ALACHUA – It's a historic year for basketball at Santa Fe High School, and the Alachua City Commission just tacked on a notable tribute. The City Commission proclaimed April 12, 2021 as Santa Fe School Raider Boy's Basketball Team Day in recognition of the team’s historic season. The team compiled a 20-6 record, with a #6 ranking in the state and reached the school's first-ever Class 4-A State Championship game.

The level of success attained by this team has never before been reached by a basketball team at Santa Fe High School. Head Coach Elliot Harris, who is also the City's Parks and Recreation Director, praised the team for their hard work, dedication and a “never –quit” attitude that propelled the team to the championship game. He also pointed out that while some prominent schools recruit players, the Santa Fe team is made up of all local boys.

Communications Division

The Commission also announced that each year the second full week of April is "National Public Safety Telecommunications Week," recognizing the dedicated men and women who serve as public safety telecommunicators.

The City of Alachua Police Department has its own telecommunications section, referred to as the Communications Division, which is comprised of six full-time employees and a supervisor. These people are the 911 operators who are the first line of communication between the police and citizens who need help, and they handle all incoming emergency calls to the Alachua Police Department, including 911 transfers from the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, dispatching and monitoring of radio traffic for all officers responding to and initiating calls for service, as well as walk-ins at the station. The Commission recognized their dedication and service as a vital component of public safety services provided to citizens of Alachua.

KFC

Kentucky Fried Chicken may soon be among the dining choices in Alachua. The City has received a site plan application for a proposed development of a quick service KFC restaurant with drive-through facilities. The site plan proposes the construction of a 1,904 square-foot restaurant with drive-through service and associated improvements on a 1.06-acre property that is currently undeveloped and wooded. The plan is currently under review by city staff regarding required tree mitigation.

The plan shows126 regulated trees and four heritage trees are proposed for removal. According to the project’s landscape architect, the majority of the trees proposed for removal are of an undesirable species, present potential long-term safety and maintenance issues, and interfere with the required utilities needed to serve the development. City Land Development Regulations require that new trees be planted to replace removed healthy regulated trees.

The plan would require 222 trees to be planted to mitigate for those proposed for removal. If a developer cannot replace the trees removed at their site, they can petition for an offsite mitigation where the trees would be planted on city property at other sites. The plan proposes to provide a total of 29 replacement trees on-site to partially mitigate for those proposed for removal.

The architect has requested the City consider off-site mitigation for those 193 trees that cannot be accommodated through on-site mitigation due to the location of the proposed buildings, parking, and code-required tree plantings. The developer has estimated the cost for off-site mitigation is $30,602, and that fee must be paid to the City prior to any public hearing related to the proposed site plan.

City’s Economic Development Plans

Assistant City Manager Kamal Latham delivered a presentation entitled “The BEST Business Climate: City of Alachua 5-Year Economic Development Strategy.” BEST is an acronym for Business growth; Equity capital access; Sense of community and Talent development and recruitment.

“The City has outstanding public infrastructure, impressive financial stewardship, top-tier recreational facilities, diverse cultural programming, strong compliance and risk management, sound personnel policies, excellent law enforcement, first-rate planning, and inspired community development,” said Latham. “These attributes make Alachua a well-run city and great place to live, work, and play.” With this foundation, Latham proposes a multi-year economic development strategy that builds upon existing success and helps break new ground for the City to provide more economic opportunities for its residents. The Commission approved the plan unanimously.

Legal Services Renewed

Since 2003, the City of Alachua has contracted with the law firm of Robert A. Rush, P.A. to provide legal services to the City. Pursuant to the agreement, attorney Marian B. Rush has been designated as the City Attorney. Since Oct. 1, 2010, activities of the City Attorney have been billed at a monthly retainer amount of $10,000, totaling $120,000 annually. The City last renegotiated a contract with the firm effective Oct. 1, 2018. At the April 12 meeting, the Commission approved an extension of the contract and an increased monthly retainer of $11,500, the first increase in more than 10 years.

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ALACHUA – Alachua city leaders gathered Tuesday morning at the new Legacy Park Electrical substation for a ribbon cutting ceremony. Joining in was an assembled crowd of government dignitaries, representatives from Jacobs Electrical Engineering and Duke Energy and city employees, including the members of the city’s electric department who will maintain the substation. The facility comes online just one year after the project’s groundbreaking in 2020.

The new electric substation expands the electrical grid to supply power to the growing city and improve reliability. The substation is in line with the city’s long-range capital plan, which for a number of years, has been exploring expanding the electrical grid in anticipation of growth.

City Manager Adam Boukari said that the substation brings a more efficient power system for residents, acknowledging the work of predecessors who had the foresight to pursue this project and determination to see it accomplished. He specifically referenced outgoing City Commissioner Gary Hardacre, who is not seeking reelection this April. Boukari said that Hardacre pressed to see the substation a reality.

The new substation in the southwestern part of the city expands the supply of power and lessens outages by creating a looped system between two stations. By looping the two, power can be transferred from one station to the other and isolate outages and shorten the time to get customers back on line. The system also creates a wider power grid to compensate for increased demand due to commercial and residential development.

The Alachua City Commission adopted the substation as a high priority strategic initiative in June 2018 and solicited formal proposals from qualified vendors to provide engineering inspection services and design to assist in the expansion of the City’s electric system.

The winning bid went to electrical engineering firm Jacobs to provide construction engineering inspection services for the expansion of electrical infrastructure with construction of the Legacy Substation.

The Legacy Park location was selected for the site of the new substation with design and construction accomplished and coordinated with Duke Energy. The City constructed the substation with Duke agreeing to purchase the non-real property substation assets of equipment to transfer power from its transmission line to the substation and convert that power for distribution throughout the city and to city utility customers. Duke paid $1,039,857 of the total project cost of $5.7 million.

Duke Energy’s Dan Smith said that having the substation operational just a year after groundbreaking was quite an accomplishment and would greatly increase reliability of the electric grid. City of Alachua Public Services Director Rudolfo Valladares thanked City electric department workers for their efforts in getting the station ready. Mayor Gib Coerper also spoke, thanking city official s and reflecting on the people that had the determination to see the project to completion.

Boukari said that despite the cost of the project the City’s electric utility is still debt free and that the project would pay for itself multiple times.

“It’s all about investing in the future and improving the quality of life and City services to the community,” Boukari said.

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ALACHUA – The hunt was on this past Saturday as excited children and their parents gathered at the Hal Brady Recreation Complex for the annual Easter Egg Hunt hosted by the City of Alachua. Each year on the Saturday closest to Easter, the City hosts the event to carry on the tradition of a hunt for hard boiled and candy filled plastic eggs.

For many families and children Easter just isn’t the same without the annual egg hunt. It is an adventure and a tradition that has been part of American culture for over 100 years. But it dates back much farther than that. In some pre-Christian societies, eggs held associations with spring and new life. Early Christians adapted these beliefs, making the egg a symbol of the resurrection and the empty shell a metaphor for Jesus’ tomb.

In Alachua, it has become an annual event that attracts hundreds of people. While the City sponsors the event, others contribute as well. Dollar General provided over 200 baskets to give away with toys and candy, while CVS, Hitchcock’s and Walgreens donated the candy that filled over 1,000 plastic eggs.

Recreation staff and volunteers spread the plastic eggs across four sports fields, with each location designated for a specific age group so all children would have a chance to gather eggs. At 10 a.m., the gates opened on each field and the children rushed in to gather as many eggs as possible. In a matter of minutes each field was cleared of eggs as the parents helped their kids organize their prizes.

Inside the Hal Brady Center, staff members distributed the donated gift baskets as the families waited patiently in line for either a girl’s or boy’s basket containing age and gender appropriate gifts and even more candy. A recreation department employee dressed as a pink bunny circulated among the crowd and offered photos with the kids.

By 11 a.m. the event began to wind down as families left with baskets filled with candy and toys, while others decided to make it a day at the park for the children to play to burn off the energy and excitement caused by the hunt and candy already consumed.

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HIGH SPRINGS – Florida Creamery is celebrating their second anniversary, and as a tribute to their faithful customers, is holding an ice cream social, and will present a $500 donation to Our Santa Fe River, Inc. (OSFR) to help protect the area’s river and its springs. The event is being held at the Florida Creamery in historic downtown High Springs at 23629 West U.S. Highway 27 from 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. on Saturday, March 27.

Our Santa Fe River will have a table set up in front of Bambi’s Café selling tickets for a donation of $10, which entitles each donor to a free scoop of ice cream from Florida Creamery plus entry in an hourly drawing at the creamery for prizes such as :

• Two prints from Lanza Gallery
• Florida Creamery T-Shirt and $10 gift certificate
• Our Santa Fe River ‘I Care’ T-shirt and a vintage ‘2019 OSFR Riverfest’ Tie Dye T-shirt
• Florida Springs Institute FSI cap and Springs Book
• Lion’s Lair Boutique $25 gift card
• Unique Notions gift basket 

Plus, entry into a drawing for the Grand Prize of a Rum 138 kayak rental and shuttle for two in either a tandem kayak or canoe.

 You do not have to be present to win. OSFR will contact winners at the end of the evening.

 Bambi’s Café will be preparing a plant-based Italian Farm to Table Feast from 6-8 p.m. for $25. Menu includes cream of porcini mushroom soup, insalata, organic bruchetta, organic pasta primavera with local vegetables in creamy pink sauce, and vegan ice cream topped with organic chocolate syrup and strawberries from the Florida Creamery. Gluten free options will be available.  Coffee and tea are included. Italian Farm to Table Feast reservations are required by calling 386-454-1600 or 954-907-9759.

 This event in downtown High Springs promises fun, food and ice cream, plus the many fabulous door prizes donated by locally owned businesses. For more information call event coordinator Kristin Rubin at 305-582-3800 or visit Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/735992450393760.

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