To Mayor Kelter and the city counsel.

 Sunny,

Thanks for the keen observation and comment.  I suspect you might not have noticed the new Vystar building being constructed on the old Garber Chevrolet lot.  It should be open by August.

You might have missed it in MyClaySun in March, so I posted a picture of the St. Elmo Square development that is being planned by K&V Enterprises on the old Garber Buick site.  The zoning that made this proposed multi-use development possible was the Gateway Corridor ordinance that was crafted last fall by the City Council and the City Planning and Zoning Board.  The Gateway Corridor ordinance creates a more pedestrian-friendly US 17 and SR 16 corridor through the City, as well as requires stronger provision of landscaping.

Yep.  The medians on US 17 are an unlandscaped eyesore.  The FDOT Transportation Improvement Program (TIPS), which has been widely discussed in Public Hearings throughout the County might have eluded your attention.  The TIPS shows the five-year FDOT workplan, which includes landscaping of the medians on US 17 between Gum Street and Governor's Creek.  We have waited more than a year for landscaping, since FDOT completed drainage repairs in their US 17 right-of-ways.  The FDOT landscape architects are working with the City Public Works staff on the landscape design.  City crews will take over contractual maintenance of the medians once the landscaping is complete.

Yep.  Magnolia and St. Johns Avenues are a wreck.  The drainage system was constructed in 1929 and is decrepid. Before new curb and gutter and road surfaces are installed, the drainage system needs to be completely replaced.  The first steps in replacing that drainage system were taken last year when the new drainage outfall pipes were constructed on Gum Street and on Walburg Street.  These new culverts will allow new drainage culverts to be constructed along St. Johns and Magnolia as a prelude to constructing new road surfaces.  I would love to have bricks, but brickwork is cost-prohibitive and highly expensive to maintain.  I will settle for an asphalt brick imprint, like the work I did in front of Ronnie's Wings in 1998 when I was working for the City Public Works Department.  It is a durable surface, and it is about 1/3 the cost of real brick.

To do this, all we need is the money.  You got any?

We got a little bit of grant money (about $1 Million) for the Center Street drainage project which includes some work on St. Johns and Magnolia.  The engineers are currently working on the plans for the project.  The City must have this project under construction before this winter in order to meet our contractual requirements with SJRWMD, who provides the grant.

Yep.  The power poles are pretty ugly.  From a capital improvement standpoint, the electric system was neglected for over 7 years before you moved into the City and I was elected as a City Councilman.  In the past year we have started doing first things first with the electric system.  We have many areas in the system that have very low voltages, which is inefficient and which cause losses of energy. We all pay for this inefficiency in our electric bills.  The first thing we are doing is to upgrade these systems to become more energy efficient and economical.  Once we get this done, we can start moving electric wires underground.  The good news is that we have been placing the conduits for the wires underground for years.  Everytime a new development comes in, we include underground conduits.  Once we have a long-enough run of plastic pipe, we will string the wire through, install ground-mounted transformers, and take down the poles.

Police station? Yep.  Needs to be replaced with something more conducive to running police operations.  We have almost acquired the land.  We have two holdouts.  If the holdouts don't settle for our offer (which is above the appraised value) we will proceed with eminent domain.  We don't have the money to construct a new police station.  Plan A is to get a grant.  Maybe we'll get one, maybe we won't.  There are no sure bets these days with respect to grants.  I have a Plan B.  Plan B would be to make improvements to the existing police building so that the site can be leased as a fine restaurant.  We could use the lease proceeds to pay for construction of the new police building.  The City Council cannot sell the existing police building or the land without a vote of the people.  If somebody has a plan C or Plan D, I am all ears.

Government can only make improvements as fast as budgets and staff resources allow.  Currently budgets are a little tight at the County and municipal levels.  Our current staffing is no larger than it was in 1985.  That is the bad news.  The good news is that this City Council is commited to redeveloping this City to be the kind of place you would want your children to grow up in.  It will take some time.  And it will take a lot of participation by interested citizens such as yourself. 

You can help to make a difference.  Please contact me:  mkelter@bellsouth.net.

Thanks for your interest and your observations.

Mike Kelter, Mayor

 Mayor,

   I just want to thankyou and all of the fine Americans for putting on a wonderful Memorial Day celebration.  As a Vietnam combat veteran I remember quite well to this day that it wasn't "fashionable"  nor accepted practice to welcome home a veteran.  Again,   I thank all of you who had any part what-so-ever in the celebration.  

 To all of my Vietnam "brothers", WELCOME HOME" and to all other veterans or those who have served or are now serving THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE  to this great Nation.

                                                              Gary Newman

                                                        Candidate for Sheriff   

You made some good points Mayor but for those of us who drive through town every day, we don't only notice the things going up, or "coming soon", but we notice the things that have not changed in years. Case in point, the old Garber building across from the county jail. That is a large piece of property on N. Orange Avenue. One would think the city could help find a good business to come fill that vacant space. How about the old Ronnie Robinson property? That is prime real estate also. What about the old vacant building on the corner of Walnut Street and Orange Avenue, next to the Clay Theatre? That building is being used for nothing and is being engulfed by vines and weeds.  HOw about the old Garber property next to Rich's? Heres something else, Green Cove has the main library in the county correct?, so why did Fleming Island get a brand new, state of the art,  library and we are still stuck with an old worn building? Not only is the city neglecting these things, but it is allowing the county to neglect sites in the city also. I guess if the city acts like it doesn't care about these things then why should the county feel any different. About the new police station, how did orange park pay for their new police station? Maybe the sheriff's office should help the city pay for it, The city gives them enough money (for what again?)...

If you haven't learned yet Sunny, things in this town move SLOW.