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Thousands of area residents flocked to Alachua were they strolled up and down Main Street during the 10th Annual Alachua Spring Festival.

ALACHUA – A long wooden sign with the carved words “WOOD IS GOOD” caught the eye of those walking by Brian Hoblick’s tent on Sunday afternoon.

Each piece is different, the Alachua resident said. The booth was filled with cypress and pine wooden carvings. There was a sign with a crane carved into it, a plaque with a fish and one piece with a carved cross.

Pops of color from flowers and art lined Main Street on Sunday afternoon. The sound of blue grass bands filled the street at the 10^th Annual Alachua Spring Festival.

The festival took place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and featured 174 vendors, according to one of the event organizers, Valerie Taylor. What started as primarily a festival to showcase home improvement vendors and gardeners has grown to encompass a variety of vendors, such as homemade dog treat bakers, churches, charities, artists and musicians.

“There’s kind of something for everyone here,” Brad Campen, of Gainesville, said. Campen, his wife Shirley and their 13-week-old son Cooper visited the festival because of the variety.

They said they preferred the Alachua Spring Festival to the art festival that was happening on the same day in Gainesville.

The vendors at the festival came out for a number of different reasons. Newberry residents Mike and Elizabeth Ewing said they came out for fun, rather than to make a profit.

They had a board full of bracelets with various names spelled out in the beading. Mike said when they first started, they picked up three different yearbooks and began making bracelets from those names. When they received feedback that they didn’t have a certain name, they started to take custom orders.

Gainesville resident Stephanie Key had other reasons for attending the Alachua Spring Festival. Her business, the Curlie Girlie Bowtique, was started about two years ago after her then 23-month-old daughter Kylie was diagnosed with diabetes.

Kylie is the inspiration for starting this business. The profit goes to pay the medical bills and other expenses, Key said, who is now pregnant with her second daughter.

Daughter Kylie also inspired the product she makes. “She wears big, big bows,” Key said.

The hand-sewn bows were laid out on the table in various colors from bright pink to dark blue. Behind the bows was a framed picture of Kylie modeling one of her mom’s bows.

Another vendor at the festival sold plants and plant-growing kits. Renee Shiver and her husband sell mushroom growing plugs at festivals and around the world. The website for their business, Southeast Mushroom, has shipped the plugs to places like Hungary, China, Italy and Spain.

“People are interested, and it’s not a hard thing to do,” Shiver said.

Taylor said she was pleased at the turnout on Sunday. People kept moving at a steady pace, and the scene of art in front of her shop on Main Street created a wonderful atmosphere for the public to walk through, she said.

“Main Street is just a beautiful place to walk on, even without all this stuff,” she said. “So when you add all this stuff back in, it’s really beautiful.”

The qualifying period for the Hawthorne commission election began on Monday, April 16 and will end on April 25 at noon.

Seats currently held by incumbent Hawthorne Commissioner DeLoris Roberts and Commissioner Eleanor Randall are up for re-election. The election will be held Tuesday, June 12.

After voicing his lack of confidence in the city clerk and the city finance services director in a previous meeting, Vice Mayor Bob Barnas elaborated on his earlier comments during the April 12 commission meeting saying Parham needs to refocus on the good of the city.

“I feel, with my vote of no confidence, the city’s not getting what they should,” Barnas said.

Parham has worked 24 years with the City of High Springs, but Barnas said, “Does that mean we owe you something or does that mean you owe us something?”

According to the City of High Springs Charter, the city clerk works at the pleasure of the commission, said Barnas. During the April 12 commission meeting, Barnas said to Parham and the other commissioners that there are choices available regarding the city clerk position.

“Do a resolution and send her down the road, or do nothing,” he said.  Barnas stated that he did ask for a resolution prior to the April 12 meeting, but he was unable to get one.

“If you’re directed to do something, it is done immediately,” Barnas said. “On the part of taking the initiative, to perhaps force the commission to get you help, on saying it needs to be done, on saying the scanners not working, on saying the tax parcels are in a drawer and we need to deal with those things – the constant little things that have just irritated the snot out of me,” Barnas added.

Only six years away from retirement, Parham suggested to the commission that they bring a part-time clerk on staff to learn from her and to help her with daily tasks. With the nearly insurmountable amount of records that need to be scanned, Parham said the task would be finished a lot quicker if she had someone to help.

Barnas agreed, saying that Parham was the city’s intellectual capital. He wants to bring on a part-time person who would eventually become full-time, and he or she would be able to help in case Parham was unavailable for any reason.

When the city brings on the assistant clerk, Barnas said the salary should come from reductions in the paychecks of Parham and the finance services director, Helen McIver. Other departments are working for a lot less, such as the police chief and the fire chief, said Barnas.

“I have been here longer than any department head you have,” Parham said. “I make less than any department head you have. I have less help than any department head you have, and I don’t think it’s fair to cut my salary.”

Last year, Parham said, the city didn’t have the money to bring on extra staff, so she took on the city clerk position because she was trying to help the city.

Newly elected Commissioner Scott Jamison said it was ironic that other commissioners were acknowledging how much work Parham had and how impossible it was to do it on her own, yet in the same statement, they were holding her accountable for it.

“Certain employees you need to prod, and certain employees you don’t,” he said.

Commissioner Sue Weller said she has every confidence in Parham, and Mayor Dean Davis said he has never asked Parham to do anything that she didn’t do.

In a follow-up phone call to Vice Mayor Barnas, he refused to comment on his statements and his reasoning for requesting a resolution to fire Parham or about why he wants to reduce the pay for the city clerk and city finance services director.

City of High Springs Streets Superintendent David Benton displays one of the many damaged grinder pumps.

HIGH SPRINGS – After replacing approximately 162 grinder pumps as of March 10, the City of High Springs will be issuing an educational brochure to city residents to teach proper methods for care and maintenance of the pumps which are connected to the town’s centralized wastewater system.

During the March 10 Saturday Town Hall meeting, the wastewater system topped the list of commission priorities for 2012. The city commissioned a study from the engineering firm, Mittauer and Associates, Inc., to decide the best course of action regarding the system and the associated pump failures.

Working with the engineering company, High Springs City Manager Jeri Langman said the city devised a tip sheet for the handling of the systems. Currently, the city loses two to three grinder pumps a month due to issues that could be preventable. Gregory Lang, of Mittauer and Associates, Inc., said a city should have a three to five percent failure rate.  High Springs has been experiencing a much higher rate of failure.

Lang said the company and the city are still trying to understand what is causing the issues with the grinder pumps.

“We think it’s a combination of factors,” he said.

Mittauer and Associates, Inc. directed Langman and the city staff to start organizing a database for the grinder pumps. It would contain detailed reports about each grinder pump failure, including where the failures are located, what may have caused them and possibly photos of the failed pumps.

Lang expects the city will see benefits from the new database over the coming months, and certainly within the coming year.

According to a rough draft of the educational brochure, there is currently no charge for replacement of a grinder pump, if it fails for unknown reasons. The city keeps replacement pumps on hand to fix residential pumps that go out.

Currently, there are 22 broken pumps the city needs to swap out for working ones. During the Town Hall meeting, Langman mentioned working with an Orlando, Fla., company to purchase refurbished pumps. That plan fell through after the refurbished pumps failed quickly due to a difference in wiring configurations from the original to the remanufactured units. Now, Langman is working with the original manufacturer, E One, and Jacksonville-based Water Resources to purchase refurbished pumps at a reduced cost.

The city can charge residents penalties and fees for replacing pumps that have obviously been misused or improperly cared for, according to the city's grinder pump brochure. With the growing database, the city can track which residences and areas have a recurring problem with the grinder pumps.

“The same items that create problems for septic tanks create problems for the grinder pump sewer system,” Langman said.

Part of the sewer system remains on a gravity-fed system, but the tips for maintaining proper care remain the same, said Langman.

Grinder pumps crush waste on site before pumping the wastewater from individual homes to the local sewer plant. Langman said that common-sense items, such as t-shirts, cannot be thrown into the sewer system as the grinder pump will not be able to break down large items.

On the electrical panel, a flashing light warns pump owners if there is a problem. When the light starts flashing, problems associated with the pump are less costly and can probably be repaired without full removal of the grinder pump. Full replacements are costing the city between $3,000 and $6,000, said Langman.

Residents are cautioned against attempting any repairs.  They are further cautioned to be careful what items are flushed down into the sewer system because some, such as diapers, cooking grease, socks, rags and cat litter, can cause sewer overflows or back-ups.

Introducing substances such as flammable material, gasoline, strong chemicals and explosives is a violation of city, state and federal laws.

Residents are instructed, that if a problem occurs, to contact the Public Works Department at 386-454-2134 during business hours.

According to Linda Chapman, Popoli’s attorney, the package takes into account six months of salary and benefits, loss of wife’s income, compensatory time owed to Popoli, sale of home and sick leave payout, among several other things.

After working for the City of High Springs for six years, Popoli was laid off to fund a new city position, that of city engineer.  Popoli applied for the job, but doubt was raised by Mayor Dean Davis during the April 12 Commission meeting about Popoli’s qualifications as a city engineer.

“Is that a possibility that he could get a job as an engineer, even though he’s not an engineer?” Davis said.

City Manager Jeri Langman said Popoli has every right to apply, and that she would consider each applicant when selecting the future city engineer. As an employee let go by the city, Popoli could apply for any job available within the city, Langman said.

The Cityof High Springs posted a salary of $21 hourly, the equivalent to $43,800 annually, for the new position.

Because of the constant threat of termination, the Popoli family experienced significant stress at the hands of the city, Chapman stated in her letter. In addition, Popoli will most likely have to move a great distance to find a job in this economy, which will result in the family having to sell their home and loss of the salary of Popoli’s wife, Christy.  All of these items have been factored into the requested severance package by Chapman.

“He is asking for much less from the City in settlement than a Court would award him, as he has not factored the loss of his future pension, front pay until retirement or back pay after ‘termination’ into this demand,” reads Chapman’s proposed settlement letter.

Earlier, Chapman had said her office has been filing and will continue to file documents and complaints with the State Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Governor, the United State Department of Labor and the Alachua County Circuit Court.

Vice Mayor Bob Barnas announced that he had no confidence in the positions of City Clerk and the City Finance Services Director.

On Thursday, April 12, city commissioners will discuss Barnas’ remark about his lack of confidence in the City Clerk, a charter position, and its budget funding. As of Monday, Barnas’ only comment about his lack of confidence in the City Clerk position was “to come to the meeting on Thursday.”

“We have record losses that happened,” Barnas said during the April 5 meeting. “We have e-mails that were lost. We have tax parcels that didn’t get taken care of. I wanted to go on the record. I am not happy with the performance of the city clerk.”

Under the city clerk staffing section of the budget, Barnas read during the March 29 budget meeting that there were positions of deputy city clerk, city clerk, information technology supervisor and administrative clerk – student. However, only one position is salaried and funded, he said.

“But should we, before the end of the year, want an information technology person under city clerk, we could still do that?” Barnas asked Finance Services Director Helen McIver during the March 29 budget meeting. “We could move the city clerk, somehow, to city manager.”

McIver responded by saying that a budget adjustment would have to be made to move funds from one position to another, the same way the city moved funds from the city planner to the city engineer position.

Previous city managers, such as Jim Drumm, held the position for both the city manager and the deputy city clerk. Commissioner Linda Gestrin said the previous system worked well and that it might be something that should be looked at.

Commissioner Sue Weller said the city clerk position was moved away from the city manager to save money. When High Springs moved away from the city manager/city clerk position, the deputy city clerk position was eliminated.

As for the finance director, Barnas said there has been a constant waffling of how much money the city is over or under budget.

In a previous interview, McIver stated that it is still early in the year to analyze how the budget will be at the end of the year. She estimated that it would fall $75,000 short in the General Fund based on current trends, but that could change.

Barnas said he knows that under the City Charter he has no say over the position of the finance director, but he wanted to make his displeasure known.