JordanMarlowe.com

Commission meeting, 5-14

Well, obviously, the issue for this agenda was the first draft of the noise ordinance, and I am going to relate that conversation as best I can.  However, there were a couple of other important items on the agenda that I would like to draw your attention to as well. 

*First, we had a presentation from the Community Action Agency, which is a County wide, federally funded program to help the less fortunate.  They do all kinds of good work, but the issue for Newberry is their meals-on-wheels program.  That program is funded by the City of Newberry for the annual cost of $22,000.  It brings two hot meals a day, four days a week, to between 16-20 residents.  I actually wrote about this program during our last budget session, and I should state again that I am not generally in favor of entitlement programs.  However, the Commission voted to continue the program, and now, it is time to disperse the funds to the CAA.  The issue is whether or not we can find a different program that would feed more people.  I would like to clarify this because the issue, at this point, is not whether or not we will spend the money.  The issue now is who can best serve our residents in need.  The cost of each meal through the CAA is about $3.94, and the CAA pays a driver $150 a week to deliver the food.   If we could find a program that could provide the meals for less, or the delivery for less, we could feed more people.   So, if you have any knowledge of these types of programs, I would love to hear from you!

*The other issue that I would like community input on is about our auditing agency.  The City of Newberry has used Edmund Jones for as long as anyone can remember, and no one, including me, has any complaints at all.  My issue is simply that, after talking with various people, it seems to be a rule of thumb that municipalities should change auditing companies every four or five years just to keep fresh eyes looking at the books.  It seems the worry is that, when cities work with one company for too long, relationships can form that are not very beneficial when it comes to overseeing the money.  I brought this up a few meetings ago, and the idea didn’t meet with any resistance.  But, when I asked for an update at this meeting, there seemed to be a little more conversation about it.  So, again, I would love to get some feedback from you.  Should the City of Newberry get fresh eyes on our financials?  What’s your opinion?

*Ok, the noise ordinance!  The City has been working on this, and I’ve been writing on this for much too long!  But, we finally had a draft to look at Monday night.  Before we could look at and discuss the draft, though, we had two issues to decide related to the noise ordinance.  The first was should we hire an expert to guide us through the ordinance. 

The problem with noise laws is that they aren’t stagnant, which means that lawyers and judges are still figuring them out.  Currently, there are two cases waiting to be heard by the Florida Supreme Court that deal with noise ordinances.  So, while we have had our legal department working on a draft of a noise ordinance, it is their opinion that we should bring in an expert to consult with us on this.  What we are trying to get right this time is writing an ordinance that will stand up in court.  The problem with our existing ordinance is that it would not stand up in court.  If we were to cite someone for violating the existing ordinance, and they contested in court, our lawyers are telling us that we would probably lose.  So, that is really what we are trying to correct, and that is what an expert can help us with.

The second issue related to the noise ordinance was should the City contract with the State Attorney’s office to prosecute our noise ordinance offenders.  There seemed to be a general agreement on this issue, and this will, I hope, solve a key piece in this problem.  Once we have an ordinance that will stand up in court, the next step is having a prosecutorial process, and the State Attorney’s office seems to be the more economical route to take. 

Then, of course, it was time to talk about the draft of the noise ordinance; however, our attorney correctly, if frustratingly, pointed out that, since we had just voted on hiring an expert, there really was no reason to spend a good deal of time discussing the ordinance.  After all, the expert could very well scrap much of it, and there was no reason waste time talking about an ordinance that might change drastically.  So, we will get the first draft of the noise ordinance, post expert consultation, in August.  It certainly felt like another set-back to me, so I wouldn’t be surprised if many residents felt the same.  I suppose we should be happy that we have made some significant progress, but we still have a long way to go.  In the meantime, please, don’t hesitate to contact me with your concerns on this issue.  We are working on it! It is just an unbelievably slow process, but I hope that means we’re getting it right this time! 

As always, leave me your comments!

How I’ve been spending my time:

Nations Park

It feels like it’s time for an update on Nations Park!  Right now, our grand opening has been moved from June 30 to Thanksgiving weekend.  With the lack of rain, we have been having trouble getting the grass and turf to take as well as we would like, and with as expensive as that turf is, we don’t want to push it.  There will be three weeks of tournaments this summer, but they will have fewer teams so that the turf isn’t pushed past what it can handle before it solidly takes root.  The first week has 25 teams scheduled so far, and the second week has 15 teams scheduled.  When the park is running at full capacity, there will be 103 teams a week.

 I’ve been asked about when the stadiums are going to be built, and the answer is there are no stadiums.  This really isn’t a spectator sport.  There are boxes for the parents to sit in and watch the games, but there isn’t any expectation that there will be other people coming to watch these kids play.  So, that’s why you don’t see any stadiums going up.  

Construction of the park should be wrapped up by the end of this month.  The construction costs for the park were over budget, but the owner of Nations, Lou Presutti, has generously offered to cover those costs.  Since the construction isn’t complete yet, we don’t have an exact figure of what that overage is, but our best guess is that it will be $150k-$200k over.  So, it is a wonderful gesture of Coach Presutti, and on behalf of Newberry, I would like to thank him.  This is going to be a great partnership!

One last note on Nations, the employment process for the upcoming jobs at Nations Park will begin soon.  But, I really need to clarify this process.  The City of Newberry owns Nations Park.  We have leased it to Coach Presutti for 20 years.  All operations of the park, including employment, fall under his supervision.  The City’s only job is to ensure that enough jobs are created to fulfill the CBDG grant that Nations received, but the actually hiring of anyone will be up to Nations.  I will certainly keep on top of it and let you know when there is a link on Nations website for submitting applications.