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