Local

NEWBERRY – Half of the City of Newberry’s elected government could be new after the April 8 election.

Three of five city commission seats are being contested in what Mayor Bill Conrad – whose seat is not on the ballot – calls a very important election.

“We need voters to turn out on Tuesday, April 8,” Conrad said in an e-mail response.

“The new commission will be hiring a city manager, a fire chief and a utility director, decisions that will have a big impact on the city’s future. We need to have commissioners who are up to the challenge.”

No other elections or issues will be on the ballot according to Conrad.

Citizens can vote on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Newberry Fire Station at 310 NW 250^th Street.

A candidate forum will be held a week before the election at Newberry City Hall on Tuesday, April 1 from 7 to 9 p.m. City Hall is located at 25440 West Newberry Road.

The mayor and five commissioners serve two-year terms, with three seats up for election every year. Candidates are placed into three groups for each election.

Two of the groups feature incumbents, with Commissioner Joe Hoffman running against Ricky Coleman in Group One and Commissioner Alena King Lawson facing Monty Farnsworth in Group Three.

The Group Two race offers two new candidates – Barbara Hendrix and Jason McGehee – for the seat being vacated by Commissioner Lois Forte.

Hoffman, owner of Hoffman Construction, has served on the commission since 2002. His Group One opponent, Coleman, is a property appraiser for Alachua County.

The Group Two race features another 2012 commission candidate in Hendrix, who is Executive Director of the Newberry Main Street Program, against newcomer McGehee, a small business owner.

Group Three pits Lawson, an investigator for the Public Defender’s office and first elected to the commission in 2001, against her opponent from the 2012 City Election, Farnsworth, a longtime nurse who has also previously served as a commissioner.

Commission seats not involved in this election are those held by Commissioners Tim Marden and Jordan Marlowe, as well as the position of mayor. Those will be determined by election in 2015.

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Marc Okes, 8, who has brain cancer, had a wish to go on a motorcycle ride. When he and his mother arrived at the Harley-Davidson shop in Gainesville, a crowd of riders ande police officers were there to take them on a motorcycle ride. Pictired are Marc and his mother as they ride through Alachua on Monday,March 10.  The local Make-A-Wish foundation helped make the dream come true for Marc as he was accompanied by over 100 riders.

HIGH SPRINGS – The Alachua and High Springs Relay for Life Committee will be hosting its 2^nd Annual Pink & Purple Party on the Patio. The event will take place Thursday, April 10 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Great Outdoors restaurant, located on 65 N Main St., High Springs.

The event will include celebrity bartenders, including Storm Roberts the “morning drive guy” from 98.5 KTK.

“Oh, it’s going to be so much fun,” Sharon Yeago, Relay for Life event co-chair for High Springs and Alachua said.

The event will take place on the patio. Last year’s Pink and Purple Party brought in $2,000, and this year’s goal is to exceed that.  

“All the proceeds from drinking and being merry on the patio go to Relay for Life,” Yeago said.

Reservations can be made, and are encouraged.

“I imagine we’re going to be real busy, it’s going to be great,” Yeago said.

Individual teams will be represented at the event. When customers come in, they must choose a team to support for that night. Proceeds from the dinner then goes to that team.

“It’s really neat, and important for the teams to get their family and friends out there,” Yeago said.

There will also be various baskets, donated art work and gift cards up for grabs in chance drawings.

Donations are still being accepted for the event, as well as the Relay for Life Event on May 9 and 10, which will be located at the High Springs Civic Center at 330 Santa Fe Blvd.

Relay for Life also hosted an event Tuesday night at Sonny’s BBQ in Alachua. There was a buy one get one half off price coupon available from any relay team member. Fifteen percent of all the sales at Sonny’s was donated to Relay for Life.

Yeago encourages anyone interested in Relay for Life to get involved in the fundraising. Whether its local businesses, organizations or community members, she said many people make up teams in support of their loved ones or the cause.

“We really want to keep the community aware. It’s time to get busy,” she said.

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HIGH SPRINGS – A workshop on Thursday, March 6, scheduled as the first of two on the reorganizational needs of the High Springs Police Department (HSPD) got off to a rocky start as audience members and some commissioners expressed concern over the continued absence of High Springs Police Chief Steve Holley.

According to earlier comments from City Manager Ed Booth, Holley had vacation time coming to him and requested 30 days leave, which he was granted on Monday, Jan. 27. Although those 30 days have passed, Holley has not returned to active duty. Antoine Sheppard remains acting police chief until either Holley returns to his position or a new chief of police is named.

While speculation as to his continued absence is rampant, city staff are tight-lipped about the details. City Attorney Scott Walker said Holley's attorney had contacted him. Although he did not reveal their conversation, Walker did say he had assured Holley's attorney that his client was not the topic of the workshop. He stressed several times during the workshop, as questions kept cropping up about Holley, that it was not fair to Holley to discuss his position, which he termed a “personnel issue,” without Holley or his attorney being present.

Booth said he had not spoken with Holley or his attorney so had nothing to add, but redirected the topic to the needs of the police department. Pointing to this workshop as one of several leading up to the budgeting process in a few months, Booth said he wanted to make the commissioners aware of the city's needs prior to asking them to make decisions about next year's budget.

Booth said when he was hired that he would see how the departments worked, but would make no substantive changes to the running of the departments until he had been with the city for at least a year. Having recently passed the one-year point, and consulting with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and others on the structure of police departments in other cities of the same size, he recommended the addition of a detective and lieutenant.

He said he wanted to share his findings with the commission prior to the budgeting process. The cost of adding the two positions would be approximately $150,000. An increase in the millage rate from 6.15 to 6.85 would be required to make up those salaries, he said.

Pointing to too much work on the police officers because they were having to take on the detective duties in addition to their regular duties, Booth said officers are not able to complete their reports in a timely manner and morale is not as good as it could be.

The addition of a lieutenant's position would provide some added structure and support to younger officers, especially on the night shift, he said.

The installation of emergency dispatch services returning to High Springs cost the city $300,000, Booth said. He compared that with $85,000, the cost of having the Alachua County Communications Center handle all 911 calls. “I am just presenting the facts,” he said. Although it is up to the commissioners as to how they want to proceed, he indicated he wanted them to be aware of the facts and figures when they make their decisions.

A few audience members and Commissioners Bob Barnas and Linda Gestrin expressed concern, saying that they had never heard there was any problem with the way the police department was being run. Commissioner Barnas said the money, if it was budgeted, would probably end up in the sewer fund instead.

Walker said he would be happy to meet with the commissioners on a one-to-one basis to discuss the situation further, but reiterated that it was not fair to Holley to discuss issues associated with his position in an open meeting.

Another workshop discussing the needs of the police department will be held on Thursday, March 20.

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GAINESVILLE – The Alachua County Youth Fair and Livestock Show kicked off last Thursday and concluded on Tuesday, March 11. Featuring a wide array of activities teaching youngsters about livestock and agriculture, the event drew in huge crowds throughout its six-day run.    

Cows, pigs, goats and other animals were paraded around the auction house, waiting to be sold off.

The fair was set up for different events to be scheduled on certain days. From morning to night, exhibitions, auctions and contests took place at the Alachua County Fairgrounds.

The youngsters attending the event generally came in two camps. Those involved in the local 4-H program, and those involved with the local Future Farmers of America, or the FFA.

The 4-H program’s division included various clubs composed of volunteers of different ages, up to the age of 19. Within the 4-H program, there were four categories which the fair’s attendees were classified into, including cloverbuds, juniors, intermediates and seniors.

The FFA division was more specific in terms of its qualifications to join, since it is a middle and high school affiliated program with an age limit of 18.

Sierra Holsbeke, a 17-year-old junior at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, has been an exhibitor ever since one of her friends introduced her to a goat that was being exhibited three years ago.

This year, she represented her club, Micanopy Friendship, in the 4-H program.

Raising livestock animals is hard work and takes a lot of time, she said.

“It’s a long-term investment,” Holsbeke said.

Holsbeke’s project consisted of auctioning off her 81-pound goat that she had taken care of since last September. The fair’s rules and regulations dictated that she had to keep up with record-keeping in terms of the goat’s weight, making sure it didn’t exceed the 110-pound limit. She had to be mindful to check on the goat regularly and feed it twice a day, every day. The fair rules also prohibit naming the goat, in order to avoid attachment.  

“It teaches responsibility and caretaker skills,” she said.

The auction drew one of the largest crowds at the event. As people flooded the area and bid on the livestock on display, the youth got to see the end result of raising an animal.

Chenoa Dixon has been involved with the Youth Fair and Livestock Show for 12 years, having been part of the executive board for six years. She has been president for the last two years now. She had been involved with the 4-H division from age 8 to 18. Dixon became so devoted to this organization that she became a volunteer after graduating high school.

She is in charge of finding sponsors and making sure the event runs smoothly. Like Holsbeke, she agrees that the fair teaches responsibility, but it also imparts business skills. She said the main goal of the show is educational.

The process of raising an animal takes about three to six months, so the youth has to learn to be patient in order to see their efforts pay off.

“The point is to show them the start and finish of the project they’re involved in,” she said.

With agriculture playing such a large part in the county’s economy, many local families like Dixon’s have grown accustomed to making this annual event a tradition. That is why she believes that this function will never die out.

“It becomes a generational thing,” she said. “They come back.”

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ALACHUA COUNTY – Inspired by the actions a county in South Carolina took in the late 1990s, Alachua County is looking to put an initiative on the ballot in November which would give communities a way to fund their priority road-improvement and transportation projects.

The idea is for each community to make a list ranking the priority of various transportation projects and submit it to the county. The highest priority project would have to be completed before the next one could be tackled. It is based on a similar course of action taken by York County, S.C. in the 1990s.

The last action the Alachua County Commission took was to decide on a length of term for the one-cent sales tax that would pay for the projects. At a Feb. 18 meeting between the county and the Alachua League of Cities, the County Commission decided the sales tax would last for eight years, said Mark Sexton, county spokesman.

By adopting an eight year term for the tax, the county can gain the citizens’ trust, said High Springs Vice-Mayor Sue Weller.

“The citizens don't trust the County Commission,” she said. The eight-year term for the tax will give the county a chance to show it will stick to the projects the cities want done. Distrust of the county was a major theme when the issue was discussed at a Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce meeting in September of last year. Citizens were skeptical the county would stick to the list.

The initiative could give smaller communities a bigger voice in determining which roadway improvements are pursued, said Kamal Latham, vice president of public policy for the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce in an interview with Alachua County Today last September.

“We need to find a way to get money to repair our roads,” Vice-Mayor Weller said. “I think the small cities recognize that there is an issue.”

Every city would have to submit the list of road projects, and the money would have to be used on the list items that were approved, she said. High Springs, for instance, would get about $900,000 each year to pave roads.

Under the proposal, Alachua County would get 43 percent of the money from the sales tax, the City of Gainesville would get 43 percent, and the rest of the money would be divided up among the smaller cities. Alachua would get 3.74 percent, Newberry would get 3.67 percent and High Springs would get 3.31 percent, for example, said Jeff Hayes, from the Alachua County Department of Growth Management.

There will be another meeting on March 18, where the county staff will present the county's project list. They will also send out directions to municipalities to prepare their lists.

In order for the transportation tax initiative to come to fruition, two things need to happen, Hayes said. First, the cities need to present finalized project lists, and second, the county would have to approve the ordinance to put the initiative on the ballot as a referendum for the November election.

“It has to go to voters for the final decision,” Hayes said. The County Commission is looking to pass the ordinance to put it on the ballot sometime in the summer, he said.

Most of the cities have turned in preliminary lists, Hayes said. The county is hoping to finish up the process and get the finalized lists and the ordinance passed within the next two months, he said.

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