Year in review 2009 Part 2

Editor’s note: This edition comprises Part 2 of our traditional year in review, as reported on the pages of the Alachua County Today newspaper from May through July. Part III of this series will focus on August through December of 2009.

May

The City of Alachua unveiled a monument in the downtown Theatre Park that honored longtime Alachua resident and businessman Alan Hitchcock.  At the unveiling, Hitchcock, 57, fought back tears as he thanked the crowd of some 100 people for their support of his family’s local grocery stores.  Just months earlier, Hitchcock closed the deal on the sale of his stores to a similarly run Midwest grocery chain.  Decades ago, townspeople would gather at the Theatre Park site to watch picture shows.

Against the recommendation of its own County Planning Commission, the Alachua County Commission voted in May to allow a cat sanctuary located in an enclave in High Springs to continue operations.   Haven Acres Cat Sanctuary, which houses more than 250 cats, has been a sore spot for the City of High Springs, which has sought to have the sanctuary scaled back, moved or shut down because of fears it will contaminate the city’s water supply.  The battle between High Springs on one side and Alachua County and the cat sanctuary on the other has been underway for several years.

The owners of Jim Douglas Chevrolet of High Springs learned in May that the 83-year-old automobile dealership would no longer be a Chevrolet franchisee. Despite surviving the Great Depression and the 1970's oil crisis, the global recession of late that claimed so many jobs and businesses, dealt a crippling, albeit not fatal, blow to the family owned and operated dealer.  Jim Douglas Sales and Service no longer carries the Chevrolet marquee, but as owner Jim Forrester said, “We’re still going to be here when the deal is done.”

In another of a long string of apparent misuses of public funds, a City of Hawthorne maintenance worker/light equipment operator was fired after Interim City Manager Linda Rice Chapman uncovered invoices for parts not used for City purposes.  The employee had allegedly used the City’s account at a local parts store for personal automobiles as well as others' vehicles.  Some $736 invoiced to the City had been attributed to the employee’s personal use.

In Alachua, an audit of the City was largely clean, except for two glaring problems.  The city overspent in the legal department, meanwhile it had used up much of its reserve funds.  According to the audit report, in the 2007-08 fiscal year, the City spent about $280,000 more than was budgeted.  The greatest portion of that overspending came in the legal department, which exceeded its $306,898 budget by $216,714 for that year.  The total legal department bill came to more than a half-million dollars.  Then-city manager Clovis Watson Jr. attributed much of the overspending to the city’s defense against “frivolous” lawsuits.

 

June

In a Hawthorne election, all three of the incumbent city commissioners were defeated.  Commissioners John Martin, Michael Rutledge and Patricia Bouie lost their seats to Harry Carter, William “Bill” Carlton and Matthew Surrency, respectively.  The overhaul of the commission came after months of uncertainty in the small town of about 1,500 citizens.

Santa Fe High School (SFHS) received national recognition when Newsweek magazine recognized it as one of the best in the country.  The school was ranked 963 out of 27,000 public high schools.  That places SFHS in the top 4 percent of schools according to the ranking system.

Archer commissioners attempted to censure fellow-commissioner Laurie Costello for what they deemed to be “abusive and embarrassing” behavior after several confrontations with Interim City Manager Ward Scott.  Scott said Costello was hindering the success and stability of the City’s government.  Costello threatened legal action against her own commission, which dropped the matter shortly thereafter.

Hawthorne found itself as the latest target of political activist Charles Grapski’s public records requests.  Grapski, who had been known for making large public records requests in the City of Alachua and at larger government institutions such as the University of Florida, requested a slew of e-mails between several cities.  In what was a public records triangle, Grapski requested any correspondence between the city managers of Archer, Alachua and Hawthorne in the preceding six months.

 

July

The City of Alachua approved a $25.4 million expansion of its wastewater facility in July.  The project began in fall 2009 and is expected to be wrapped up in spring 2011.  The expanded facilities will be built on the same 233-acre site as the existing facility at the southern end of N.W. 126th Terrace.  The expansion will increase the city’s wastewater capacity by 50 percent from 940,000 gallons per day to 1.5 million gallons per day.

Alachua’s July 4 celebration drew its largest crowds ever.  The annual event, which is dubbed “The largest small town fireworks display in America,” came off without a hitch and brought some 22,000 people to the Hal Brady Recreation Complex.

Archer Interim City Manager Ward Scott withdrew a proposed contract that if approved by the City Commission would have made him the permanent city manager.  After three commissioners expressed concerns about the contract that Scott had negotiated with Mayor Leann Slaughter, Scott decided to step out of the running.  Scott told the commission that he did not come to Archer to be a problem, but to be helpful.  Just as Scott withdrew from the running to be the permanent city manager, Commissioner Mickie MacKenzie stepped down from the Commission, saying she did not feel the Commission was moving forward.  Those comments were similar to those of Mayor Slaughter who, just days later, also resigned, citing the Commission’s inability to progress operations.  “Mr. Scott and I thought we had a great vision for where we wanted to be,” Slaughter said.

Alachua City Manager Clovis Watson Jr. announced July 27 that he would be retiring from the City of Alachua on Nov. 1.  As part of his announcement, Watson also said he would not hold the City responsible for retirement contributions that were agreed upon in his contract but forbidden by State officials.  Watson had earlier announced that he would resign by November 2010.  The July 27 announcement brought that reality a year early.  The City Commission appointed Assistant City Manager Traci Cain to fill the position on an interim basis.

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