BY MELISSA PYLE
Special to the Telegraph
Roads, what they’re named, how they are maintained, and garbage falling on them were all topics of debate at February’s Lawtey Council Meeting.
Councilwoman Debra Norman was absent due to illness, but she sent a list of topics to be discussed by proxy to citizen Vyunda Strong. Council members were not in agreement to the legality of Strong speaking on behalf of Norman. To accommodate the request, Councilwoman Emily Hoffman submitted that public comment time should be adjusted to ten minutes instead of the five. Attorney Aaron Dukes said this would be permissible. The council voted to approve the time adjustment along with the current agenda, and the meeting proceeded as planned.
Public Comments
Public comments began with a request from citizen Peggy Stanwix-Hay to add the name of actor Tory Kittles to Lake Street. She said he grew up on that street and has been, and continues to be, a successful inspiration from Lawtey. She said she would like the sign to read “Tory Kittles Drive” because it’s a play on words, acknowledging Kittles unwavering drive. She asked the council to consider this name addition and said if it came down to a monetary issue, she and her husband are willing to contribute funds.
The council said they would like to talk to the county about how to move forward with the addition of Kittles’ name to a street sign.
Other public comments were from John Mercier and Vyunda Strong. Mercier addressed the council about old business which included the ditch project, street signage, and fire hydrants. City Clerk Lisa Harley stated that the ditch project and hydrants are being worked on, but nothing was being done to get new street signs. Mercier went on to ask about the firehouse generator and suggested the city add the maintenance of that generator to its regular maintenance checks. Mercier also asked for clarification on an accounting mistake and $4,000 of ARPA funding. Harley said the accounting error had been fixed and the extra $4,000 was due to paying the city’s credit card back once the ARPA funds were received.
Strong also had questions about city funds. She asked about a $600,000 meter infrastructure award granted by the governor in December 2022. She asked where the money was, and Harley said it is still with the state and explained that when money is granted it doesn’t mean it is released. Harley said the state money can take months, if not years and is dependent on the engineers getting reports turned in about the meter project. Strong said she felt it was strange to take so long.
Strong went on to address the council with the questions she had been sent by Councilwoman Norman. The top issue being the state of cleanliness of the exterior of the recreation building and the park. There are a few playground equipment repairs needed and debris in the surrounding area, which shows lack of regular maintenance. She suggested requesting funds from the county that are allotted for parks and recreation. Norman’s questions also addressed the need for Wi-Fi installation in the recreation building.
Attorney’s sees
During the discussion of city financials, the old business of Hoffman’s attorney’s fees was addressed. Councilwoman Amy Blom made the motion to pay those fees, but the rest of the council was silent when asked for a second motion to approve. After a moment, Mayor Jimmie Scott temporarily ceded his position to Vice Mayor Virginia Warner to make his vote to approve the payment of the fees. The fees of $4,770 were approved. The vote passed two to one.
Trash
When the streets and sanitation department was asked to present concerns, Blom gave Hoffman the floor to address an incident of trash falling from a trailer onto the road. Hoffman said she was concerned about damage to her vehicle while driving behind a trailer with falling trash, so she grabbed her cell phone and took pictures of the trash. Hoffman said she was unaware that the city’s trash truck wasn’t in working order and that the trailer she was following with falling trash belonged to the city’s maintenance department.
This brought up many concerns. First, she felt there should be better communication about trash pickup changes. Council members stated it was decided at the previous meeting, which Hoffman attended, to adjust the trash pickup due to the incoming storm. Changes were also announced on the Lawtey Police Department’s Facebook page. Councilwoman Blom said because Hoffman was at that meeting there was no need for a phone call to be made to her about the changes. Hoffman said she must have misunderstood that the changes to trash pickup were in effect, but that didn’t change the fact that falling trash from a city truck was a hazard on any day. The city would be liable for damages to a person or their vehicle.
Chief Jerry Feltner interjected and stated that the loads do need to be secured because it is a state law that any damage done to a motor vehicle from falling, unsecured debris, would leave the driver, or in this case, the city liable. The suggestion of a simple tarp to secure the loads was given as the solution.
Road maintenance
Trash pickup and damages to city vehicles continued to be a topic of concern when the conditions of Brandon Road were brought up by Blom. She said the conditions of the road are so poor that even the postal service stopped delivering mail to each home and now delivers mail to boxes at the end of the road.
Warner said the problem is longstanding and is complicated by the fact that Brandon Road is still a private road and the maintenance of it is left up to homeowners. The citizens have had the county regrade the road in the past. Blom expressed her frustration that the road is in severe disrepair again and it’s causing damage to the city’s vehicles. Harley said it’s also a safety concern for emergency vehicles accessing the road.
Mayor Scott said the city can investigate the legality of making it a public road, attorney Dukes said the property lines of some of the residents goes into the road. Citizens would have to allow access to their private driveways. Feltner said there are several no trespassing signs and that protects the residents from any person entering their driveways. Blom emphasized the need to find a solution whether using city funds or petitioning the county to help with improvements The mayor agreed to move forward with a legal solution, citing the years of public access.
Safety
Feltner addressed safety concerns and recent graffiti on city property. Feltner said the graffiti is an isolated incident and is being monitored. Fetner said the last incident of graffiti didn’t coincide with the first poster. He said they are in contact with the FBI and the Jewish community in Jacksonville. Feltner said they are going to continue their investigation until the perpetrator is in jail, but the situation does not present a danger to the community.
Emergency meetings
Hoffman began her comments on the status of the fire department by airing her frustrations over the leaking roof. She said she requested an emergency meeting to address the fire department’s need for an immediate roof repair and it was denied. Hoffman went on to tell the council she didn’t understand why they couldn’t call a meeting to fix the roof, but they could call for an emergency meeting at the prison about the work crew.
She said it was still unclear about why they needed that meeting. Hoffman said she was told by the warden that the city’s maintenance person sent in a report which led to an “emergency meeting” being called to discuss safety of prison work crews. This comment began a very heated interchange amongst the council.
Councilwoman Blom said it wasn’t unclear, it was about maintaining the safety of the work crews, and it’s important that no one be taking pictures of them while they are working.
“We should not have our citizens following our work crews,” she said.
Hoffman said, “But that’s not what the meeting was about’.” Mayor Scott pounded the table and began to interrupt the discussion by telling Hoffman not to interrupt Blom. Hoffman said it was not made clear to her why the meeting was called, and she directly asked the council members to state why it was called. When they remained silent, she continued to push them to answer her questions about the supposed infraction. She asked about the date and time of the incident. When the council refused to give her the specific dates Hoffman told the council she felt the complaint was due to the day she took pictures of the falling trash she had discussed earlier in the meeting. Her picture taking was reported to the warden as an incident of taking pictures of working inmates.
Hoffman emphatically denied there were inmates present at the time of the falling trash incident. The maintenance person began to argue that there were inmates present. Chief Feltner interrupted and said the discussion needed to end.
As the discussion calmed down, Clerk Harley responded to the original complaint about the leak in the firehouse roof. She said she called a licensed and insured roofer to repair the leak. The council approved the emergency repair cost of $1,950. The topic of the fire department led to revisiting the topic of generator repairs and who is responsible for them. This reignited the long running frustrations over the lack of a memorandum of understanding with the county. The request for this agreement is over a year old.
Councilwoman Blom said she will get a new one if she must write it herself.
New attorney
In the meeting’s closing minutes, council voted to hire a new city attorney. Aaron Dukes has been serving as Lawtey’s attorney, but the council members voted to hire Dan Sykes. Sykes has served as city attorney for Lawtey in the past. The council thanked Dukes for his service and adjourned the February meeting. The next city council meeting will be March 4 at 7 p.m.
