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A weekly, local news podcast for Gainesville, FL and Alachua County, covering business, government, education and events. StreetSmart is produced by Mainstreet Daily News, the source for local news that matters to you.
Hello from Gainesville, Florida. It's Monday, August 17, and you're listening to StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hamman. StreetSmart is a weekly podcast from Mainstreet Daily News where we cover local news that informs, engages, and inspires listeners like you. A big thanks to our sponsor, Forest Meadows Funeral Home, where compassion meets experience.
Lillian Hamman:Check out their beautiful gardens, funeral home, and tribute center. With exceptional care and personal attention, Forest Meadows is here to honor every life with care. Here's the top headlines we're rounding up. The city of Alachua's planned rebuilding of the Hathcock Community Center has stalled after state funding fell through. The city needs $3 million to move forward and staff said they're searching their budget to find the financing.
Lillian Hamman:Alachua County passed a resolution asking for the highest standard of law enforcement practices, especially when dealing with immigration. The resolution also mentioned that immigration detention centers in or near the county would be an issue for residents. High Springs voted to enter negotiations with its city manager for a no fault termination. The decision comes weeks after voting to fire the manager. The city of Gainesville voted to enter an amended agreement to sell Citizens Field to the school board.
Lillian Hamman:The school board will evaluate the property for due diligence before a final go ahead. School is back with the school board of Alachua County and the Newberry Community School holding grand celebrations in the city. Read our stories about the opening bell at Mainstreetdailynews.com. Thanks to our generous members, our journalism stays free for the whole community with no paywall. Welcome back to StreetSmart.
Lillian Hamman:I'm your rural reporter, Lillian Hamman. And with me in studio is Mainstreet's associate editor, Seth Johnson.
Seth Johnson:But, Lillian, you are more than just a rural reporter to me, especially this week.
Lillian Hamman:And Seth, I do have to say, you are more than an associate editor to me.
Seth Johnson:Because we're coming to you together on the StreetSmart podcast for the first time as fiancee.
Lillian Hamman:Cat's out of the bag.
Seth Johnson:Yeah. I think the cat was out of bag once we published it in Mainstreet Daily News and put in 20,000 print copies.
Lillian Hamman:Yeah, that's true. That'll do it.
Seth Johnson:But we did tell our families first, so Lily and I have been dating for nearly nine months after getting to know each other on the job and decided to finish it off with a ring.
Lillian Hamman:Finish it off? I think we're just getting started.
Seth Johnson:Yeah, you're right. And a big thanks to everyone who reached out and said congratulations and celebrated with us with your messages. We really appreciate it.
Lillian Hamman:But we are still reporters, so we're gonna get straight into our featured story.
Seth Johnson:And this one has to do with something that affects nearly everyone in Alachua County because it's the roads. And if there's one complaint you see and hear about in Alachua County and then emails, at some point, it's gonna come up the road system.
Lillian Hamman:Is that that story you just did about the status of Alachua County's roads and continued deterioration got a lot of traffic?
Seth Johnson:No pun intended.
Lillian Hamman:Did you anticipate that going into the meeting?
Seth Johnson:No. I thought it was gonna be more of a routine budget meeting as they're kind of finishing up the budget season, and they had kind of a lot on the agenda. But the first thing that caught my attention was one of the assistant county managers talking about the tourist development tax and how that's down and kind of attributing that to the US football team and how well they've been doing in past seasons. And so I kind of, took an interest in that. I was like, oh, that would be interesting for a story.
Seth Johnson:And then they switched the roads and that quickly became the focus of the special meeting. And even though there was a lot of new information in there, it was really a rehash of 2022 and a lot of data that the County Commission had already heard from its public works director. Now back in 2022, it was leading up to the new infrastructure surtax. That's Wild Spaces Public Places, and then they expanded with the vote to include another 0.5¢. And a lot of that 0.5¢ is going towards roads on the county side.
Seth Johnson:And leading up to Alachua County, its public works director was talking about the roadway and where it is currently. And he said at the time, you know, the county needs to spend maybe $31.5 million each year just to keep kind of the average quality of the roadway the same. Now in 2020, the last time the county did kind of a holistic review of its roadway system, it scored a 60 out of a 100 on its pavement condition index. And the director said, as an engineer, he considers that failing. And so even back in 2022, when he was giving these presentations, they kind of knew that was the current status of the roadway network, and that's 700 miles of roadway network controlled by the county.
Seth Johnson:And so since the county hasn't been funding it at that $31.5 million level each year, it kind of is in the back of a lot of people's minds that they're probably gonna get worse on average. And actually, the director said just last week that with the increase in construction costs, the county would actually need to be spending more like $41.5 million in order to keep that average condition. So to keep the average condition of roadways, which people say is not great, you'd have to be funding it at about $18 million more per year than what they're currently spending. So the public works director said at that meeting last week that the annual budget for Rhodes currently is about 25 to $26 million which is a big improvement over what it was just in 2020 at around little less than $6 million.
Lillian Hamman:So are they gonna try to find the money to make that cut or what's gonna happen there?
Seth Johnson:Well, the county is currently in a ten year plan to move forward, you know, 270,000,000 something dollars worth of roadway projects. And even though that's a large number, when they had a backlog in 2022 of $408 million in roadway projects, you know, they'll cut into that, but on average, the roadway system is probably gonna keep going down over the next decade. The biggest thing the Board of County Commissioners were talking about is whether or not they can find more funding and then use that to hire outside contractors perhaps to, you know, be able to tackle more projects more quickly, but it's gonna take funding. And some of the commissioners invented frustration, especially I know Commissioner Chuck Chestnut, with how they got to this situation. And he pointed to years of commissioners not funding roadways where they should, and then he pointed to two referendums that were placed on ballots or a surtax that would just go to roads.
Seth Johnson:And he said voters, you know, didn't pass it and now they're saying, finding your own budget, and now they're complaining about the roadways being what they are. And so it's a lot of people who've been there a while feeling, you know, voters could put forward the surtax earlier, and they didn't. And so, you know, the county couldn't find these millions of dollars otherwise. I'm sure other people would have, perhaps, different interpretations of that. But he said the county could need two or three more referendums and surtaxes to kind of get out from behind this backlog.
Lillian Hamman:Is the county up against other headwinds besides just the massive road backlog?
Seth Johnson:Yeah. There's definitely the backlog. And then I mentioned that rate of deterioration where, you know, you can tackle a roadway project and get it done, but every other mile of road in your county network is degrading at the same time. And so it's kind of playing a constant game of whack a mole and then plus you have the potholes and so it's, that deteriorating nature is that roads don't stay the same. Another thing is the lag time between getting funding and actually getting the workers and projects up and going.
Seth Johnson:So even if the county gave him the funding for another pothole crew, he's like, it's gonna be six months, you know, before we get the people onboarded and actually see some progress on that. So even though it's a lot of the same information from a couple years ago, now we're a couple years down the line and seeing how the ten year plan is progressing and what situation the county's in. They've moved some roads forward, like Southeast 15th Street that goes by, Lachua Trail, and they're going be doing that next year. They also moved forward that road by Santa Fe College that's in some pretty rough shape.
Lillian Hamman:Yeah. Driven on those a couple times.
Seth Johnson:Yeah. So rough shape probably to say the least. And I think, you know, the public works director acknowledges that but he says, you know, we're working on it but we only have so much funding and they said, you know, they're gonna try and find more funding and see, but it's gonna be a long term issue that gets dealt with. Certainly not something that gets handled in the next four or five years. But with that same information, but an update comes, I think some more frustrations as a lot of public community members have been complaining and putting things on social media.
Seth Johnson:It seems like there's been just a renewed burber behind roads and the road systems over the summer. So a dedicated Facebook page called Alachua County Road Watch opened in July and it attracted a lot of attention as they record videos of the condition of Alachua County roads right at the borders as you're crossing into Gilchrist County or Levy County and asking people to upload photos of potholes near them and to contact the county. And the county actually started a dedicated email just for some of these roadway issues. And they've gotten now a backlog of emails to go through and see, you know, what people are sending in and certainly some duplicates there. But 700 emails just in the last seven days.
Seth Johnson:And County Commissioner Ken Cornell said probably half of his emails deal with roads a lot of days. So definitely an issue that's well before our time, you know, decades in the making and it can be decades in the unmaking as well, it looks like.
Lillian Hamman:We're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor before we get to the news forecast and events segment.
Sponsor:At Forest Meadows, our commitment is simple. Exceptional care, personal attention, and respect for every family we serve. Forest Meadows offers every option in one trusted place. Visit our beautiful gardens and glass far niches, or plan ahead for cremation, funerals, and memorials at our funeral home or tribute center located on our cemetery grounds. Forest Meadows, where compassion meets experience, and every life is honored with care.
Seth Johnson:Now for this week's news forecast. The Newberry Community School Board will gather later today for its regular meeting at 06:30PM, and the School Board of Alachua County will discuss a future superintendent search tomorrow at a special meeting starting at 6PM. The city of Hawthorne will also get down to business on Tuesday for its monthly meeting. The city of Gainesville canceled its regular meeting this week, but will return with a general policy committee next Thursday.
Lillian Hamman:Now for our events segment covering upcoming family friendly events this week. The great southeast pollinator census kicks off on Saturday. Starting at 9AM, volunteers can join Alachua Conservation Trust counting insects in their area. The counting will be at Gainesville Garden Club where participants can also get native plants and seeds while supplies last. The Matheson History Museum is putting on a legacy of excellence free education event at 2PM on Saturday.
Lillian Hamman:Locals E Stanley Richardson and Valoria Kelly will moderate a panel discussion with former students, educators, and historians about African American education in rural Alachua County during segregation. Feeling nostalgic? Head to the O'Connell Center for the Totally Rad Vintage Fest starting at 10AM on Sunday. The $8 entry gets visitors access to vintage vendors, free play vintage arcade, activities, and more. Kulaqua River Ranch Water Park is hosting a community day in High Springs on Saturday starting at 10AM.
Lillian Hamman:For $19 per entry, families can enjoy the tail end of summer with a wave pool, slides, lazy river, and concessions. That's a busy weekend to end a very busy week.
Seth Johnson:Yeah. And last week was also a very busy week for me. And maybe some listener out there who's especially diligent noticed that in last week's episode, I teased a story for the hickory sink forest off of Parker Road that UFIFAS got and is going to start managing for conservation. Well, that story never materialized last week as I got busy with election things and other stories going on like the roads that you just heard about. But that will be coming out this week.
Seth Johnson:I almost guarantee it.
Lillian Hamman:I'll take your word for it.
Seth Johnson:Am I done with my confession?
Lillian Hamman:Yes. I'll accept it. And that's all we've got for this week's StreetSmart podcast brought to you by Mainstreet Daily News and made possible by our generous members. You can access more free news at mainstreetdailynews.com. We'll be back next week with more stories that matter to you because they take place right here in Alachua County.
Lillian Hamman:Take a minute to share StreetSmart and help us continue the work. Our theme music is Sunset Sonata by Gainesville ska bands Now Leaving Space. This episode is a production of MARC Media.