Local

Though it is now 2012, as Newberry’s Nations Baseball Park falls slightly behind schedule, some are wondering what exactly lies beyond that outfield wall.

Lou Presutti, who has worked closely with the City of Newberry to bring the magic from his Cooperstown Dreams Park in New York to Newberry, has a positive attitude about the park. He said the youth baseball park is about 80 or 85 percent complete.

The groundbreaking for the $7 million project was held in March of last year. The 16-field park on the corner of Southwest 30^th Avenue and State Road 41 has lighted fields and a turf-grass combination that will allow kids to be able to play even when the weather isn’t ideal.

A dark green outfield wall encloses each field, and there is a section partitioned off in the corner of each field for parents to sit in chairs. Presutti said the 1920s Americana feel inspired the design for the park.

While Presutti admitted that the project has had some unanticipated construction delays, he said these were minor in the big picture.

Part of these issues had to do with a $25,000 relocation of endangered gopher tortoises at the site. Other charges came from sinkhole problems.

According to City Manager Keith Ashby, available funding should be able to pay for these charges, including a combination of revenues from Alachua County’s Tourism Development Tax and contributions from the City of Newberry and Presutti.

These delays set construction back several weeks, Presutti said. There may be a “soft” opening celebration in June and a tournament in the late summer, but it will probably be November before the park is fully operational, according to Presutti.

Despite this, he believes the economic benefits of the park will make up for these delays, and that the park’s website is an indicator of the enthusiasm for the park around the country.

The web site, which features the score from the classic western film “The Magnificent Seven,” is averaging over 10,000 hits per day, Presutti said.

Ashby also sees the value of the park to the city. “It’s just as much of an economic development project as it is a recreation project,” he said.

The park has already begun to spur other businesses to take a closer look at Newberry. Firefly and the Red Wok are two restaurants that opened this year. A new commercial and residential complex just south of Oak View Middle School has also been approved.

As far as perspective goes, Presutti said his enthusiasm is beyond optimistic. “It’s not a glass half-full kind of thing, it’s spilling all over the place.”

Early reports from the City of High Springs commission election show Scott Jamison with a solid lead over opponent Ann Carter.  More than 500 voters are said to have cast ballots in the municipal election where Carter and Jamison squared off to win a spot on the commission, filling a vacancy left when Eric May resigned from the commission.

Jamison won with 295 votes or 58.5 percent of the total while Carter picked up 209 ballots.

Shirley Green Brown won by a narrow margin to edge out Patricia Lee and Billy Rogers.  Brown is a speech and language pathologist with the School Board of Alachua County and will assume the seat held by Commissioner Orien Hills who decided not to seek re-election after serving five terms.

Commissioner Gary Hardacre ran unopposed for his seat on the commission.

City finance director Helen McIver warned that the city’s general fund could come in $75,000 short if the revenue inflow continues at the current pace. The budget report reflects some revenue items being reported at 50 to 97.12 percent uncollected.

She said the some of the concerns stemmed from franchise fees, tag agency and state revenue sharing. In franchise fees, the city could miss the anticipated budget target by $40,000, in large part because a 25-year contract with Clay Electric sunset earlier in the fiscal year.

The tag agency has seen declining revenues because people can now renew their tags online, said McIver. The tag agency has currently collected only 28 percent of the anticipated $65,000 of revenue budgeted for the year.

The inflow of tax revenues will increase during the next couple months, said McIver. But it will probably not increase enough to cover the entire $75,000 deficit predicted at the current time.

Although the city’s fiscal year budget is on an October through September annual cycle, both McIver and City Manager Jeri Langman said it is too early to predict how the city stands in terms of its yearly revenue.  Usually, Langman said, the budget process is not started until around June.

The city is working to ensure that the General Revenue Fund stays on par with the budget by cutting back on spending. McIver said the city can warn departments that funding for certain projects is no longer available. For example, if a city vehicle breaks down, it will have to be parked instead of repaired.

Staff said the city could determine if there are unspent, undedicated funds elsewhere that could be transferred to the General Revenue Fund, and there is money remaining in contingency that could be transferred if necessary. As a last resort, the city has money set aside in savings, part of which covers two months’ operating costs in case of emergency, staff reported.

Vice Mayor Bob Barnas said he would prefer that the money set aside in savings remain untouched.

Barnas warned during the budget workshop that the city may see layoffs, pay cuts and department consolidation. He said if the city was a business, it would have no choice but to lay off, cut back and consolidate in such a situation.

However, Langman said that over the last three years, there has been a tremendous amount of layoffs and cutbacks.

The city identified other departments falling short on budgeted revenue as well. The wastewater system’s total revenue is currently at 75 percent unearned as of a recent monthly recap report.

McIver states that the sewer account is in the current situation because rates were budgeted to be increased, but the current commission voted in December to not raise them. Also, additional users who would create addition revenue were expected to be added on to the sewer system, but implementation of Phases 4 and 5 were halted due to the USDA withdrawing the $1.6 million needed to complete the work.

The current budget report accounts for six month’s of revenue from the projected additional users at approximately $38,000. That money will remain uncollected. McIver said if the $38,000 in projected revenue and the anticipated gain from a rate increase were to be removed from the budget, the sewer account would be on par with where it was last year at this time.

Langman said the city is working on coming up with solutions to the budget shortfall. She said in the near future, the commission will be looking at capacity fees on vacant lots and a sliding scale for the sewer bills. Currently, water rates are tied to the sewer, and the city sees a decrease in the amount of water used as a result of customer concerns of high bills. The commission will discuss the possibility of adjusting that system.

NEWBERRY – Election results in the City of Newberry commission race show incumbents Joe Hoffman, Lois Forte and Alena King Lawson retain their seats over challengers Tim Marden, Linda Woodcock, Barbara Hendrix and Monty Farnsworth.

With their booth having as much flare as their chili, buffallo is the secret ingredienet for Stephen and Clara Spicer. 

HIGH SPRINGS – As the rain dripped down from the tips of the tents set up at O’Leno State Park on Saturday, cooks huddled underneath, warmed by the spicy, and sometimes sweet, aroma of their chili.

It was the 5^th annual O’Leno Olé Chili Cook-Off, and despite Mother Nature’s best efforts to wash out the contestants, the fiery flavor still won the day. The cook-off brought in 15 chefs and garnered $1,500.

The O’Leno Olé Chili Cook-Off began as a simple fundraiser for the Friends of O’Leno organization, but as popularity spread, the Santa Fe River Springs Basin Working Group joined them to create the Springs Celebration, which featured live music, a dance show, shadow puppet shows and other educational activities.

The chili wasn’t the only thing with a unique flair at the cook-off. Some of the contestants displayed their “wild side” through their displays.

A brown buffalo head was positioned on top of a can with chili peppers on it. Two buffalo statues adorned with multi-colored boas and hats framed the colorful shack. Clara and Stephen Spicer, from Sarasota, said the hodgepodge collection doesn’t reflect all of the decorations they have stored at home.

“If it jumps out, it’s ours to keep,” Clara Spicer said of the collection.

The two said they didn’t care if they won, but only cared about making good chili and supporting the charity. Their secret was real buffalo meat. They won second place for showmanship and second in the open class.

The first place winners for showmanship, Mitch Cooper, Dianna Cooper and Clint Herrick showed off their antiques. Mitch Cooper wore black suspenders and cooked the chili on Herrick’s 1888 wood stove. Herrick, who donned a leather getup, also donated several wooden pieces he made and a wagon from the 1900s that he refurbished to look like a western-style covered wagon.

Mitch Cooper said that in his 30 years of making chili, he’s never made two batches of chili the same.

The cook-off is part of an international non-profit called the Chili Appreciation Society International, known simply in the chili world as CASI. When chefs win a CASI cook-off they earn points, and when they earn enough points they are invited to the Mecca of CASI chili cook-offs in Terlingua, Texas.

Candi Knight-Arevalo, an officer for the Florida division of CASI, grew up in the chili world. She made it to the Terlingua International Chili Championship last year.

Her booth featured a wooden cart that read “Candi’s Kisses.” When she was little, Knight-Arevalo said, she ran a kissing both on the side of her parents’ tent while they cooked chili at cook-offs.

She took home a fourth place in the CASI class on Saturday.

The winner of the CASI division, which is graded on a strict system based on five categories, was Bert Dunn, of Homosassa, who has been participating in the O’Leno Olé Chili Cook-Off since its first year.

The winner of the open class, which was graded based on a less restricted scale, was given to Gilchrist County resident Jeff Runde.

The People’s Choice Award was given to Fort White Resident Brenda Smith-McKenzie, or “Granny B,” who had three plaques and six trophies on display to show her chili-cooking prowess.

Another chef, Kathy Gunderson, of Spring Hills, Fla., earned her first chili-cooking trophy on Saturday. Gunderson, who goes by “Kat,” calls her chili the “Kat’s Meow.” She said she was inspired to try a chili cook off after her 20-year-old son, who had moved out, called back home for the recipe, saying that he couldn’t find anything like his mom’s chili.

Gunderson won third place in both the open class and the showmanship category.

While the rain may have prevented some chili cooks from coming out and participating in Saturday’s event, conceded Friends of O’Leno member Harriet Walsh, of High Springs, Gunderson said the weather didn’t keep her down.

“It hasn’t spoiled my time,” she said.