Citizen turn out at our commission meetings has been amazing, thank you all for supporting our city. Your participation is essential to its health and well-being and it’s having an impact. Not a whole lot happening to report but what is happening will have a profound influence on the future of Oak Hill.
City Administrator Recruitment
Here are the resumes that Ken Parker and Senior Advisors from ICMA, International City/County Management Association consider to be qualified or qualified and recommended to serve as Oak Hill City Administrator. At Monday’s City Commission meeting these candidates will be considered and the pool will be narrowed to those who will be interviewed and undergo background checks. Once completed the candidates will be further parsed or perhaps an offer may be extended to a preferred candidate. The role of a city’s administrator affects the everyday lives of its citizens, everything from flood control to trash pick-up. A wise choice here is critical. Please come to the meeting and participate, your input can help us make better decisions.
Nancy Cummings Park – Follow-Up
Floodwater Surrounds the Pumphouse in Nancy Cummings Park
Last Monday, July 17, 2023, I made another visit to Nancy Cummings Park. During the two days prior, our city received typical Florida afternoon thunderstorms with periods of heavy rain. Look how high the water was as it ran over the end of the drainage ditch, around a bulkhead, and flooding the park’s well pumphouse as it traversed south across the park.
The water is intended to travel through pipes buried beneath the lawn. Click Here to see how our drainage system handled the rainfall. Not only does this photo and video indicate the capacity for this system to mitigate storm water within the park itself, but also shows that this section is blocking the flow and stormwater is backing up as a result. This affects everything north of it and fails to serve the community as intended. This system serves the Nancy Street and Wyatt neighborhood where many homes were damaged from flooding during last year’s hurricane. Nine months ago, in November of 2022, the City Commission voted to approve a contract to replace the pipes.
Here’s an image, of what looks like homeless campers in the vacant lot just 100 feet north of the basketball court at Nancy Cummings Park was taken 7-22-23. This photograph emphasizes the need for the existing fence to encompass the entire park, by including the northern boundary. Without a complete fence the city cannot effectively control the opening and closing, or entrance and exit of the park. Both are essential to the safety of the public and preservation of Oak Hill City property including the restrooms. ———————- The next Oak Hill City Commissioner’s meeting is, July 24, 2023 at city hall. The time is 6:00 PM. The agenda and agenda packet are available by clicking here.
Please come and let your voice be heard. Your presence and participation are how we hold our commission to account.
As always, it’s my pleasure to serve you, I appreciate your support. Please let me know what I can do to help. I’m here to represent you…
Hi Everyone, I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend. Citizen turn out at our city meetings has been amazing, thank you all for supporting our city. Your participation is essential to its health and well-being and it’s having an impact.
City Administrator Recruitment Friday, July 7, 2023, our city held a special workshop at city hall with Ken Parker, and two of his colleagues, Tom Palmer and George Forbes, all Senior Advisors from ICMA, International City/County Management Association. Mr. Parker and his associates are assisting our city with the recruitment of a City Administrator. Citizens and the commission were invited to attend but not as participants, only observers.
The senior advisors reviewed the applications (I think there was twelve or fourteen submitted) and broke them down into three categories, (1) qualified and recommended (2) qualified (3) not recommended. The three advisors debated amongst themselves in front of the public to reach a consensus.
Mr. Parker and his associates will submit a report to the city commission by July 17, 2023. This report will include a pared down list of applicants, those in the “qualified and recommended” category. At that point, Mr. Parker, his associates and the ICMA will have completed a valuable service to our city. We should all be grateful that this excellent recruitment tool is available to city governments in need of assistance. I would remind everyone that executive recruiting services are extremely expensive and the ICMA’s services were provided free-of-charge.
The next steps will be for the commission to review the recommended applications, conduct preliminary interviews, further pare down the applicant pool, and recommend candidates for background checks. Once this process is complete it will be up to the commission to conduct final interviews and make a selection.
Nancy Cummings Park The agenda pack for Monday’s meeting contains a $59,999.00 quote for playground equipment earmarked for Nancy Cummings park. That price includes delivery and installation. A funding source for this project was not indicated in the agenda pack so I’m not sure if the city has secured grant money for the purchase. If the money for this equipment is from taxpayer funds, then I believe that careful consideration should be given to prioritizing how money is spent developing this park into a safe and accessible asset for the residents of our community.
To build something that provides a long-term benefit to the community, proper drainage is fundamental. When repeated flooding prohibits families from enjoying the benefits the park was intended to provide, the obvious choice is to fix it. A castle built on sand, Matthew 7:24-26.
The city commission has recently allocated more than $30,000 to conduct repairs to the restrooms at the park, and included provisions for paint and materials that can better withstand flooding. Addressing the fundamental reality of drainage will not only negate the necessity of specialized coatings and materials in the restrooms, but benefit all citizens who live in the area. Solving the flooding problem at Nancy Cummings Park will require reestablishing drainage flow. That means either replacing the existing pipes that are failing, or creating an open ditch which could be an amenity for the park with walkover pathways or the like.
Currently our parks drainage system looks like this.
Settling on a solution within the park will not in itself solve the drainage situation. The park is merely a symptom of a much larger problem. Our city’s drainage ditches are in disrepair and our citizens have suffered because of it. Last year’s hurricanes made that clear and this year’s storms are coming. The ditches throughout the city are all interconnected and a blockage or disconnect anywhere throughout the system affects those upstream. The citizens on Nancy Street can attest to this.
Drainage Pipes are collapsed and blocked by debris.
The number of disconnects in this system alone, stretching from Maytown Osteen Road through the Nancy and Wyatt Street neighborhood, across Cypress and through the Nancy Cummings Park is breathtaking. Clearing these blockages would be an enormous undertaking. After completion, there would still be three sections that require remediation: the pipes under Wood Avenue, the blockages between there and Hickory Avenue, and the stretch between Hickory and North Putnam Grove Road.
South End of Drainage Pipes At the Park.
That’s where the real challenge begins because the stretch from south Putnam on down to Turnbull Creek is through a couple of miles of dense overgrowth. Not to mention that most of it is not within city limits.
There is no easy fix, but our city can overcome this challenge by having meaningful priorities that benefit all citizens on a basic level. Keep in mind that the ditch system I just described is one of many that service our city.
There is No Fence on its Northern Boundary of the Park.
Currently, the Nancy Cummings Park has no fence on its northern boundary. One of the reasons cited by our city staff for keeping the restrooms locked at the park is that drug paraphernalia, including needles, have been found in the facilities. The park has fencing on three of its four sides but not the side that would most easily be accessed unseen. The northern border to the park butts up to a wooden lot. Entrance to the park from the south side would require travel through a neighborhood and the additional scrutiny this represents. If safety is the goal, a well fenced facility that can be effectively closed down at night should be a priority.
If the city does not intend to address the drainage problem in the park, they should at least plan on fencing off the drainage ditch just west of the pumphouse. If the water is not flowing, then it is essentially acting as a retention pond in all but the most extreme flooding conditions.
Is this a Retention Pond?
This portion of the ditch is not flowing 99% of the time. The water is a stagnant, trash ridden breeding ground for mosquitos, snakes and other hazards. These represent a risk to the very children the park was built for. Retention ponds in public parks, unless designed to provide recreational utility should be enclosed to protect those enjoying the park and the city.
The next priority for our city should be to provide a level of service on par with the expectations of the public. We should meet the standards normalized by other municipalities and complete repairs to the bathrooms at the park. Nobody finds that sitting in a port-o-john in 90+ degree weather represents a pleasant day at the park. Attendance would increase if the experience was better.
Once these basic things are addressed, the playground equipment should be upgraded either by replacing worn out parts or a complete overhaul. Citizen input should drive the decision making.
The ball field at the Nancy Cumming Park is a regulation size field. The city should seek donations or find a source of funding to light it.
No Lighting for Night Games.
At the last city meeting Oak Hill Sports Club director Don Anderson told the commission that the lack of lighting puts the baseball team at a disadvantage to other city teams because they start practice more than a month before our team. Our team can’t practice in the evenings until daylight savings time. This is not good if our community values the comradery and sportsmanship that competitive sports like baseball bring to us. If we can afford it, our city should do all it can to help our young citizens develop into healthy happy individuals that take pride in their community. ———————-
The next Oak Hill City Commissioner’s meeting is, July 7, 2023 at city hall. The time is 6:00 PM. The agenda is available by clicking here.
Please come and let your voice be heard. Your presence and participation are how we hold our commission to account. As always, it’s my pleasure to serve you, I appreciate your support. Please let me know what I can do to help. I’m here to represent you…
