Working as a celebrity bartender, City of Alachua Mayor Gib Coerper served up drinks at The Great Outdoors Restaurant’s Pink and Purple fundraiser Thursday evening.

HIGH SPRINGS – The Great Outdoors Restaurant Spring House Tavern and Outside Patio Bar hosted the first Pink and Purple fundraiser on Thursday, April 18, 2013. The event, which garnered nearly $3,000 for Relay for Life, was a great success, according to event organizers.

Celebrity bartenders on hand for the event included High Springs City Manager Ed Booth and Mayor Sue Weller, Alachua Mayor Gib Coerper, High Springs Chamber President Sandra Webb and President of the Yellow Bellied Sliders Bicycle Group of High Springs, Tom Hewlett.

Great Outdoors General Manager Carol Ann Doherty said the restaurant is donating 100 percent of the profits from the patio that night, a total of $2,869. “We started working with the Relay for Life Sponsorship team six weeks ago for the first of what we hope will be an annual collaborative event,” explained Doherty.

Owners Bob and Karen Bentz of West Palm Beach were very much in support of this effort according to Doherty, who also said out-of-pocket expenses for the restaurant were $5,400. “We paid for Tom & Adam, the entertainment for the evening, pink and purple napkins and balloons, staff, and provided the facility…everything it took to generate that amount of cash for profit,” she explained.

“It was a great collaborative effort,” said Doherty. “We were extremely excited about this event and very pleased the entire community came out in support of it. Our staff dressed in pink and purple and we all enjoyed every minute of it,” she said.

In addition to the money raised through more than 150 dinners and many more drinks, “the group earned another $358 through tips received by the celebrity bartenders, chance drawing tickets and the donation jar,” added event chair Sharon Kantor.

Kantor said that 14 groups have raised more than $12,000 for Relay for Life prior to the Pink and Purple event fundraiser. “We hope to double, if not triple that amount by the end of the Relay for Life event.”

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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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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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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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