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01-06-2014 - Town Hall CITY COUNCIL OF EDGEWATER TOWN HALL MEETING JANUARY 6, 2014 5:00 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS MINUTES 1. INTRODUCTION Mayor Thomas called the Town Hall Meeting to order at 5: 00 p.m. in the Council Chambers . a. Council Members and Staff Mayor Thomas introduced himself, Vice Mayor Mike Ignasiak, and Councilman District 4 Gene Emter. Councilwoman Bennington was unable to attend. b. Other attendees Mayor Thomas then asked everyone else to introduce themselves and identify the organization or neighborhood they were representing. The following citizens attended: Mary Ciccarello, Wildwood Subdivision Bob Ciccarello, Wildwood Subdivision John Gibbs, Mariners Gate Alice Haldeman, Lake Avenue Bob Anjekovics, Edgewater Lakes Dale Tanner, Edgewater Lakes Gina Hutzel, new to the area Jeanie Hinds, Village Green Joe Favaloro, Edgewater Landing 2. DISCUSSION City Manager Barlow asked Ms . Hutzel what attracted her to paradise, how she found the area and if there was anything she could change about her community what it would be, which she answered for him. Ms. Hutzel spoke about being very active in educating people about prescription drug abuse. She wanted to know what the City was doing about it and see if there was anything introduced in dealing with the areas where it seems to be a mecca for people to reside. She further spoke of the laws being changed that helps doctors and does control but they have also cut off a lot of people that needed help. She felt it was a vicious circle. 1 Town Hall Meeting January 6, 2014 but they have also cut off a lot of people that needed help. She felt it was a vicious circle. City Manager Barlow identified at one time the State of Florida was distributing more prescription drugs than all of the other states combined. He further identified that the City of Edgewater participated in a task force that was coordinated through VCOG. The City Council was one of the first Councils ' in the County that passed ordinances that regulated pill mills within the City of Edgewater. City Manager Barlow informed Ms . Hutzel that he and City Clerk Wenzel would help her work with the Council and get her appropriately placed to make a difference in her community. Councilman Ignasiak spoke about the State cracking down on the doctors . He welcomed Ms . Hutzel to Florida. Mayor Thomas stated he was a wildlife officer for 30 years and the last five years of his career he made more drug arrests than he did game arrests . He spoke of having to go to school constantly as a result of the drugs changing from marijuana to crack cocaine and now the big thing was methamphetamine, bath salts and synthetic marijuana. a. Preview of the coming year (City Manager) City Manager Barlow informed Council he wanted to run through some of the dates coming up of events within the community. He was also going to talk about some of the projects he was hoping to see in the first quarter going into the second quarter of the year. City Manager Barlow informed Council on February 3rd he wanted to do a 5: 00 p.m. workshop before the Regular Meeting. He wanted to have Environmental Services Director Brenda Dewees come in to talk about the Indian River Lagoon with regard to where they were and where they are and talk about some recent improvements the City had made as it related to stormwater enhancements, effluent discharge enhancements and talk about some of the things they had planned going into the future that would be a benefit to the Indian River Lagoon. Mayor Thomas wanted to invite Diana Polver with the News Journal . City Manager Barlow also mentioned Clay Henderson being very involved. City Manager Barlow informed the Council they would also have a 4 : 00 p.m. Executive Session on February 3rd. City Manager Barlow then informed Council on February 11th at 5 p.m. the State was holding a symposium on the Spaceport, an information session and open public forum, in the New Smyrna High School Gymnasium on 10th Street. He felt it should be an informative meeting. 2 Town Hall Meeting January 6, 2014 f . There was a brief discussion regarding who was presumed to be running the meeting. City Manager Barlow informed Council he wanted to do a joint workshop on March 12th with the Planning & Zoning Board and Economic Development Board regarding the Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) , Findings of Necessity report, and draft Master Plan. City Manager Barlow further commented on where they were with the CRA process . Sometime in April they would request delegation for a CRA. City Manager Barlow then informed Council of some of the current upcoming projects . They were currently adding sidewalks on North Old County Road from Ocean Avenue going south to the school . Within a week or two they would be adding sidewalks adjacent to Turgot Avenue on the north side of Turgot from U. S. #1 clear back that would tie into the sidewalk system at the YMCA currently that went all the way around the school. City Manager Barlow then informed Council they had finalized the grant dollars and later this year should start the right-of-way determination and design of sidewalks on Flagler Avenue from Park Avenue to 12th Street. They were making headway with the goal of continuing the sidewalk network system. A lot of these were TPO grant dollars that were doing that for them. City Manager Barlow then informed Council they were awaiting 100% plans review from FDOT regarding the sidewalks along Ridgewood Avenue. Once they had the 100% plans they should be advertising no later than the end of March for the construction of those and should start construction of those early summer of this year. He estimated this would be a nine-month project best case scenario. They would have sidewalks on both sides of U.S . #1 clear down to the intersection of SR 442 and U. S. #1 and south of SR 442, they would have an eight-foot sidewalk on the east side all the way down to the Volco Road area. They would have sidewalks through the main business district before they started the redevelopment in that area. That was an FDOT funded project as well . City Manager Barlow then informed Council in July they would have $500, 000 of DOT landscape grant dollars available to them that allows them to continue to enhance the landscape on Ridgewood Avenue everywhere outside the access management area, which went from one block north of Park Avenue south to Boston Road area. They would have a plan laid out for Council to approve long before the money was available to them so they could start the project right away. Councilwoman Power asked if that included irrigation. City Manager Barlow informed her the only thing they could do with that money was 3 Town Hall Meeting January 6, 2014 landscape and that they would have to do some of the irrigation themselves . City Manager Barlow was told the County as hoping to have the bids out on the street the first part of this year for the 10th Street widening. At the same time they were going to make the retention pond at the Old Winn Dixie parking lot at the north end of town. They would have a final design to the Council to approve because they are going to make that a park, instead of just a retention pond. The County was allowing them to make some additional enhancements . That was recently named "The Gateway Park", which was a contest they had with the elementary school. City Manager Barlow then commented on a nine station fitness system along the Riverwalk on Riverside Drive that was on Council ' s agenda tonight. City Manager Barlow spoke about Rotary Park enhancements, that were budgeted for and there were grant dollars available for, that would be tied in with the East Central Florida Regional Rail Trail . City Manager Barlow spoke about working with the County regarding some dates for a groundbreaking of the SR 442 overpass for the East Central Florida Regional Rail Trail . Mayor Thomas asked if they would be able to get a sign on the bridge saying "Welcome to Edgewater" . City Manager Barlow identified the conceptual design of the contractor that was awarded the bid for the bridge had the Edgewater seal on it. It was a County project but he felt it would behoove the Councilmembers to express their desire for it any time they were at an event where their County Council counterparts were there. Staff had been pushing hard for that but there were no guarantees . Councilman Emter asked if a resolution would be appropriate. City Manager Barlow felt talking to the County Council directly would be more effective. Councilman Emter suggested doing both. City Manager Barlow didn't know if that would be more offensive than helpful . Mayor Thomas asked if they were having a meeting tomorrow morning. City Manager Barlow informed him that it was the following Tuesday and further spoke about meeting with the Southeast Volusia Managers and Mayors from Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater, Oak Hill and Volusia County on a monthly basis to talk about regional issues . City Manager Barlow informed Council on March 18th they were looking to do another workshop on the CRA with the City Commission of New Smyrna Beach, who was also putting together a master redevelopment plan for the Ridgewood Corridor. They had CRA' s in the past that had taken care of Canal Street, Flagler Avenue and the North Causeway. 4 Town Hall Meeting January 6, 2014 Mayor Thomas felt they needed to educate the public on the CRA' s as a result of negative comments he has received about CRA' s . City Manager Barlow commented on some minor reorganization he did going into 2014 . City Manager Barlow further identified what a CRA was and the process to receive a CRA designation through Volusia County once an area is determined to be blighted. He further commented on improvements made to Canal Street in New Smyrna Beach as the result of a CRA. Edgewater was one of the few communities in the entire County that had not had a single CRA. Two other attempts had been made and this would be the third attempt. City Manager Barlow commented on the Visioning Session that was done with the community back in 2008 and identified they hadn' t taken their eyes off of that vision. He mentioned the Vision Plan being available on the City' s website. The important part was to have those documents, educate the citizens on those documents and use those as they transition Managers ' and Councils ' so they don't lose the momentum. He spoke of going with staggered terms so they never have an entire Council replaced at once so they have a continuity of operations as they transition Councils ' . Mayor Thomas asked if they had a plan in place as the current Council had a plan in place. City Manager Barlow informed him that part of it was the Vision Plan and some of the other plans with regard to their annual goals and establishing transportation goals into the future. Mayor Thomas asked City Manager Barlow if he felt the four year terms had helped. City Manager Barlow felt the four year terms and the split terms had been one of the best things that had happened to Edgewater in quite some time. Mayor Thomas felt every time they elected a new Council they had different thinking, different goals and different plans . The Council gave City Manager Barlow marching orders to search for all of the dollars he could find. They were trying to get all of the grants, federal money and free money they could get. City Manager Barlow identified Environmental Services Director Brenda Dewees was working with the completion of the Wastewater Treatment Plant refurbishment. They hoped to have that finished before the summer. City Manager Barlow then commented on staff working on a preliminary site plan to expand and/or relocate Public Works and identified Council had saved money towards acquisition of additional property to expand and/or relocate Public Works so they could eventually expand the Wastewater Treatment Plant. He also mentioned money being saved 5 Town Hall Meeting January 6, 2014 for future relocation of City Hall, which would happen down the road as a result of outgrowing the current City Hall . In 2008 the citizens said they wanted the general location of Air Park Road and SR 442 to be the new location for City Hall, which would almost be dead center of the City as they grow south and west. He hoped they would be able to secure that property in the near future. City Manager Barlow spoke of finishing the design work of the Park Avenue/Mission Road intersection this year and possibly going into construction either later in the year or hopefully get additional grant dollars the following year for that construction. City Manager Barlow then spoke of working with the traffic engineer to do some traffic studies and talk about some needed improvements to Park Avenue into the future. Councilwoman Power asked about Old Mission being the City' s deal and questioned if the City' s traffic engineer could design it and make it happen however they would like it to happen. City Manager Barlow informed her the intersection of Old Mission and Park Avenue was a County intersection. They met with the County two years ago and the agreement was they would give the City a letter and allow them to take over that project and the County would take over Park Avenue and submit for the TPO. The City of Edgewater submitted and got approved to do the study for the enhancement at that intersection but the County never did their part on theirs . In the very near future he would be coming back to Council and talking to them about if the County was willing to give up and for the City to assume Park Avenue. City Manager Barlow then commented on the Interlocal Service Boundary Agreement New Smyrna Beach did with the County. Any property within a certain area the City of New Smyrna Beach would provide City services whether they were in the County or the City. Part of that was taking over roadway maintenance and having roads deeded over to them but before the City accepted them the County had to do improvements to the roads . He felt it would be a benefit to the City if they had control over the maintenance and enhancements of Park Avenue. b. Questions, comments, concerns from public Mayor Thomas informed the public it was time to hear from them. A gentleman in the audience had knowledge of the tentative plans for expansion of the Edgewater YMCA and if the City had a part in that or if it was the County. City Manager Barlow asked the gentleman to wait until the first part of the Regular meeting when Council would be receiving an update from Teresa Rogers, CEO of the YMCA. He further explained the City owned the building and the property. The YMCA wanted to come in and do the expansion. The City would probably get the loan, which they were going to be discussing tonight and the YMCA 6 Town Hall Meeting January 6, 2014 would do a lease payment which would be the debt service over the term of that loan. If the YMCA left, all of the improvements and assets would come back to the City. There was further discussion regarding there being enough property at the present location for expansion. Councilwoman Power asked about the CRA deal and questioned the money going back into a certain area for improvement instead of going elsewhere for improvement. City Manager Barlow commented on currently what happens now. Councilwoman Power questioned how it was established how much went in there or if it was just however the property values came up as time goes on that goes into that fund and over time there is extra money in there and they do something then. City Manager Barlow informed her that was when they do some of their big capital improvements . He further identified it was a partnership between the City and the County to do redevelopment here and that State Statutes were particular about what they could use that money for. He then commented on Council adopting a Ridgewood Overlay Code a couple of years ago, which was very successful in other communities and important to have established before they do a CRA. Councilwoman Power then asked about not being limited to the money they had and being able to borrow against it. City Manager Barlow informed her they could borrow against it, put grants against it or use the General Fund to add to it. A lady in the audience asked about the lights that were installed along the pathways around the YMCA. She asked if they were gas lights, if the City installed them and if some of them were vandalized. Mr. Corder informed her they were solar powered lights and that within two weeks after they put them up, fifteen of them were vandalized but they caught the vandals . They had more on order to replace the ones that couldn't be fixed. The same lady asked if any thought had been given to any pedestrian crosswalks along SR 442 . City Manager Barlow informed her there hadn't been any discussion but he felt it was a great initiative to look at. He also agreed to get some ideas from the City' s traffic engineer. He further identified it was a State Road. Councilwoman Power questioned having to go through FDOT. City Manager Barlow informed her the City didn't have jurisdiction on that road but not saying they couldn' t petition them and partner with them in allowing them to do it. Mention was also made of the speed limits on SR 442 being 35, 40, 45 and 55. Mayor Thomas thanked everyone for coming. They would break the Town Hall meeting and start the City Council meeting sharply at 6: 00 p.m. 7 Town Hall Meeting January 6, 2014 A gentleman in the audience asked when the next Town Hall meeting would be. City Manager Barlow informed him it would the first Monday in April an hour before the Council meeting. The gentleman asked if they would get a letter like they did this time. City Manager Barlow informed him they would get a letter and/or e-mail. 3. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to discuss, the Town Hall meeting adjourned at 5: 58 p.m. Minutes submitted by: Lisa Bloomer, CMC 8 Town Hall Meeting January 6, 2014