BY TRACY LEE TATE
Special to the Times
LAKE BUTLER—The Lake Butler City Commission did double duty last week with two meetings on their to-do list. First, they held their regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 19. Then, on Thursday, Sept. 21, the final budget public hearing was held.
Middle schoolers want Chick-Fil-A
At their first meeting of the week, commissioners were treated to a presentation from the Lake Butler Middle School sixth-grade gifted student class members, accompanied by their teacher, Alexa Menz. Six young people read their suggestions to the commissioners concerning things they wanted to see that would improve Lake Butler. The kids had been learning about what it takes to run a municipality and decided to try to improve the community. Their suggestions were interesting and included more restaurants (including Fire House Subs and Chick-fil-A), a mini-mall, more fire hydrants and fire stations, a public pool, and a community garden. Commissioners listened politely, told the students they would consider their suggestions, and thanked them for attending the meeting.
Mayor David Stegall reported that the new public works director interviews had been completed and provided commissioners with his recommendations. The financial report passed on a motion from Commissioner Annette Redman 4-0, with Commissioner Fred Sirmones absent from the meeting. Vice-Mayor Melissa Hendrix requested one change to the consent agenda – asking that the proceeds from the sale of the animal control vehicle be put into a restricted fund to gather interest and questioned whether or not the vehicle could be sold because she believed that it had been a gift from Alachua County. With the requested change, the consent agenda was approved 4-0 on a motion from Hendrix, pending the determination that the city could sell the vehicle.
Agent moving out of depot building
The commission heard comments from local insurance agent Debbie Thomas, whose lease on the depot building has not been renewed. The building will be returned to its designated purpose as a public space.
Thomas, who had located her insurance office there, had questions about the return of rent paid in advance and her security deposit – she was assured all monies due her would be returned.
She also told commissioners that her 30-day notice letter had arrived a week late. So, she only had until Sept. 30 to move her office (three weeks instead of the intended four) and asked the commission to grant her an additional week to allow her to complete her move. The week extension was granted as an administrative matter with no motion needed.
Thomas said she had, so far, been unable to find a new place for her business and, as such, would be putting everything into storage until she finds a new location, causing problems with her customers who come into the office to get insurance, make changes and make payments.
Request for speed bumps
Commissioners heard a request from residents of Northeast Ninth Avenue for speed bumps to slow traffic on the residential road. They said there were speed bumps on the road at one time, but they disappeared when the road was repaved.
City Attorney John Maines noted that he believed the road had been repaved by the Florida Department of Transportation, which will not authorize speed bumps. He said if the city wanted to install them, then the disappearance could be looked into. Hendrix said she would get with County Commissioner Ryan Perez concerning the matter, and the issue was tabled until next month on a motion from Hendrix.
The board also agreed to a proclamation naming October 2023 National Pharmacist’s Month in the city, made by Lake Butler Hospital Pharmacist Bill Garst. The proclamation was read, and the observance was approved 4-0.
Public works director selected, wife angry
The last item to be considered was hiring a new public works director. Stegall had selected the three top candidates from his interviews – Cal Stewart (current city employee and current assistant director), Matthew Kelley (current city employee), and Mark Myers. The board selected Kelley 3 to 1, with Redman dissenting. As soon as the vote was final, Stewart’s wife left the meeting rapidly, calling the commissioner a derogatory name.
Stegall interested in city manager’s job
Maines spoke to the commission about the possibility of a commissioner permanently taking the city manager position.
According to the city charter, Maines said there is a prohibition against it in the form of an ordinance and that he would need to send a letter to the State Ethics Commission for judgment. He asked if any commissioner was interested and was answered in the affirmative by Stegall. Hendrix asked Maines to proceed with the letter.
Millage, budget passed
At the Sept. 21 meeting, the board voted 5-0 to approve the 2023-24 fiscal year budget by resolution. The millage rate was also approved 5-0 by resolution to be 3.25 mills (25.17% more than the rollback rate of 2.5964).
Former City Manager Dave Mecusker had been brought in as a budget consultant after the departure of Interim City Manager Richard Tillis and had tailored Tillis’ austere budget to meet the requests of the board at a previous budget meeting, moving funds to cover needs the commission considered important that Tillis had not included.
Various revenue and funding sources were adjusted to include the pay of the city manager, finance director, public works director and implementing minimum wage adjustments to employee’s salaries to $14 per hour in compliance with Federal guidelines, removing a vacant position from funding and removing an across-the-board employee raise to be revisited later as the year progresses. These changes enabled the budget to allow for expected auditing, legal fees, and equipment funding to purchase lawnmowers, vans, and other operational equipment.
The final budget documents show total revenues of $2,755,867 and are balanced with the expected expenditures totaling the same amount. Most of these funds are budgeted for operations costs of the general fund, the water fund, the solid waste fund, the wastewater fund, the downtown redevelopment fund, and the street reserve fund.
The city is financially on a very tight leash, and it may be a few years before these changes. Commissioners all state that they are willing to see to the belt-tightening and work within the limits of this and future budgets.
An earlier edition of this story contained two errors. First, we erroneously reported that the Lake Butler City Commission selected Cal Stewart as the new public works director. Matthew Kelly was selected as the new director. Also, we misidentified the woman who left the meeting after Kelly was chosen as Stewart’s mother when the woman was his wife. The Telegraph-Times-Monitor regrets these errors and apologizes to all those involved and its readers.
