July 2007.pdfVOL.3 NO.7JULY 2007
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Because of term limits as well as serious illness,
this will be my last address to my fellow citizens. I
have chosen to remember and recall just how far
we have come over the twenty years that I have
served (preserved) the City as both an elected and
appointed official. In truth, my first real involvements
were in two organizations (outside of government)
which have beneficially changed the landscape of
and directions for Atlantic Beach.
The first organization was the North Duval Beaches Association. I
joined just after the Association had won its biggest battle—the defeat
of a high rise in Seminole Beach. We realized then what a disadvantage
it had been organizing busloads of concerned residents to attend the
Council meetings faraway in downtown Jacksonville. We felt that it
would be better if Seminole Beach were annexed by Atlantic Beach and
could fight its battles nearer to home. So we began to solicit support for
annexation which was successful. This annexation in 1987 forever
doubled the ocean front real estate tax base for the City, but then we
also witnessed the 35-foot referendum in 2006 forever banning high
rises in Atlantic Beach which now included Seminole Beach.
The second organization was the Town Center Agency which
developed around a group of enlightened citizens, business people,
resident architects and planners with the goal of making Atlantic
Boulevard and its immediate intersections from the Ocean to Third
Street into a restaurant and retail destination for locals and tourists from
Duval County and beyond. When I was president, I had the good fortune
to preside at the moment at which the three cities decided to ante up
and finish the project. I shall forever remain indebted to John Delaney,
then Mayor of Jacksonville. Heretofore Town Center presidents had to
rely on brick sales (God bless Joanna Fletcher), “Dancin’ in the Street”
(God bless Patsy Bishop), and solicitations from local business and mall
owners. While Town Center remains a work in progress, its general
outlines and directions are set and it has become a commercial engine
and a great success for the people of Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach.
As president and later a board member of North Duval Beaches
Association, it was a duty of mine to monitor the Atlantic Beach City
Commission meetings. While attending these meetings, I joined with
many others in supporting Bill Gulliford’s mayoral campaign as well as
the commission campaign of Adele Tucker who were promising to take
the City in new directions. Mayor Gulliford was quick to appoint a
Beautification Committee and, after a fiasco involving cutting down all
the trees at the old Bennett’s Motel, a Tree Conservation Committee. It
was a start – the beginning of drawing more citizens into the decision
making of the City.
city of atlantic beach newsletter
ENJOY NATURAL FLORIDA
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If you enjoy the outdoors, the St. Johns River Water
Management District has some beautiful conservation areas
in Northeast Florida.The largest is Jennings State Forest,
16 miles southwest of Jacksonville. In town, there’s the
Julington-Durbin Preserve off Old St.Augustine Road.
In all, there are sixteen recreation areas in Clay, Duval, St.
Johns and Nassau Counties.
Each conservation area is different, but most have hiking
trails and allow horseback riding and picnicking. Some have
canoe launches,fishing,and ranger-led interpretive programs.
Those who love wildlife viewing and photography have the
opportunity to see hawks, owls, eagles, deer and many
other species.
Learn more by going to the District’s website at
www.sjrwmd.com and click on “Recreation” to view the
recreation guide.The guide contains a description of each
conservation area, photos, location and trail maps, activities
and wildlife viewing.
Remember – water no more than two days per
week, before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m.
ACOUSTIC NIGHT
Bring your lawn chairs and blankets and join your
neighbors for an evening of music performed by local
acoustic artists on Sunday, July 22 from 6- 8 p.m. at Bull
Memorial Park. For more information call the Parks and
Recreation Department at (904) 247-5828.
EMPLOYEE OF THE QUARTER
Detective Chris Pegram was recently named Employee of
the Quarter for the First Quarter of 2007. He has been
employed with the Public Safety Department since April
2003. Detective Pegram is being recognized for his
exemplary performance in the last three months with his
position in the Crime Suppression Unit.
city of atlantic beach newsletter
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Meetings are held in the Commission Chambers unless otherwise indicated.
* These events will be held at Adele Grage Cultural Center,716 Ocean Blvd.
** These events will be held in the North Conference Room at City Hall,
800 Seminole Road.
Aug 8 *Tree Conservation Board Mtg | 7 p.m.
Aug 9 Board Member Review Committee Mtg | 5 p.m.
Aug 9 Pension Board of Trustees Mtg | 6 p.m.
Aug 13 City Commission Mtg | 7:15 p.m.
Aug 19 4th Annual Fun Run
Aug 21 Community Development Board Mtg | 7 p.m.
Aug 22 *Tree Conservation Board Mtg | 7 p.m.
Aug 27 City Commission Mtg | 7:15 p.m.
Aug 28 *Cultural Arts & Recreation Advisory Committee
Mtg | 7 p.m.
Jul 4 Independence Day Holiday - City Offices Closed
Jul 8 *Songwriter’s Concert | 6 - 8 p.m.
Jul 9 City Commission Mtg | 7:15 p.m.
Jul 10 Code Enforcement Board Mtg | 7 p.m.
Jul 11 *Tree Conservation Board Mtg | 7 p.m.
Jul 12 Board Member Review Committee Mtg | 5 p.m.
Jul 17 Community Development Board Mtg | 7 p.m.
Jul 22 *Acoustics Night at Bull Memorial Park | 6 - 8 p.m.
Jul 23 City Commission Mtg | 7:15 p.m.
Jul 24 *Cultural Arts & Recreation Advisory Committee
Mtg | 7 p.m.
Jul 25 *Tree Conservation Board Mtg | 7 p.m.
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The fiasco also prompted Lyman Fletcher and myself to run for the
Commission. The press billed us as the “Green Twins” because of our
desire to preserve the Atlantic Beach tree canopy and the special
character of old Atlantic Beach. We all quickly learned that infrastructure
trumps all other projects whether trees, parks, recreational facilities, etc.
Sewer, water, stormwater, streets and sidewalks could not be neglected
any longer.
At any rate, Atlantic Beach began to answer the then timeless and
irritating question: “Why does the entrance to the City have to look so
bare and ugly as you cross the Intracoastal?” The new beautification
committee, following FDOT guidelines, landscaped the medians with
small, knee high date palms – nice but not impressive! The
Beautification Committee kept on trying and finally when Kelly Elmore
got involved, he filled the medians with majestic Medjool Palms.
Citizen involvement has made all the difference and under the
leadership of the City Commission we have implemented the grand
vision of both beautifying the City and preserving its charm, expanding
its parkland and enhancing the tree canopy. I want to thank all the
volunteers who made all this possible. Many have moved on, some
have died, some were later elected to office, many continue to thread
their way quietly through new projects, many are unnamed and
unknown outside their small circle. You are my heroes and Atlantic
Beach is so much the better for you and your service. Thank you.
Finally, I must take this opportunity to thank everyone in Atlantic
Beach for allowing me to serve. For me, it has been the privilege of a
lifetime and I have been truly humbled by the trust and confidence
placed in me by so many, but also I have been exhilarated by the
experience and the accomplishment. I feel that I have only two glaring
failures: the discontinuance of First Night and the failure to entice a
YMCA to the City.
There are a few suggestions and changes to which I want to call your
attention. First your mayor needs to be elected for four years not two.
Second, your elected commissioners are going to have to spend more
time in Jacksonville, Tallahassee and maybe even Washington. Please
don’t begrudge them the travel money because mayors, and now
commissioners, are already losing money in their businesses.
Unfortunately decisions which affect us locally are decided a long way
away – Washington (beach renourishment, the Mayport ferry, community
development block grants, etc.), Tallahassee (total maximum daily loads,
police retirements, property taxes, sales taxes, grants, etc.), and
Jacksonville (grants, the interlocal, annexations, all county functions, etc.).
If we are going to be effective as a political body, your commissioners
are going to have to serve on policy-making committees meeting all
over the state. Mayor Wolfson already attends the Florida League of
Mayors, Commissioner Fletcher sits on the Regional Planning Council,
and I was president of the Northeast Florida League of Cities. There’s
nothing small time anymore about the survival and success of our
beloved Atlantic Beach.
Shakespeare described what we have here best: “This sceptered isle,
… this earth of majesty,… this other Eden, demi-paradise, … this little
world, this precious stone set in a silver sea, which serves it in the office
of a wall or as a moat defensive to a house,… this blessed plot …”
[Richard II, 2.1 40-51]
Sincerely,
J. Dezmond Waters, III
Mayor Pro Tem
JULY 2007
Donald Wolfson
MAYOR
Jamie Fletcher
COMMISSIONER
J. Dezmond Waters, III
MAYOR PRO TEM
Sylvia Simmons
COMMISSIONER
Mike Borno
COMMISSIONER
Jim Hanson
CITY MANAGER
Alan Jensen
CITY ATTORNEY
Donna Bussey
CITY CLERK
www.coab.us •(904) 247-5800
CITY OFFICIALS
CALENDAR
AUGUST 2007