Local

On Tuesday workers laid new asphalt over what had been a 20-foot deep sinkhole on Northwest 115^th Avenue.

ALACHUA – City of Alachua Mayor Gib Coerper took a step to financially prepare the City for natural disasters by officially declaring a local state of emergency at a special city commission meeting Tuesday.

The proclamation allows for City Manager Traci Cain “to take all reasonable and necessary emergency measures” to provide continuing safety services to the city.

This includes the waiving of the city’s purchasing guidelines and ordinances, allowing the city manager to procure emergency goods and services without competitive bidding or the requirement to seek approval from the city commission.

Marcian Brown, finance director for the City of Alachua, stated that the proclamation is not a reaction but rather a precaution, noting that the City must declare a local state of emergency in order to potentially receive funding from FEMA should Alachua County become eligible for emergency funds.

The proclamation came after Tropical Storm Debby caused a variety of damage in the area, including a sinkhole on Northwest 115th Avenue.

According to Mike New, the City of Alachua public services director, the sinkhole was 2 feet in diameter at the surface but was 20 feet deep and 20 feet in diameter beneath the ground.

Workers from the City of Alachua began to fix the hole with backfill compacting and installing grouting tubes, eventually adding concrete inside the hole.  On Tuesday afternoon, workers completed much of the asphalt restoration on the surface of the hole.

The cost of repairing this sinkhole is estimated at $45,000-$50,000.  New noted that there are a few other sinkholes in the area and supports the proclamation of a state of emergency in order to allot necessary funds to fix problems such as these.

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L-R Sisters Danielle, 8, Deania, 13 and Devin, 11 of Gainesville are enjoying another Fourth of July in Alachua, playing games while waiting for the big show.

With temperatures sizzling, the City of Alachua’s 13^th Annual July 4 Celebration at the Hal Brady Recreation Complex was the perfect place for youngsters to play games and cool off Wednesday afternoon.  After working up a healthy appetite, festivalgoers supported area sports teams and enjoyed samplings of the local fare.

No Fourth of July celebration would be complete without a splendid fireworks display – and that it was.  With the largest ever budget for the annual celebration, the Detonators pyrotechnic group, led by Fred Hilton, lit up the night sky with fireworks.  Synchronized to patriotic songs, the Detonators provided a spectacular show of flashes and booms for more than a half-hour.

Although they were unable to take any official action in the workshop, at least some of the commissioners seemed to lay the groundwork to find a replacement for Langman.  Vice-Mayor Bob Barnas and Commissioner Linda Gestrin made it clear that they wanted to move ahead with the search for a new city manager.

It was Barnas, Gestrin and Mayor Dean Davis who hired Langman as the interim city manager last November, making her permanent on Feb. 9.

Much of the discussion seemed to focus on the potential termination of Langman as the city manager, rather than a potential hiring process.

Commissioner Scott Jamison said he disagreed with how some commissioners view their own roles. “Several of my colleagues up here believe that it is the responsibility of the commissioners to have a hands-on or quasi-micromanagement relationship with the city manager,” he said.

Moreover, Jamison said he was worried that hiring another city manager could prove fruitless.  “I don’t believe that with the current state that we’re in right now, that we’ll be able to hire a long-term person as a city manager if we don’t allow them to manage.”

Gestrin said she was interested in finding a city manager who could best help High Springs with its current needs.

“Right now, because of the condition of our City, I would like to see someone with a professional background in business and financial, someone that can handle contracts, someone that knows how to negotiate contracts,” Gestrin said.

Commissioner Sue Weller noted ongoing discussions of amending the city’s Charter and the potential impacts doing so could have on the city manager candidates. “I’m not sure it’s fair to go forward with trying to hire a city manager at this point… knowing that there’s a possibility the Charter may change.”

“At this point, we may need to step back and see what’s going to happen on the Charter.”

Jamison and Weller also expressed concern over providing notice to Langman if the commission decides to find another city manager.  Based on requirements of the City of High Springs Charter, terminating the employment of a permanent city manager triggers a series of notices and potential hearings that could take as long as 45 days.  That, Jamison and Weller contend, could place the City in a bind if it conflicts with bringing on a new city manager.

Gestrin said that at the time Langman was appointed the permanent city manager, it was discussed that she would fulfill that role through November.

Firing back against that claim, however, was former High Springs City Attorney and current resident Thomas Depeter who said putting a time limit on the city manager position would be violation of the Charter.

“If any of you think you hired the city manager until November, you do not have a clue how your Charter works,” Depeter said.  “You do not have the power to put a time period on that employment,” he added.

While no action was taken, commissioners did discuss potential salaries for a new city manager, which ranged from $48,000 to $75,000 annually.  They also considered where advertisements would be placed.

Further details are slated to be hammered out during a 6:30 p.m. commission meeting on Thursday, July 12 at City Hall.

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According to a presentation conducted by High Springs Police Chief Steve Holley on Monday, July 2, the City estimates cost of local operations will be $90,267 this budget year through Sept. 30.  On an annualized basis, the cost will be $235,075, compared to $84,075 currently spent with the CCC, an increase of more than $150,000 annually.

During the special Monday meeting, Commissioner Scott Jamison attempted to convince his fellow commissioners to rescind the previous motion that cancelled services with the CCC.

The motion failed to pass, even though Jamison and Weller advocated against a city-operated dispatch due to budgetary concerns. Davis said the letter stating the City’s intent to separate from the CCC had already been hand-delivered by Holley prior to the meeting to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO).

However, Holley said ACSO would have no problem letting the City back into the CCC agreement in the future, if the City should decide to return.

“With the economic times that we are in right now, it is paramount that we plan, not spend,” Jamison said. “I’m concerned with the haste by which we are trying to do this. This is the first we’ve had numbers that show what it was going to cost this year.”

According to figures presented by Holley, future costs of the required technology break down to $52,206 for a Motobridge console, which Motorola offered to finance for the City; $39,200 for CAD software, with yearly maintenance totaling $4,200; $1,200 for cabinets to be rebuilt and $2,000 for telephone upgrades.

Within the next year, the police radios will also have to be upgraded. For 13 radios, the total cost will be $71,279. Additional smaller expenses, such as the price of training manuals and uniforms, would also have to be tallied into the cost required to start dispatch.

If all of the potential applicants require training, the City can expect to pay $44,392 for employee salaries for time spent in training, according to the budget provided by staff.

Gestrin had cited concerns that when the High Springs population trips over 6,000 residents, the CCC cost per call will increase from $14.75 to $24.26.  The City expects to trip that threshold in the next five years, but even so, the cost savings of the CCC would remain at an estimated $100,000 or more annually.  In the meantime, before High Springs trips that 6,000 population threshold, the City would expect to save between $130,000 and $145,000 annually, by remaining with the CCC.

Some estimates project that reopening the city’s emergency dispatch center will cost in excess of $600,000 more than the CCC over the next four years.

The total cost of an in-house emergency dispatch service is estimated at $1.3 million through September 2016.  On the other hand, sticking with the CCC would only cost an estimated $653,000 for the same time period, including a higher per call rate for the last of those four years.

High Springs Finance Services Director Helen McIver reported that the City is experiencing a shortfall in revenue for the current year, but it is not as large as had been previously projected. Some departments have had cost savings, but she could not say the City would definitely have the required funds.

“We’re still willing to go into an expenditure of this type with question marks,” Jamison said. “I don’t think anyone would run their home budget the way we are talking about here.”

Jamison said he wasn’t advocating never bringing the dispatch back into the City, but that it was not prudent to do it currently.

Despite safety concerns expressed by High Springs police officers regarding bringing the dispatch back locally, a split commission voted to do just that on May 22.  Davis, Barnas and Gestrin supported bringing the dispatch center back to the City and Weller and Jamison voted against the motion. Commissioners in favor of bringing the dispatch back cited various reasons, including keeping autonomy, avoiding address changes and providing local knowledge.

However, on July 2, Barnas said he would be in favor of remaining with the CCC if the sheriff’s department allowed the city to keep the same addresses and raised the cut-off number from 6,000 to 10,000 before the cost of CCC service fee increased.

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At the last city commission meeting, city manager Ellen Vause said the budget for the upcoming 2013 fiscal year is similar to the budget for the current fiscal year.

The City’s deficit stands at $1.2 million and its debt service is $4.2 million.

Vause said the City is making progress on paying down its debt. Though it may not completely pay it down this year, she said, the City continues to make headway.

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 HIGH SPRINGS – Following a discussion on June 28 about potential Charter amendments, with criticism leveled at the City’s current city manager form of government, the High Springs Commission decided to move forward with a special meeting to consider terminating current city manager Jeri Langman.

Just two weeks earlier during a June 14 meeting, Vice-Mayor Bob Barnas asked if commissioners were unhappy with the city manager, and no one spoke up. The agenda item, which concerned the city manager as well as the city clerk and city attorney, was dismissed.

Yet at the June 28 meeting, the issue was raised again.

“Obviously, we put a city manager in place as an interim city manager and then as a permanent city manager. Did we make a mistake? Yes or no, it will be debated forever and ever. Barnas said.  “But, the question now becomes, as another commissioner put it, Mr. Mayor, is it working for us?

“Do we start a process now and look for a city manager or do we wait until after the election? It’s my contention that we start a process now.”

The commission scheduled a special meeting for Tuesday, July 10, to discuss the hiring process for a new city manager, and Barnas directed City Attorney Raymond Ivey to draft a resolution terminating current city manager Langman.

If the resolution does not pass, Barnas said “everything can go back to normal.”  However, he said his fellow commissioners should consider that the City is looking at Charter amendments because of the actions the city manager has taken.

Earlier in the June 28 meeting, several commissioners suggested rewriting Section 3.04 of the City Charter, which outlines city manager duties. Mayor Dean Davis and Commissioner Linda Gestrin pushed for a stronger commission, with the power to act as a liaison between departments and City officials.

During the June 14 meeting, a similar discussion took place, with Weller and Jamison stating that the city manager enforces policies based on the decisions made by the commission. The commission authorizes the budget, decides whether to raise fees and decides where the money goes, Jamison said.

“If we’re going to blame someone, we need to look in the mirror,” he said at the time.

If the commission moves forward with terminating Langman and searching for a new city manager, the commission will be looking for a candidate with a strong financial background, as well as experience in city administration work. Commissioner Sue Weller said she would not be in favor of hiring a new city manager unless the person came from outside of High Springs.

“It seems like you’re putting the cart ahead of the horse,” Commissioner Scott Jamison said. “I’ve never been in a place where you actually kept [an employee] and went out, hired somebody, did the whole bid and then came back and say, ‘Okay, see you later.’”

Gestrin said that when the commission hired Langman as the city manager, they placed a deadline of November. She also said that the City cannot wait until the last minute to begin searching for a replacement.  She added that Langman would be welcome to reapply for the job.

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