Alachua County Commission and High Springs City Commission discuss youth literacy and infrastructure projects in joint meeting

BY DAVID LIGHTMAN

HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. – At a June 6 Joint City/County Commission Meeting, Alachua County Commissioners joined City of High Springs Commissioners at the High Springs City Hall. City Commissioner Wayne Bloodsworth was absent.

High Springs Mayor Katherine Weitz began the meeting, “Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for coming to this joint meeting of the City of High Springs City Commission and the Alachua County Commission. We appreciate you all coming out and joining us in High Springs.”

Weitz handed the gavel over to Alachua County Commission Chair Mary Alford. Alford said, “I hope this meeting is a good opportunity for you to learn more about how we’re working together with High Springs, and we’d love to hear what you have to say about issues that the County can help you with.”

Youth literacy

Alford introduced the first topic, youth literacy. Weitz said, “There’s a lady named Ann Lane who brings her therapy dog to our Public Library here every other week for children’s opportunity to read to a dog. And it’s absolutely magical, the transformation that you can see when a child who, when they meet you, they stutter, and when they’re reading to a dog, they’re completely at peace. It’s amazing. It’s been incredibly impactful here, and, you know, hopefully that might take off.”

County Commissioner Anna Prizzia said, “I just wanted to mention,… we have been collaborating with the Children’s Trust…  and working towards a comprehensive literacy assessment for Alachua County. It’s sort of a needs assessment. It will look across the entire county, including all the municipalities, so we’ll definitely need your participation. It will gather data on what’s already being done, where the gaps are, where the needs are, and then that will help us to craft ultimately the ideas to create a comprehensive literacy plan for the County in collaboration with the School Board and the Children’s Trust. But not just for children’s literacy – also for adult literacy.”

Weitz suggested trying to partner with Gator Paws, a local group that provides therapy dogs, if they wish to pursue getting “non-judgmental, safe” dogs into elementary school libraries.

County Commissioner Ken Cornell said the Children’s Trust is heavily invested in reaching out to the smaller municipalities to help with literacy. County Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler added that the libraries have many programs to help adults improve their literacy.

Infrastructure tax partnership projects

Alford introduced the next topic, an update on the City of High Springs’ proposed infrastructure tax partnership projects. City Manager Jeremy Marshall said High Springs was able to buy at least six pumps with the sales surtax funds. Marshall said some projects were put on hold due to not having a Public Works Director, but a new Director is in the process of being hired.

Weitz said the City is building a second wastewater treatment plant, and they are trying to direct runoff away from the Santa Fe River; they are hoping to partner with the County to help protect the river. Alford said she will be interested to hear how the plan moves through the Water Management District, and she added that the County hopes to build a rail trail between High Springs and Newberry when that becomes possible. Alford said, “I know everybody would love that.” Weitz said she would reach out to Newberry Mayor Jordan Marlowe to collaborate on the rail trail project. Commissioners discussed a canoe outpost as another worthwhile project.

County transportation projects

The last topic for the joint meeting was an update on County transportation projects impacting High Springs, introduced by Alachua County Growth Management Director Jeffrey Hays. He said the County has received a Federal grant of $350,000 through the Safe Streets for All program, which will be used to increase safety for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians throughout the county.

Hays said there is also another related project, a county-wide bicycle and pedestrian master plan with a budget of $254,000 funded by the MTPO (Metropolitan Transit Planning Organization). Hays said they are in the process of hiring a consultant to help prioritize bicycle and pedestrian projects.

Hays continued, “When we look at (the State’s road projects), the only one of any import in the area is the resurfacing of U.S. Highway 27/41. That’s basically from the City of Newberry to U.S. 441. [The road segment is] about 3.3 miles. That’s an $11 million project that is scheduled for sometime in the 2025-2026 fiscal year. That’s a resurfacing project that FDOT is taking on.”

Commissioners discussed Poe Springs Road and the need for a traffic light and/or turn lane at Main Street (27/41). Weitz said people routinely take a shortcut through downtown and endanger pedestrians near the High Springs Brewery.

Alachua County Public Works Director Ramon Gavarrete came to the podium. He listed all upcoming County road projects in the next five years within five miles of High Springs, at a cost of over $33 million. Gavarrete said they are always applying for grants and other sources of funding.

Cornell said, “It’s nice to see that priority being in this area. The growth of High Springs and the priority of this Commission to put infrastructure dollars in this area, I think, is great. I appreciate that.”

Gavarrete mentioned that construction on NW 23 ^rd Avenue has begun, and he suggested taking an alternate route if possible. Gavarrete said, “There’s a lot of work that is about to start on the roadways around the county.”

Alford: “All of these roads were picked dispassionately”

Alford said, “And just to remind the public, all of these roads were picked dispassionately. We did not go through and say, ‘Well, we think we should do that and not that.’ It was all done with a computer program with ranking systems, and we let the computer decide.” Prizzia clarified that staff drove all the roads and input the data into the model, so it wasn’t strictly the computer’s decision. Gavarrete said these road evaluations all took place in 2020, and he plans to re-evaluate the roads about every five years to keep the data up-to-date.

General public comment

During general public comment, David Linch said alcohol kills 8,000 people a day according to World Health Organization statistics, and he doesn’t feel the brewery or other alcohol-related businesses should be promoted in any way by the City or County. During a lengthy response, Prizzia said, “Even Jesus turned water into wine.” Alford followed by saying, “Your point is heard, sir… It does give us pause.”

County Commission comment

During County Commission comment, Wheeler said she is excited to see the work beginning on the Priest Theatre. Wheeler said, “I’m your girl! I’ll make sure you have a card before I leave, to do what I can, you know, to make sure… your needs are heard, at least, at the County.”

Cornell mentioned that, following his doctor’s advice, he watched the Netflix documentary, Live to 100 – Secrets of the Blue Zone . Cornell said, “In there, there’s a couple of cities that really have adopted that philosophy and that approach, and as I was watching, I was thinking about High Springs.”

Alford said, “In my mind, coming to High Springs is like a little vacation every time I come here, because it just reminds me of my childhood and all of those times I always thought I’d want to live here, but I ended up in Archer, dang it.”

High Springs Commission comment

During High Springs Commission comment, Commissioner Andrew Miller said he agrees that the Children’s Trust is important, especially to High Springs.

Commissioner Byran Williams said, “Thank you, guys, for listening to us… and having a dialogue with us… We are a part of Alachua County.”

Commissioner Tristan Grunder asked about the status of High Springs’ request to expand their CRA (Community Redevelopment Area) zone. Alachua County Senior Planner Leslie McLendon said he looks forward to working with new City Manager Jeremy Marshall to move things along with the CRA.

After praising Marshall’s work so far, Mayor Weitz said, “Thank you for coming to our little corner of the world. We kind of like it here.”

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