Exh 3AAGENDA ITEM #3A
JANUARY 12, 2004
January 5, 2004
MEMORANDUM
TO: The Honorable Mayor
and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jim Hans
ana
SUBJECT: Follow p Report
PODS Safety; A question was recently raised about the safety of the PODS storage units,
specifically if people could accidentally get trapped inside similar to children playing in junked
refrigerators. Don Ford has inspected these and determined that they can be opened from the
inside unless a lock has been placed on the outside. Consequently, it would be impossible for
someone to accidentally get locked in unless the second person on the outside of the unit locked
it while the first person was inside. Also as a result of the recent discussions about PODS, the
city's Code Enforcement Officer, Alex Sherrer, has notified the PODS company again of the
city's requirement for permitting and limit on time that they can be left in Atlantic Beach.
Sidewalk at Stb and Sherry; The proposed property acquisition of a small triangular shaped
strip of property on 5~' Street adjacent to the Sherry Drive intersection has been discussed with
the Commission in several recent meetings. Most recently, Mayor Meserve indicated that he had
been called by the owner, Trisha Lawrence, who felt that the issue could be resolved with city
staff. Since then, I have spoken with her and reached a tentative agreement that she would sell
the property to the city (either in fee simple or in easement) for the fair market value of the
property and if the City would install the necessary drainage to correct any resulting problems
that may occur in her yazd from the sidewalk's installation. At the time of the writing of this
report, city staff has transmitted a drawing of the proposed drainage improvements to
Ms. Lawrence and an appraisal on the small piece of property is being sought. It is staff s
intention to have this completed and back on the agenda for Commission approval at the second
commission meeting in January on the 26`x.
Beach Renourishment; Officials from the three beach cities have spoken with Jacksonville
elected and appointed officials on several occasions about the need to bring professional
consulting services on board to better monitor the progress toward the beach renourishment
project currently planned for fiscal year O5. Most recently, Mayor Meserve met with Mayor
Peyton to raise this and several other Atlantic Beach issues. Preliminary comments back from
Mayor Peyton's staff indicate a willingness from the City of Jacksonville to supplement their
existing efforts with paid consulting staff and to participate in funding with the beach cities.
Details are yet to be worked out.
AGENDA ITEM #3A
JANUARY 12, 2004
Restructuring of Water and Sewer Rates; When the City Commission last reviewed the
proposed restructuring of the water and sewer rates in the meeting on October 13, 2003,
comments from the St. Johns River Water Management District limiting the options available for.
phasing in the rates were presented. The Commission indicated a desire to implement the
changes for residential customers immediately (per Water Management District requirement) but
to keep the phase in for the commercial customers. This raised a question of the revenue
neutrality of the restructuring over the phase in period and staff was asked to re-run the numbers
to see what the financial impact would be. We in turn asked Mike Burton Associates to prepare
the information. However, that firm lost some key staffrecently and has yet been unable to
prepare the information requested. No action is recommended by the Commission at this time.
This report is only submitted to provide a status as to why the work is taking so long.