existing systems occurs due to new users, the connection fees should be directly based on the reduction of capacity caused by the new customers.

Booth estimates total capital cost to the City of $1.3 million for wastewater facilities, which equates to an impact fee per unit of $1,303 for additional wastewater customers.

“Based on a 250-gallon per customer water usage, the cost for residential customers would be $1,342 for a 3/4-1-inch meter. Two- and 3-inch meters, usually reserved for businesses using a larger water supply, would add $1,000 for a 2-inch meter or $3,000 for a 3-inch meter to the residential amount of $2,645.

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HIGH SPRINGS – The fiscal year 2011/2012 audit report for the City of High Springs was presented to the city commission at the April 25, 2013 commission meeting.

Accountant Richard Powell, of Powell and Jones Certified Public Accountants, presented commissioners with the report which found an unassigned fund balance of $826,585 to be spent at the city’s discretion.

Following that meeting, Mayor Sue Weller explained, “Approximately $500,000 of that amount is designated as two months operating expenses. The rest is contingency fund, which the City is currently working to build up.”

The report also found a decrease of about $844,078 of the City’s general fund balance as a result of large capital outlays in transportation and culture and recreation departments.

Some of the City’s capital investments include roadway improvements in the downtown area, a gazebo in the downtown parking lot, two new police patrol cars as well as a new dispatch communication system, and renovations and upgrades to the old school building and civic center. It also includes construction of a wastewater collection system currently in progress.

Mayor Weller said several of the capital investments were completed using grant funds, such as the gazebo and upgrades to the old school building. In the case of the police dispatch communication system, “there was a significant capital investment made by the City,” she said. As part of his update to commissioners at a recent commission meeting, Chief Steve Holley explained that “several pieces of equipment no longer needed by other government agencies were obtained at little or no cost to the City.”

“Because of grants and donations, some of the capital investments mentioned by the auditor cost the City little or nothing,” she said.

According to the report, the City’s sewer system accounts for one of its major losses and highest expenses. Powell said compared to others funds for water and solid waste, both of which almost covered their losses, the sewer system fund has not, and is in fact losing money. Commissioner Bob Barnas said the sewer system seems to be draining a lot of money and appears to be getting worse in comparison to last year’s audit. Powell said it looks like the user charges associated with the sewer system aren’t sufficient enough to pay for its operating expenses and debt.

Mayor Weller said later, “The 2010-2011 commission had voted to raise the sewer rates during the next fiscal year, knowing that an increase in rates was needed in order to support the sewer system. However, when it came time for the 2011-2012 commission to take official action to raise the rates, the majority on that commission, Dean Davis, Bob Barnas and Linda Gestrin, decided they did not want to raise the sewer rates and quashed the earlier commission’s decision.

“There are going to be a lot of things that this commission will discuss during this year’s budget process. We certainly have to look at that issue as well as others,” she concluded.

After the presentation, Mayor Weller said the audit came out clean with no real issues and asked fellow commissioner if they wanted to make a motion on accepting the report. The motion passed and the audit was accepted.

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The Newberry City Commission has approved up to $10,000 for repairs to bring the former Newberry daycare center up to code.

NEWBERRY – The fate of a building located in East Park, which was formerly used as a school cafeteria, is in the hands of the Newberry City Commission. For the last 30 years the building had been used as a daycare center, and over the past year it sat vacant.

The Citizens Advisory Board turned the building, which is located out front the ball fields off Newberry Lane, over to the city to decide its future, said Lewis King, advisory chairperson. One idea is to rent it out for citizen functions and activities, such as family reunions.

“We’ve had about 14 families that I know of that has been interested in renting the building,” Lewis said.

“But it wasn’t up to code.”

The commission agreed on April 22 to put up some $10,000 for repairs to bring the electricity and plumbing up to code and the parking accessibility up to ADA standards.

King believes the park’s building opens up another avenue for renters because at this point, the municipal building is the only building citizens can use, so it’s always booked up.

In addition to the electrical and plumbing upgrades in the first phase of repairs, there will be updates to the fire suppression system connected to the stove in the kitchen, which should be about $3,000, King said.

The second phase of repairs includes changing out some commodes and putting in a new floor and more lighting.

“A couple of months, and we should be up and running,” King said.

The initial money is a “starter amount with the idea that more money would be forthcoming when we got the 2014 budget to do even more things in there,” said Mayor Bill Conrad, referring to events such as parties and wedding receptions.

“There are other renovations that need to be made to the building,” said Commissioner Alena Lawson.

“That’s the plan: to try to generate some revenue so we can continue to upgrade it.”

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Researchers at Banyan Biomarkers work in their Alachua facilities to develop improved methods of diagnozing traumatic brain injuries.

ALACHUA – Speeding up the diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries is the focus of an Alachua-based bioscience company.

Banyan Biomarkers works to develop and commercialize biomarkers to accurately and quickly diagnose traumatic brain injuries. It has made progress in developing and clinically validating novel enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for traumatic brain injury.

The company’s research has identified unique biomarkers present in a patient’s blood following injury to the brain. The detection and quantification of these biomarkers may provide early indications of brain trauma essential for earlier intervention and management.

Approximately 1.7 million people are treated and released from an emergency room as result of traumatic brain injury, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Common causes of injury are automobile accidents, falls, sports-related injuries and assaults.

The company resides in Progress Corporate Park at 13400 Progress Blvd. along with more than 30 other bioscience and technology companies due to its proximity to the University of Florida.

“We work closely with UF, and many of our employees have UF affiliation,” said Banyan Biomarkers CEO Jackson Streeter.

Banyan Biomarkers was founded in 2002 by Ron Hayes, Kevin Wang and Nancy Denslow at the McKnight Brain Institute at UF. Its goal was to create the first point of care blood test, a blood test at or near the site of patient care, to diagnose traumatic brain injuries.

Currently no blood test exists for use by physicians to detect the presence and severity of brain trauma.

Located within the city of Alachua, the company has created more than 30 jobs within the community and contributes to several area charities.

“We support Tyler’s Hope, Heroes of Military Medicine, Wounded Warrior project and have an annual scholarship for disadvantaged youth interested in a career in science or medicine,” Streeter said.

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Hawthorne city officials and guests gathered to celebrate completion of the City’s wastewater system improvement project with an official ribbon cutting ceremony.

HAWTHORNE – On Friday, April 26, the City of Hawthorne celebrated the expansion of its wastewater treatment plant with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

With representatives from the commission, City staff, Sawcross, Inc., Mittauer & Associates and public works staff, as well as those involved in the grant writing and construction process present, the ceremonial ribbon was cut, marking completion of the project.

The project cost totaled $1.15 million at no expense to the City of Hawthorne. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection awarded a Legislative Appropriation Grant of $500,000 while the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity awarded Hawthorne a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) of $650,000.

The expansion consisted of constructing a new chlorine contact chamber, yard piping, electrical work and other necessary renovations that allow treatment of wastewater to increase from 150,000 gallons per day to 200,000 gallons.

An important addition to the system is the sludge dewatering box to the plant. The City can now dispose of its own sludge rather than paying utility companies to haul it off. The dewatering box will allow the City to dry the sludge and take it to a recycler, reducing the cost charged by weight.

City Manager Ellen Vause projects to save up to 50 percent in the sludge hauling cost for the next year, but would need more time to accurately track the projected savings and costs.

Beginning with construction in November 2012, the project was completed in April 2013, although Hawthorne had until February 2014 to complete construction in accordance with the CDBG criteria.

Referring to future development in Hawthorne and business and residential expansion in the eastern part of the county, Hawthorne Mayor Matthew Surrency said, “Hopefully, it sets us up well in the future.”

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L-R:  High Springs Fire Chief Bruce Gillingham (kneeling), Police Chief Steve Holley and City Manager Edwin Booth help place pinwheels on the lawn at the High Springs Woman's Club April 4.

HIGH SPRINGS – High Springs city leaders and New Century Woman’s Club members joined forces to plant a pinwheel garden in front of the Woman’s Club on Thursday, April 4, to help focus local awareness on the issue of child abuse in America. The pinwheels represent only a fraction of the number of children identified as abused in the United States.

As April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) and Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA) Pinwheels for Prevention teamed up to begin a campaign to focus on activities locally to bring awareness to all communities.

Pinwheels for Prevention began as a grassroots campaign in Georgia, Florida and Ohio, according to information on the website www.pinwheelsforprevention.org. The first National Abuse Prevention month was proclaimed in April 1983.

Pinwheel distribution began in 1998 with 400,000 pinwheels to help create a national symbol for child abuse and neglect prevention. Since that time more than 2.3 million pinwheels have been distributed by the group for display in all 50 states.

This year’s awareness focus is on bullying and cyber bullying. Recent deaths resulting from both have escalated. Learn more about what you can do at www.preventchildabuse.org or contact Anita Odom, Executive Director, Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida at aodom@ounce.org or visit the website at www.ounce.org.

The blue and silver pinwheels represent the bright futures children deserve as well as representing commitment to provide a happy, healthy and safe childhood for all children.

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