High Springs Boots Waste Hauler

HIGH SPRINGS ‒ The High Springs City Commission has voted to terminate its agreement with its waste hauler. The action was taken at the Feb. 9 Commission meeting. The ongoing lack of responsiveness from GFL Environmental Problems has plagued High Springs’ residents and City staff for some time. Assistant City Manager Bruce Gillingham said there have been multiple instances of repeated problems with GFL.

During a 20-month period, 343 complaints have been lodged by citizens and five were still not rectified within 30 days. “There are instances of whole subdivisions missed [for waste pickups],” he said. “One issue was so bad that the Health Department had to get involved. A second company has been contacted and they are ready to come into the City as soon as they get the word to do so,” said Gillingham.

The Commission unanimously passed Resolution 2023-B, putting GFL on notice that the City intends to terminate the solid waste franchise agreement with GFL Environmental effective upon adoption on Feb. 9, 2023.

County Surtax Split

A discussion on the County’s new Wild Spaces Public Places (WSPP) and Infrastructure Sales Surtax was led by City Manager Ashley Stathatos. The tax will likely generate $12 million in revenue over the taxable period. Of that amount, $3 million will go directly to Gainesville for WSPP projects. Another $3 million will go directly to Gainesville for Infrastructure projects.

The nine Alachua County municipalities will get $3 million toward a grant program for WSPP projects and $3 million toward a grant program for infrastructure projects.

The nine municipalities include Gainesville, Alachua, Newberry, High Springs, Hawthorne, Archer, Waldo, Micanopy and LaCrosse.

The County tasked the nine municipalities with coming to a mutually agreeable split for each of the $3 million grant programs. As $6 million is going directly to Gainesville, the Alachua County League of Cities approved a $375,000 split for each of the cities, excluding Gainesville. At a second meeting, a Gainesville commissioner was present and said he would go back to his Commission to discuss a more equitable split than one based on population. Discussion will continue after receiving feedback from all of the cities’ elected officials.

Commissioners directed City staff to prepare two resolutions for consideration at the next meeting. One would split the $6 million between the smaller eight cities to the exclusion of Gainesville. The second would include an equal split between all nine of the cities.

Meanwhile, Commissioners plan to contact county commissioners to discuss this issue further prior to deciding which resolution they will approve at their next meeting.

Road Projects

The Commission has awarded the bid for Phase 2 road repair and replacement to Live Oak Management Group, LLC at a cost of $111,000. The roads that will be repaired or replaced include Railroad Avenue and Northwest 184^th Street, Box Car Court, Northwest 184^th Road, Northwest 198^th Avenue and 230^th Street and Northwest 238^th Street, Sports Complex area. Five bids were received with Live Oak as the lowest bidder.

Santa Fe Watershed

Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) Office of Agriculture and Environmental Projects Mary Diaz was on hand to announce that a Santa Fe Watershed Study Area map has been created to help determine flood risks in this part of Florida.

She said that there would be three opportunities to meet directly with Water Management District personnel to discuss specific parcels and explain what the flood risk is determined to be for those parcels. The meetings will be held in Starke on Feb. 21, Alachua on Feb. 22 and Lake City on Feb. 23. The Alachua meeting will take place from 5 – 9 p.m. in the James A. Lewis Chambers, Alachua City Hall.

For people unable to make the meetings a virtual tour has been created and can be located through any search engine by typing in the words, SRWMD Virtual Tour. The public has 30 days for input. All meetings are open to the public.

In other City business, the elevator project at City Hall has been completed and Commissioners report that it is a vast improvement over the original elevator.

An issue of concern for some time has been the need for an additional City water well. The third well has now been installed and the City is waiting for power to be installed by Duke Energy.

In other business, Juniors Disc Golf Tournament director Chris Clark spoke about the potential economic impact to the community if the City would allocate more disc golf sites in High Springs. He said there will be well over 100 participants at the upcoming weekend’s tournament. People interested in learning more about disc golf can contact the High Springs Parks and Recreation Department.

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