New rec director for Hawthorne

Hawthorne City Manager Ed Smyth used Tuesday night’s commission meeting to announce that the City has a new parks and recreation manager.  Samuel (Sam) Wynkoop, previously from Sussex County, New Jersey, has lived in Gainesville for the past nine years. He received his Bachelors Degree from the University of Florida in Recreation Programming and is currently working on a Masters in Natural Resource Recreation at Florida. He was self employed as a trim carpenter during college and more recently worked for the Florida State Parks at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park before coming to work at Hawthorne as the Parks and Recreation Manager.

In addition to recreation, the meeting focused on the status of various grants and projects the city has been working on as well as beautification of the community.

City manager Ed Smyth reported that grant terms for the city’s fishing pier and dock had been accepted, which is the first step toward approval. If the city is successful in garnering the funding, the grant would provide money to repair the pier and dock. Although it is a competitive grant, Smyth believes the city has a good chance of success.

The wastewater plant is still in its earliest stage and no site plan or engineering drawings have been created. A presentation on the preliminary engineering of the plant will be held at the commission meeting on Nov. 2.

Several citizens approached the commission with complaints of unsightly weeds and overgrown brush, as well as dilapidated buildings around the city.

Smyth said that the old theater building and the old grocery store have been cleaned out and are soon going to be sold. The old wooden building, however, was in such a state of disrepair that it will be demolished.

Vice Mayor Matthew Surrency ended the meeting with a reminder to residents to come out to the city’s annual Hog Fest on Saturday, Oct. 9, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.