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HIGH SPRINGS – Recently hired High Springs City Manager Edwin Booth says the City’s sewer project is his number one issue as he neared completion of his first official week as High Springs’ new city manager.

“I have a meeting with the USDA on Jan. 7, 2013, to discuss the project with them, make sure the funding is still available, explain that the development we had hoped would come to High Springs has not and discuss the work that needs to be completed,” he said. “The City Commissioners have been part of this project for quite some time and are pretty well educated on the issues. I need to become more educated than they are.”

“I will be doing a lot of reading during the holidays regarding the City’s sewer project,” explained Booth, who said he wants to go back to the City Commission with his findings and suggestions “as soon as possible.”

“There is a lot of work to be done on this project,” explained Booth who said he will need to look at what engineering has been done and where the lines are located to get a clear picture of the system.

In response to the long list of items presented to Booth by the commission at the December meeting, Booth explained that he’s done all of it before.

“Every city manager has a million things on their plate. There is nothing they have asked for that is all that unusual,” he said noting that many of the items are long-term and cannot be resolved quickly. “I look forward to the challenge of working through those issues and going back to them with additional information and/or suggestions to resolve the issues that may have been hanging over them for some time.”

While Booth’s first official week on the job has concluded, he has been on-board “unofficially” for two previous weeks, overlapping with Interim City Manager Lee Vincent.

“This was a very smooth transition,” said Booth. Both Vincent and Booth have had similar military and city management experiences, which Booth said made for an easy transition. Vincent retired from the military after 26 years in the Navy and 13 years in city management positions. Booth retired from the military after 28 years in the Army and 30 years in city and community management positions with multi service organizations. Both achieved the rank of Commanding Officer. While Booth jokes that Vincent was not in the best branch of the military, it is obvious Booth has a great deal of respect for Vincent and the work he’s been able to do for the City during his tenure as interim city manager. “He would have made an excellent city manager for this town had he wanted to come out of retirement at this time,” said Booth.

Booth believes High Springs has a tremendous amount of potential. “Growth has been slowed down by the same economic conditions that all towns have been plagued with,” he said. Once the country gets past this protracted recession, Booth predicts the city will once again start moving forward to expansion. “The county is ready for that and we’re the lynchpin community to be able to support and provide housing for this county’s residents,” he said confidently.

“With available land, platted property, sewer and water in place, it will be just a matter of the right circumstances and the development will come,” he said.

One of Booth’s goals is to increase communication with the commission and the residents so there is a clear understanding about what is being done and why.

“I believe the people will have much more confidence in their town’s decisions once they understand why things are being done,” he said. “I realize there has been a lot of controversy in High Springs. As I read the newspapers, I realize some of that has been caused by miscommunication. I hope better communication will help eliminate some of the controversy in the future.”

Another area Booth has been tasked with is assuming the post of the Executive Director of the CRA. “Unless you are in a large city with a large tax base to support a paid executive director, the city manager almost always ends up in that role. It is customary for a town this size and once again, nothing unusual,” he said.

Booth said he already has a meeting set up with Carol Westmoreland of the League of Cities in Tallahassee. “The League of Cities runs the CRA,” he said. The CRA is due to expire in 2016 by state law. “There are possibly a few exceptions that may allow us to continue forward,” he said, “but not a lot. So we’re either going to have to start all over again, which requires support of the county or state or we can ask for an exception.” Noting that this issue is a couple of years away, he said he would recommend the City hold public hearings and get input from downtown business owners regarding where to go from here.

He also wants to hold a public hearing to get input from the citizens on the use of the old school house. That will not be likely to happen until after he and City Attorney Scott Walker review any stipulations that might have been imposed as part of the funding for the school renovation.

Booth explained, “Members of the public are the stakeholders here. We need to hear what they want before deciding anything. There is less dissention when ideas provided by the group are reviewed and evaluated as opposed to the City deciding on their own and then telling the public how they can use the building.”

As part of coming on board, Booth said he met with all the commissioners. “They are a great group,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for anybody who would put that much time and effort into the betterment of their community.”

“I treat all of the commissioners the same and don’t play politics,” he said. “I give every commissioner the same information so they can all make the best decisions possible.”

He repeated something he had said during his interview. “If the council makes a bad decision, I didn’t give them enough or the right information. When they make their decision, it becomes mine. I have to take it on and make it happen, so I want them to make the best decisions possible.”

Booth comes from a military family. His father was in the Army for 22 years and retired the year Booth went into the Army at the young age of 17. He now has three grown children, two girls and one boy, a grandson and granddaughter. While he is proud of them all and says so, he added that his son is carrying on the military tradition as a fighter pilot for the Air Force. “

Booth left the military for a time and became a police officer in Albuquerque, N.M. while attending college at the University of New Mexico. He went back into the military to fly helicopters and stayed for the remainder of his 28 years of service. He obtained a BS in Management from Columbia College, a MA in Public Administration/Management at Webster University and a MS in Military Science at the Command General Staff College, a military college.

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GAINESVILLE – Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell, in an effort to enhance safety, has committed to placing Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputies in 12 elementary schools in Alachua County. An agreement has been presented to the School Board of Alachua County that would place a deputy in each of the elementary schools listed below beginning with the return from the Christmas break on Jan. 3. Sheriff’s Office administration will be working with the School Board of Alachua County to determine additional coverage possibilities. This is a temporary measure as the joint work group meets to look into making schools safer. The unknown cost of this enhancement will be absorbed into the Sheriff’s current budget. No funding mechanism is in place to continue this long term by either the Sheriff or the School Board.

The presence of School Resource Deputies (SRD) in schools has become an important part of the duty to protect children on campus. The Sheriff’s Office currently has 16 deputies assigned to 14 schools in Alachua County. The presence of the SRD’s also provides a deterrent to those targeting young children around schools and an expedited law enforcement response to school violence or weapons.

The following additional schools will be staffed by a uniformed deputy beginning Jan. 3, 2013:

Alachua Elementary, Archer Elementary, Chiles Elementary, Hidden Oak Elementary, Idylwild Elementary, Irby Elementary, Lake Forrest Elementary, Meadowbrook Elementary, Newberry Elementary, Shell Elementary, Waldo Elementary and Wiles Elementary.

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L-R: Tamara Vaughn and High Springs Community School Band Director Vito Montauk performing a Christmas favorite.

HIGH SPRINGS – One of the most successful Music in the Park events ever took place on a recent Sunday at the James Paul Park behind High Springs City Hall.

On Dec. 16, approximately 116 members of the High Springs Community School Band, “The Hawks,” performed under the direction of Band Director Vito Montauk, to an estimated crowd of 300-400 people. According to Music in the Park organizer Michael Loveday, “The usual crowd is around 50.”

“One of the coolest things that happened,” said Loveday, “was that while The Hawks were playing, a real hawk appeared and flew over the area as the band played.”

In addition to The Hawks, “Cliff Dorsey performed and Tamara Vaughn delivered an amazing trumpet solo,” said Loveday.

The Christmas Extravaganza, which ran from 2-4 p.m., no doubt benefited from the ideal weather and the support of the High Springs Fire Department, which brought out their new fire truck, and the High Springs Police Department, which brought out their police cars. “This was a collaborative effort,” said Loveday.

Forest Grove Baptist Church provided hot dogs and hamburgers, Tropical Snow from Alachua brought their slushy snow cones, Vintage Fudge, the High Springs Chamber of Commerce and the New Century Woman’s Club provided food, snacks, and drinks.

Downtown stores stayed open to accommodate visitors to the downtown area.

The Music in the Park series is designed to bring the community together through music and to promote local musicians. It seems to have hit the mark with High Springs’ residents this past Sunday.

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Newberry was humming with activity Saturday starting with the 6^th Annual Festival of Lights at 2 p.m. in the downtown area followed by the annual Christmas Parade at 5 p.m. This year’s parade theme of Rocking 50s brought out floats, golf carts and trucks, funny cars, bands, an Elvis look alike and of course, the main event -- Santa.

NEWBERRY – Although the 2012 Newberry Christmas Parade began at 5 p.m. on Saturday, residents began celebrating early as the 6^th Annual Festival of Lights kicked off events at 2 p.m. in downtown Newberry. The parade theme this year followed along with the Relay for Life theme, which is Rocking 50s.

And rocking they did with 17 floats, numerous golf carts and trucks, the Lake City Shriners with small funny cars and motorcycles weaving in and out, City commissioners and dignitaries on floats, and dogs dressed up in Christmas attire. Newberry High School was represented by their marching band, the Latin Club members dancing to Latin music and the Newberry High School Explorers.

Participants from Trenton, Alachua, Gainesville and Jacksonville took part in this year’s festivities. The Pit Sisters, a group who rescues pit bulls and rehabilitates them to become service dogs and pets, dressed their dogs in Santa outfits and other Christmas regalia as did the Phoenix Pit Bull Rescue group from Gainesville. “They were great fun,” said parade organizer Kathi Thomas. “They are doing a great service to the dogs and to the community,” she said.

Thomas said she started the Christmas parade after seeing that the other cities had one and thinking that Newberry should have one as well. Although she can’t remember the exact year she started, she believes this year marks the 12^th anniversary.

Of course no Christmas parade would be complete without Santa Claus. The Main Street Organization, who hired Santa and Mrs. Claus for their event, loaned them both to the parade. They brought up the rear of the parade riding on the back of Newberry’s antique fire engine. Although Santa and Mrs. Claus, along with other visitors to the Festival, were held up on the east side of the railroad tracks for almost an hour by a train that blocked the entrance to the west side of Newberry Road, they eventually returned to the William Barry, Jr. Pocket Park to continue visiting with children, handing out candy and balloons to any child who visited Santa to tell him what they wanted for Christmas this year.

The train engineer, who was stopped and waiting for another train to pass through a section of track he also needed to run along, was persuaded to back up and open up the roadway into Newberry.

Downtown businesses stayed open late as visitors to the Festival of Lights also toured various shops and restaurants along the downtown area. The Main Street Organization hosted 19 craft vendors and two food vendors as part of their event, along with rides for the children. Redeemed, a Newberry musical group, provided Christmas music and upbeat gospel music to entertain parents and children alike as they visited with Santa and the crafters set up along the road side.

Festival of Lights organizer Barbara Hendrix started the event in conjunction with the Christmas parade in an effort to bring more people out to watch the parade and to hopefully visit some of the downtown businesses to shop. “This is something we do every year as a sort of Christmas present to our business owners and citizens, as well as to our craft vendors,” said Hendrix. This year a jewelry designer from Atlanta ventured down to Newberry to participate as a vendor and did quite well, according to Hendrix. “Charging nothing to the vendors makes it possible for them to make a profit, too,” said Hendrix, who makes sure all businesses benefit from the Festival of Lights.

The Main Street Organization also supports the Firehouse Gallery and Studio in downtown Newberry, which is open from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, and the Newberry Tourism Center/Visitors Center.

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HIGH SPRINGS – The High Springs City Commission has appointed Larry Travis and Eyvonne Andrews to the city’s Plan Board. Leaving the board is last year’s chair, Jim Forrester, who did not seek reappointment and Joby Jett. The newly appointed members, whose terms expire in 2015, join last year’s vice chair, Gloria James, whose term expires in 2013, Donald Rou, whose term expires in 2014, and Robert “Bobby” Summers, whose term also expires in 2014. Each Plan Board member serves a three-year term.

The Board, which is scheduled to meet on the fourth Tuesday of each month, may choose to forego a meeting if there is no agenda item to be discussed. The Board did not meet during the last two months of 2012. The next scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, at 6:30 pm, is expected to take place to allow the Board to hold an organizational meeting to appoint a chair and vice chair for 2013. All Plan Board meetings are held in the High Springs City Commission Chambers.

The Plan Board is responsible for planning and development, overseeing the land development code, serving as the Historic Preservation Board, reviewing Comprehensive Plan and Sign Ordinance, as well as applications for Conditional Use Permits. The Board’s other duties are to review applications for variances, address zoning issues and reviewing the noise ordinance to make recommendations to the City Commission.

GAINESVILLE – A jury acquitted an Alachua man on Wednesday, Dec. 12, on charges of child molestation. Lotus Mango Blanchard, was arrested by Alachua police on Aug. 19, 2011, and charged with two counts of lewd or lascivious offenses committed upon or in the presence of persons less than 16 years of age according to an Alachua Police Department (APD) report.

The first charge was for lewd or lascivious battery. The second charge was lewd or lascivious molestation. Both charges are second degree felonies.

The first of the two charges never made it to the jury after the judge in the case determined the Office of the State Attorney didn’t have enough evidence to bring it to trial. Blanchard, who was 30 years old at the time of his arrest, was found not-guilty by a jury of six, which rendered its verdict in the case last week after deliberating for just 25 minutes.

Attorney Nick Zissimopulos, who defended Blanchard, said, “We worked hundreds of hours for [Blanchard], and the system worked.”

He called the verdict a “product of hard work” and the result of “a jury who gave real meaning to the presumption of innocence and burden of proof [placed on the state].”

Blanchard was released from jail on a $50,000 bond shortly after his arrest in August 2011. Now 32 years old, he is not only free from the threat of jail, but from the charges that loomed overhead until last week. If he had been convicted, Blanchard could have faced up to 15 years in prison for each of the charges.

“For people who read the stories, it’s important to understand that an allegation is nothing more than words that have been spoken. It’s not proof,” said Zissimopulos.

“I always believed in my client,” he said, adding, “Now Lotus [Blanchard] can begin rebuilding his life.”

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