August 19, 2023

Hi Everyone,
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.

Volusia County Transform386

On Thursday August 24, 2023, Volusia County is holding a public hearing for citizens to learn more about, and provide input on, the draft of their Transform386 action plan. According to the flyer, “this plan incorporates input from the Community Engagement Series meetings and the Unmet Needs Survey along with proposed projects to aid the community’s recovery from hurricane Ian and implement future disaster mitigation initiatives.” Click here to view the flyer. The meeting will be held from 5:30 till 7:30 p.m. at the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Center Council Chambers, 123 W. Indiana Ave. DeLand FL 32720. For those who cannot attend, you can watch the hearing live by clicking here to visit the Transform386 website. A link will be provided prior to the event.

It’s my hope that by participating in this process and demonstrating a need, The City of Oak Hill may qualify for assistance in the restoration of our flood control ditches and removal of hurricane debris. Currently, many of our city’s flood control ditches are not functional, or are operating at a reduced capacity. With all the rain we’ve had recently this should concern all citizens.

City Administrator Recruitment

On Monday August 21, 2023, from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. at city hall the commission will be conducting interviews with the six remaining candidates using Zoom. To view the resumes of the remaining candidates click here.  The best I can tell from the information supplied, below is a list of candidates to be interviewed at Monday’s meeting. Clicking on the links attached to the names will conduct a very basic google search of the candidate.

Patrick Marsh, ICMA-CM 1050 Kensington Street, Port Charlotte Florida 33952
Jerome Adams, 901 Roseland Road, Sebatian Florida 32958
John C. Barkley, MPA, ICMA-CM, 181 Sparkling Brook Road, Ranson, West Virginia 25438
Katie Gatewood, Freeport, Florida 32439
Ryan Reckley, 1311 SW 9^th Ave. Deerfield Beach Florida, 33441
Daniel Finz, 38021 Snickersville Tpke. Purcellville, VA 20132
Amye King, AICP, 507 Coral Trace Blvd, Edgewater Florida, 32132

Nancy Cumming’s Park – Follow-Up

Here’s some good news. At the August 14, City Commission Meeting, Mayor Gibson announced that the commission would be open to the idea of fencing the northern boundary of the park and fencing off the drainage ditch / retention pond. The Mayor also indicated that the restroom reconstruction project would be finishing up soon and upon completion, the bathrooms would be open to public during park hours.

Oak Hill Developer Fee Schedule

At the last city meeting our commission voted 4 to 1 to pay the planning company Kimley-Horn $22709.00 to conduct a final development plan review for the Oak Hill Town Center project near Bill’s Hill Road. The details of this are contained in work authorization number 14 and can be reviewed by clicking here. Our city is currently in the process of updating its schedule of fees charged to developers and others seeking permits. Currently, there’s a workshop scheduled for 5:30 p.m. August 28^th at city hall. Be sure and mark this one on your calendar. Community input on this issue is critical and will help the commission gain a sense of the public’s expectations regarding this matter. Remember, the actions taken by the commission should reflect the values of the community.

Typically, a municipality would pass the costs associated with a development project on to the developer applying. Anything short of this is essentially the hardworking, taxpaying, citizens of our city subsidizing the developer. Reviewing a development plan / application shouldn’t cost the taxpayer a dime. Besides our citizens and the Indian River / Mosquito Lagoon, the undeveloped areas of Oak Hill are our most valuable assets. Our city should proudly charge as much as it can for these fees and use the revenue to improve the lives of those who live here. Higher fees won’t deter the developers. Please take the time to compare our city planner’s proposed fee schedule to those of some surrounding cities. To review the fee schedule currently posted by the City of Port Orange click here, here, and here. To review the fee schedule currently posted on the New Smyrna Beach website click here. To review the fee schedule currently posted on the city of Edgewater’s website click here.

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The next Oak Hill City Commissioner’s meeting is, August 21, 2023 at city hall. The time is 6:00 PM. As far as I know, the agenda and agenda pack for the meeting has not been published by the city.

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…

Joe Catigano
Oak Hill City Commissioner
Seat 3

Please visit Newsletter archives.

August 7, 2023

Hi Everyone,
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.

Budget Workshop

Click here to view and download the workshop agenda and supporting documents for the meeting. The workshop is scheduled for 10:00 AM Monday, August 7, 2023 at city hall.

These budget meetings decide how the city spends its money. Public input is essential to this process; our city should reflect the vision and values of its citizens. Please come to these very important meetings your insight can shape our city’s future.

Volusia County Transform386

Volusia County Government sponsored a series of meetings to gather citizen input on how to spend a $328.9 million Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds awarded from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). I’d like to give a shout-out to Evelyn Evans for sending us the information. Click here to view the news release. I was able to attend the meeting held Thursday, Aug. 3, at the Daytona Beach Regional Library, 105 Jackie Robinson Parkway. It would be a real godsend for our city if we could secure a portion of that money to fund cleaning out hurricane debris that is currently blocking our flood control ditches. The meeting was informative and I was able to gather contact information from some officials in attendance. We’ll see how this turns out.
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 the July 24, 2023 city meeting, the commission selected five candidates for further consideration. Mr. Parker was to reach out to them and arrange preliminary interviews. At the July 27th Volusia League of City Meeting, Mayor Gibson reached out to Volusia County Sheriff Michael Chitwood asking if the department would be willing to do the background investigations on the remaining pool of candidates. The agenda for Monday’s meeting contains no references to the recruitment process so I assume no action will be taken at the meeting. While the process is slow, I believe we are moving closer to our goal.

Nancy Cumming’s Park – Follow-Up

Under “New Business,” the Agenda for Monday’s meeting contains 3 sealed bids for playground equipment earmarked for the Nancy V, Cummings Park. These bids will be opened at the meeting.

As discussed in the July 8th newsletter, “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.” While playground equipment is a good amenity, currently the park lacks basic functionality. For instance, the park’s bathrooms have been undergoing reconstruction after flooding.

This work began on or about July 8, 2023; as far as I know the city has not been given a definitive end date for its completion.

All safety considerations should be addressed before inviting children to play at the park. Parents should expect that entrance and exit to the park be controlled and monitored. This can be accomplished by fencing the entire border. Our city should address the flooding that has plagued the park since its inception.

At the very least, as an interim measure, a fence should be erected around the drainage ditch that dead-ends adjacent to the pump house. The standing water in what was a ditch but is now essentially a retention pond, represents a real hazard to a curious child who wanders up to its edge. Good stewardship on behalf of our city government can prevent a tragedy; it’s money well spent. Once these basic safety issues are addressed, we should begin the process of planning how our park will be used, playground, ball field, walkways etc.

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The next Oak Hill City Commissioner’s meeting is, August 7, 2023 at city hall. The time is 6:00 PM. click here for the agenda and here for the agenda pack. There are four other documents that were added after the agenda pack was published. They are in support of our city staff’s wish for a new phone and fax system. Those documents can be viewed and downloaded by clicking here, here, here and 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…

Joe Catigano
Oak Hill City Commissioner
Seat 3