MediaUpdate

By Cindy Swirko
Staff writer

Glory K. Ruby recently wrote in with several questions about roads in Alachua County.

One issue is on Archer Road: Ruby had hoped an extra westbound lane would be built to relieve the afternoon commute. Trying to make a left turn out of the Mentone subdivision, for instance, can take at least five minutes because of the traffic.

“Are there any plans to relieve this, perhaps with a traffic light, in the foreseeable future?” Ruby said in an email.

No, said Gina Busscher, spokeswoman for the district office of the Florida Department of Transportation. The addition of a traffic signal at 81st Street was studied last year.

“At the time, it did not meet the requirements … There is a signal located approximately 3,500 feet to the west at Southwest 91st Street,” Busscher replied in an email.

“The FDOT has studied Archer Road and, along with the Alachua County Commission, is looking at a four-lane section out to Archer in the future. However, there is no funding for construction at this time.”

Ruby also wanted to know if Tower Road is going to be resurfaced, noting that the potholes in front of Wiles Elementary and Kanapaha Middle schools are especially bad.

Strike Two comes courtesy of Ha T. Nguyen, engineer for Alachua County Public Works. She said plans for redesigning the road are under way, but “currently no funding exists to continue the design, and staff is evaluating potential options on how to move the project forward.”

Ruby’s last issue concerns 62nd Boulevard just east of the Oaks Mall, which “is so full of potholes that even the few that have been filled have new potholes in the repair! There is a dangerous tendency to drift near the oncoming lane to avoid the really bad ones. Are there any plans to resurface that road rather than just the hit and miss that has been done?”

Nguyen said the road is being studied, but nothing is planned for the near future and no money is available.

By Jim Stringfellow
Special to The Sun

Our citizenry prides itself on our progress in working together to evolve into an innovative and sustainable community.

Here then, is a remarkable plan that will, if enacted, protect us all, children and adults alike, from the ravages of influenza now and in perpetuity.

The concept is to move about $3 million of the now $38 million CHOICES reserve fund into a living trust fund, the interest from which will be used to fund our Alachua County FluMist Program. This highly successful preventive effort is now reaching enough school children that we adults are also being protected (we had only 156 total cases of flu in the county this past year, unbelievably low!).

CHOICES funds have been providing support for the FluMist program for three years now, so this is nothing new. It just assures that there will be this funding into the future; a unique public health investing concept that to my knowledge has never been used in county government here in the past.

Our Alachua County FluMist team has just been recognized as the most effective flu prevention program in the nation this year. Additionally, Dr. Parker Small, the father of the school-located flu vaccination program, has just been honored nationally by the National Center for Disease Control for his leadership in developing and fine-tuning this incredible example of so many entities — city and county governments, county health department, our school system, the CHOICES board, the United Way, the Medical Reserve Corp., the Junior League, the Black Nurses Association, the Chamber of Commerce, Avmed Health Plan, and many others — working together to bring this effective preventative program to our community year after year.

Influenza is an insidious disease. Medical scientists cannot accurately predict when a flu season for a community will be light or, as during the H1N1 season, very serious. Presently we are preventively reaching 65 percent of our elementary, 50 percent of our middle school and 20 percent of high school students,. We are trying to do better each successive year. The data shows we have reached a point where we are now protecting most adults in the community by protecting these children.

It is estimated, using national and state data, that flu costs Alachua County and its residents about $10 million a year in direct and indirect costs without our FluMist program in place.

The implications of this flu protection investment promise to be far reaching, establishing Alachua County as a leader in the state and nation in the prevention of influenza in children and adults. We are providing a model for other communities, and providing additional proof to potential industrial recruitment prospects that we are, indeed, a truly caring and innovative community.

When I heard the news of the traffic death of a county Animal Services employee I was sad and stunned.

As a veterinarian I know many of the staff at Alachua County Animal Services, and they are some of the finest people I've ever worked with. They are effective professionals with a complicated and difficult job.

I didn't know Persephone Athene but I know I would have liked her just as much. Being a kennel attendant at Animal Services is tough. Not only would she have cared for the nice animals but also the vicious, sick, injured and neglected.

So in her honor spend some time with your pet today. If you don't want puppies, get them fixed, and go to your vet if your animal seems sick.

And the next time you see an Animal Services officer or employee, please say “thank you” for keeping our community and animals safe.

Cindy Rosenfeld, DVM,
Gainesville

By Cindy Swirko
Staff writer

Alachua County has won top recognition from a statewide growth-management watchdog organization for its mobility plan that combines land use with transportation to guide future development.

1000 Friends of Florida, which advocates for wise growth, has selected Alachua County for its Better Community Award. The award is given annually for plans and projects that use the principles of smart growth to create livable, vital environments.

"We really are leading the way with what we are doing. It's very gratifying for 1000 Friends of Florida to recognize us," said County Commission Chairwoman Paula DeLaney. "What we are doing is very innovative. There are not many counties doing this sort of thing."

Developers will find more profit in their efforts from the new approach under the mobility plan, DeLaney said.

The plan provides a greater range of transportation options, including bus rapid transit, bicycling and walking. The focus on new growth will be on mixed-use developments, with commercial and residential areas mixed together.

Higher-density "urban service" development will be encouraged in certain locations such as the Southwest 20th Avenue area through incentives, including streamlined permitting and lower fees.

"Alachua County is using a comprehensive approach to promote compact, sustainable development that supports a wide range of transportation alternatives," said Charles Pattison, president and CEO of 1000 Friends, in a press release. "With its mobility plan, urban services area and multimodal transportation mitigation ordinance, Alachua County has taken a significant step in promoting smarter growth."

The award will be presented at Tuesday's County Commission meeting.

On Tuesday the School Board voted unanimously to place a one-mill property tax extension on the November ballot. Over the next several months, board members and school officials will try to convince voters that because state funding is inadequate to support quality schools, a continued local commitment is needed.

Voters will either embrace that logic and pass the tax or they will reject it.

On Thursday, Gainesville city commissioners voted 6-1 to get behind two proposed transportation sales tax initiatives — a three-quarter cent for road repairs and a quarter-cent for mass transit improvements. Now city officials will try to convince voters that this community's economic future and quality of life is tied to its commitment to better transportation.

Voters will either buy that argument or they will reject it.

Assuming that they even get the chance to weigh in.

In contrast to the unanimity on the School Board and the near-unanimity on the City Commission, the Alachua County Commission appears to be hopelessly fractured.

Commissioners Lee Pinkoson and Susan Baird support a road repair initiative but they are adamantly opposed to the companion transit initiative.

Commissioners Paula DeLaney and Mike Byerly won't support roads without transit.

The split seemed to be settled weeks ago, when Commissioner Winston Bradley suggested a reasonable compromise: Placing two separate initiatives on the ballot, one for roads and one for transit, and leaving it up to the voters to decide.

Based on that compromise Gainesville and the rest of the cities have been approving interlocal agreements with the county that spell out how the tax money would be spent should one or both of the initiatives pass.

But now, with the ink barely dry on those agreements, Pinkoson proposes a road repair initiative of shorter duration (seven years instead of 15) and of only a half-cent rather than three-quarters. And despite last month's compromise, he and Baird want to keep the transit initiative off the ballot altogether.

Ultimately, it ought to be up to the voters to decide. But for that to happen, county commissioners need to exercise both leadership and a spirit of compromise.

By Christopher Curry
Staff writer

Gainesville city commissioners on Thursday approved interlocal agreements with Alachua County for the roads and transit sales tax initiatives that the County Commission may put to voters in November.

Under the agreements, the city would receive approximately 24.3 percent of the revenues from the ¾-cent sales tax for road projects -- some $5.5 million annually and a projected $82.5 million over the 15-year life of the tax.

The city would receive all the revenues from the ¼-cent sales tax for transit -- a projected $7.5 million annually or $112.5 million over 15 years.

The County Commission, which has the final authority on whether to put the sales tax initiatives on the ballot, still has to approve the agreement. At this point, county commissioners continue to debate and disagree about the ballot initiatives, including the amount of the taxes and whether the taxes' 15-year terms should be shortened. Thus it remains to be seen what, if anything, will go to voters.

For their part, city commissioners approved the agreement 6-1, with Todd Chase in dissent. Chase sought to remove the city's planned bus rapid transit system from the list of projects eligible for funding because he felt it was "very likely going to kill this thing." He also wanted to shorten the life of the tax from 15 years to 10. No other commissioners supported those moves.

Chase also said that the revised transit project list included with the interlocal agreement was overly vague and he objected to the removal of cost estimates previously included.

"This is a big, old giant blank check, a $112 million blank check," he said.

Other commissioners did not share those misgivings.

"It doesn't have the numbers of the previous list because we haven't really costed the stuff out yet," Commissioner Thomas Hawkins said.

Hawkins noted that, with design work not yet done, the same could be said for many road resurfacing projects on county government's list.

Public Works Director Teresa Scott said county staff recommended making the project list "more general" in order to avoid a scenario of having to amend the interlocal agreement in the future, which would require a super majority vote, if cost projections or the number of a specific bus route changes.

Under the revised list, the city could use transit tax revenues to go toward seven areas: a new maintenance facility, buses for existing and new service, operational costs for existing and enhanced services, articulated buses, bus rapid transit and a downtown circulator.

Based on prior projections, the costs associated with the road and transit project lists would easily eclipse the revenues generated by the taxes. For example, the downtown circulator, a planned trolley system, has a rough cost estimate of some $127.5 million and infrastructure related to the leg of the bus rapid transit "blue line" from Butler Plaza to Gainesville Regional Airport had a projected cost of $33 million.

Both of those projects may be eligible for federal funding as well, city officials project.

Some three dozen projects -- a mix of road resurfacing, new road construction, traffic signal replacement and roundabout construction -- made up the list of city road projects eligible for funding. They included the Hull Road extension, Southeast Fourth Street and Southwest 62nd Boulevard.

The discussion on Chase's concerns about the transit tax lasted almost two hours. Approximately 90 minutes in, Mayor Craig Lowe said that, based on prior meetings and votes, he expected the "lengthy discussion" to lead to a 6-1 vote and asked Chase to wrap up his comments in 15 minutes.

Commissioner Susan Bottcher believed the debate on bus rapid transit was off topic.

"I think at this point we're not considering the merits of BRT, what the costs will be and where the routes will be ... what's before us today is what type of interlocal agreement we're going to have with the county."

Commissioner Lauren Poe noted that, now that the County Commission has separated the road and transit tax questions, voters in rural areas and smaller municipalities may determine the fate of a sales tax for a Gainesville transit system they do not use and city voters may decide on a tax that would put funding toward the resurfacing of rural roads they do not drive on.

"It's this weird sort of situation we've been put in," he said.

Once upon a time we lived on one of the few scenic roads in Alachua County.

Then the County Commission agreed with Public Works that the road was substandard. Residents asked for traffic calming but nothing happened. Residents pleaded that the road be simply resurfaced, not turned into a freeway.

The road was torn up, redone, and torn up again. Curbs, gaping concrete holes and rocks appeared. Native shrubs and flowers were uprooted. Family mailboxes were uprooted.

The county is once again “improving” the road. The latest addition is a bright yellow stripe, not at all appropriate for a scenic road.

Alachua County must have quite a pot of money to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on one mile of roadway. And now the commission proposes a new tax for road improvements.

Will I vote for this tax? Absolutely not.

Gladys M. Lane,
Gainesville

History is being made at Poe Springs.

Experts say that the spring could stop flowing in the coming weeks. Alachua County Environmental Protection says that the spring should be flowing at 30 million gallons a day and instead has slowed down to only half a million gallons a day.

If it stops flowing, swimmers cannot go in. No flow means algae growth and bacteria, which is harmful to swimmers.

Chris Bird says that a viscous cycle of no rain and over consumption of water from the aquifer because of that lack of rain is to blame for the historically slow flow.

"Large amounts of water continue to be pumped out of the aquifer, and there's not enough rain to replenish it, and we see so much water being pumped out to the point that these springs stop.

Poe springs is currently closed to swimmers because of construction being done on the steps entering the water.

Bird says they have no record that the spring has ever flowed this slowly.

Click to view the story.

By Jon Silman and Cindy Swirko
Staff writer

An Alachua County animal services employee was killed in a six-vehicle crash involving two trucks, one of which was a county public works truck, in the 3400 block of Northeast 53rd Avenue in Gainesville on Tuesday morning.

Persephone Athene, 27, of Alachua was killed in a car that was crushed by one of the county trucks in front of Alachua County Animal Services, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

A group of employees were returning from an early morning countywide meeting when the accident occurred, according to Alachua County spokesman Mark Sexton. Three other people had minor injuries.

FHP reported in a news release that the accident happened at 8:27 a.m. when six vehicles were eastbound on 53rd Avenue. Several cars were stopped for traffic when Athene’s Sentra drove into the back of a 2006 Ford F350 flatbed truck driven by Thomas Dale Alwin Jr., 53, of Bronson, who was stopped.

A 2008 Ford F750 flatbed truck driven by Roberto Jesus Perez Sr., 42, of Jennings, was behind Athene. Perez could not stop and collided with Athene's car, climbed on top of it and crushed it. Alwin’s truck went into a nearby ditch.

Other cars in front of Alwin also were rear-ended by the impact.

FHP closed 53rd Avenue between Main Street and Waldo Road for about six hours for the accident investigation. Charges are pending the completion of the investigation, FHP reported.

Hilary Hynes, public education program coordinator at Alachua County Animal Services, said everyone at animal services was shocked by Athene's sudden death.

"She was so caring and loving," Hynes said. "It's a huge loss."

Hynes said Athene was a full-time kennel attendant at the shelter and she was responsible for daily cleaning and caring of animals. She said everyone at the shelter is a big animal lover, and the environment is like a big family.

"It's a smaller scale operation," she said. "You wind up being wrapped up in people's lives."

Hynes said Athene had at least a cat and a dog, and would proudly talk about new tricks the dog learned.

"Everybody that works has a family they work with everyday," Hynes said. "Of course, it will be a huge loss for quite some time."

In a statement, Public Works Director Richard Hedrick said it was a sad day for the Public Works Department.

"My heart goes out to our employees, families and others involved," he said. "We never know from day to day what might happen. Please keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers."

Athene's Facebook page says she lives in Alachua and that she's from Corvallis, Ore.

At a County Commission meeting Tuesday morning, Assistant County Manager Betty Baker told commissioners the victim was a county animal services employee.

Commission Chairwoman Paula DeLaney had already received the news and came into the meeting room in tears.

"It is a very sad morning for the Alachua County employee family," she told her colleagues. "This is one of those terrible things that you hope never happens."

By Chad Smith
Staff writer

On the surface, it appeared Monday that little had changed in Robert and Rhonda Matheny's backyard.

The crater-like sinkhole that opened up Saturday, its lip a few yards from the swimming pool, hadn't grown much since Sunday.

But what was happening below the surface on the Mathenys' property in Jonesville was of concern to geologists.

Rhonda Matheny, 62, said they told her that the storage shed on the far side of the yard would likely fall in at some point.

It's just a matter of when.

Sinkholes could become even more of a worry around the state in the coming weeks and months because of the depleting aquifer, thanks to pumping and the drought, exacerbating an already worrisome, naturally occurring phenomenon.

"Even though it's related to the drought, it's really the overpumping of the aquifer that is making matters worse and making conditions such that we're more likely to have sinkholes," said Chris Bird, Alachua County's environmental protection director.

Ironically, when rain comes, it will exacerbate the problem as it will make topsoils heavier.

With the support beneath gone, the soils will cave in, creating sinkholes.

"We can be sure that there will be more," said Anthony Randazzo, a principal at the firm Geohazards Inc., which inspects properties before and after sinkholes develop, and a professor emeritus of geology at the University of Florida. "We can expect a number. I don't really know how many."

According to data from the Florida Geological Survey, 54 sinkholes have been reported in Alachua County since the 1960s, the most recent ones opening on Christmas in 2006 in the Arredondo area.

The sinkhole at the Mathenys' property would make 55, giving Alachua County the 15th most in the state. The counties with the most sinkholes reported are Citrus, with 353, and Marion, with 337, according to the data.

A map of the incidents in Alachua County showed that only one occurred east of U.S. 441.

Jonathan Martin, a professor of geology at UF, said a kind of fault line runs through Gainesville separating an area to the west where limestone, which erodes over time, is close to the surface and an area to the east where the surface is supported by mostly clay.

"There are all kinds of geological hazards around here that people don't really think about," Martin said.

For example, clay can shrink and expand with water, in some cases causing the ground — and whatever is above it — to dip.

"Sinkholes are kind of dramatic because they happen quickly," Martin said. "The net result of both of them is that the house becomes worthless."

Martin knows.

His house was built over some so-called shrink-swell clay, and some windows won't shut and doors won't close because the ground has moved.

The difference is shrink-swell issues can often be fixed if caught early.

There is often little warning of a sinkhole.

Randazzo said his firm looks at about a thousand properties a year in Florida, investigating them for sinkholes or other geological issues.

There are a lot of people, due to the economy, who don't have sinkhole insurance, "which is not very wise in Alachua County, I can tell you that," he said. "That's something you can't afford not to do."

In 2011, the Legislature changed the law on sinkhole insurance mandating insurance companies, including the state's Citizens Property Insurance Corp., to verify damage was caused by an actual sinkhole.

Randazzo said the changes took away protections for policyholders.

In the Mathenys' case, he said, it is a no-brainer — a sinkhole has caused damage on the property.

But other cases are less black and white, as there aren't craters in the ground but the surface is shifting, causing some level of damage to the property.

It remains to be seen how much damage will finally happen at the Mathenys' home, where they lived for 37 years.

"It's an eerie sound when you hear that dirt caving in," said Robert Matheny, 65, who goes by Robin. "An eerie thing."

There's no word tonight who is at fault for a deadly chain reaction crash involving an Alachua County vehicle this morning.

A county employee was killed when a public works dump truck crushed her car.

"To be a loving caregiver like that, you know that's a huge loss in our community, huge loss," said Hilary Hynes.

Animal Services employees are mourning the loss of one their co-workers killed in this tragic accident.

"There are no words to describe what you feel when your becoming involved with something like that. You go through that can't be her, that can't be that person," said Hynes.

Hynes who works for Alachua County Animal Services said they were on their back from a public works all hands meeting in Alachua.

The crash happened right in front of Alachua County Animal Services on 53rd avenue.

Out of the six vehicles, two were dump trucks.

This county public works dump truck crushed the car driven by the animal service employee.

We know three others were transported to the hospital.

One of them was this man's 24- year- old daughter.

"She was on her way to work when like I said basically she told me she was driving along when she seen some smoke, tried to run off the road and hit the side of the truck in the process," said Chester Ivan Mullins.

His daughter was driving A GMC pick up truck that is totaled.

Fortunately she was not seriously injured.

Some county employees found out about the tragedy later in the morning.

There was an announcement at the Alachua County Commission meeting.

"It's tragic. I know it's going to be a very difficult time moving forward," said County Commissioner Paula DeLaney.

She told us it as a human tragedy your never prepared for.

"It's hard. This is going to be hard time for all of us to get through," said Hynes.

Hynes said Crisis Intervention workers were on the scene to talk to fellow co-workers and offer counseling.

The Florida Highway Patrol is in charge of the investigation and have not yet release a report.

 

Click to vew story.