Commission Meeting - July 27 2010

After having the budget meeting the night before the Commission Meeting was much shorter than what has become normal.  I've gotten used to the meetings stretching past 10PM and having to get up to leave to walk the dog.  This time it was finished at 8:40pm.

The highlight for me kept me quite rattled all night.  I had my first time speaking in front of the Commission and the City.  The Community Affairs Advisory Board had three seats whose terms had expired.  This is the board that I am the Vice Chair of and along with two others, we were all reelected to another two year term. 

Congratulations to current Board Chair Sherrill Mc Carthy, Board Member Kevin Knorr and myself who will continue to serve as volunteers on the Community Affairs Advisory Board for another two years.

My speech was short, and I shall post it as a separate blog posting after this one.  It stressed the Board's accomplishments and our commitment to serve the residents and businesses of Wilton Manors by bringing recognition to things done by people who may not have been noticed. 

Parking on Wilton Drive is not yet running at the budgetary expectations but Lanier Parking fully expects to meet or exceed that amount by "the end of July".  We are currently taking in $1000 a day, and are expecting $1800 a day, however that does not take into account the money from parking tickets.  Parking tickets have not gotten to the point where they are being fully collected because it is too soon to do so in many cases.  The numbers are only for a month so stay tuned.

In the remainder of the meeting there were three resolutions passed.

When City Hall is demolished, the City will place a temporary parking lot on the footprint of the old City Hall.  This will cost the city just under $92,000 and will require their dipping into the reserves for $5,000.  The parking lot will be done "On The Cheap" and is designed to last 3 years.  It will be done that way because there is the open question of the Two Lane Initiative and the Tiger 2 Grant and that property may get re-used and covered over by a mixed use Commercial and Residential building with an interior Garage, or may not.  This all depends on whether the City gets the grant.  We have a strong proposal, but it still is quite open as to whether the Federal Government agrees.

Congratulations to the City for doing it this way should be given.  The design will be done completely in house and was done by Dave Archacki Director of Public Services of the City of Wilton Manors and staff.  His design will save the city approximately $310,000 by bypassing external design firms and engineers and using our own staff.

Building of the new Temporary Lot can start when the old City Hall has been cleared and will begin as soon as the designs are deemed insurable.  Construction will take two weeks from start to finish.

Two short items:

The Wings and Things property will be completed per the original plans.  The building will house a new Sushi Rock restaurant as soon as construction is finished.  The property is now in compliance with code for a construction site so we can look forward to continuing growth in the middle of the Central Business District.

The Yawt Property
Still in flux over the G Resorts, the City has decided to look into any existing code violations by sending in the inspectors from the City and the County.  The City intends to have a "face to face meeting with Sandy Yawt and the other" trustees of the property to get them to follow through with the court orders and remove the blight that is on the East Side of the City.  If the City is not fully satisfied, they will pursue other options - their "Plan B" was alluded to.