High Spring City Commission approves alcohol question for November ballot, adopts maximum millage rate of 6.9900

BY DAVID LIGHTMAN

HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. – At the July 22 meeting, rescheduled from July 24, the High Springs City Commission approved the alcohol sales referendum question for the November ballot, selected KCT Consulting to perform a rewrite of the Land Development Code, tentatively set a maximum proposed millage rate of 6.9900, and agreed to keep the Folds-Walker firm for City Attorney services, with Kiersten Ballou as the designated substitute attorney when Danielle Adams will not be present.

2025 National Night Out Event

Police Chief Antoine Sheppard gave a presentation on the 2025 National Night Out Event, to be held August 5 at the High Springs Civic Center from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

Sheppard explained, “If you don’t know about National Night Out,… it’s celebrated throughout the United States on the first Tuesday of August of every year. It allows law enforcement to come together with the community in a positive manner,… and it just so happened this year, it’s been a lot of support, a lot of support. A lot of the churches, the businesses in the community, they’ve stepped up. I mean, I think it’s going to be one of our biggest events.”

Sheppard said this will be the tenth consecutive year for the event and added, “We’ll have bounce houses, waterslides, good food, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, anything you could possibly name. The main thing was the backpack giveaway and the school supplies. We are prepared to do 300 kids right now, but it looks like it’s probably going to be more like 500. We encourage everybody to come out, participate, get much needed school supplies, backpacks, and come out and have a good time with us.”

Alcohol sales ballot referendum

City Attorney Danielle Adams introduced the first item, an ordinance calling for a referendum question about alcoholic beverage sales to be placed on the November ballot. She said the current ordinance reflects all of the changes the Commission had agreed to at the July 10 meeting, and the original three questions had been reduced to a single ballot question:

Amending On-Premises Alcoholic Consumption Hours and Business Classifications

Shall Sections 10-2(c)-(e) of the City’s Code of Ordinances be amended to permit businesses that derive 51 percent of its gross revenue from the sale of food and nonalcoholic beverages, and breweries, businesses that manufacture malt beverages on site, with a beverage license to sell alcoholic beverages and malt beverages, respectively, for on-premises consumption Monday through Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. and Sunday from 1:00 p.m. to 10 p.m.? (Yes/No)

Commissioner Chad Howell made a motion to accept the ordinance as presented. Vice Mayor Andrew Miller seconded the motion. It passed unanimously during a roll call vote.

Contract to rewrite the Land Development Code

Mayor Tristan Grunder introduced an item tabled from the July 10 meeting, awarding a bid to one of three firms that submitted proposals to perform a rewrite of the Land Development Code: Megrath Consulting, KCT Consulting, and Calvin, Girodano & Associates. Representatives of Megrath and KCT were present at the meeting.

A staff member said, “We believe that the best product for High Springs, that would be better molded for our needs, would be from Megrath Consulting. Yes, it is the more expensive option. But, you all did allocate ARPA funds, so it’s within what you allocated for it. And just know that yes, it’s expensive, but the LDC, you keep the LDC for quite a long time. So, if we mess this up, we’re going to be stuck with it for 10 years.”

Miller said he had met with City Manager Jeremy Marshall and Attorney Adams, and he thought they should go with KCT, which would result in a savings of almost $80,000 when comparing KCT’s proposed fee of $90,000 to Megrath’s proposed fee of about $170,000. Howell said he liked KCT because of the simplicity of their proposal.

Allison Megrath spoke at the podium and said her proposal offers more flexibility to add optional “enhanced” services without the requirement to do so.

Responding to Commissioner Katherine Weitz, Megrath said the subdivision regulations are the area most in need of work. 

Weitz also asked Kelly Turner of KCT Consulting what she thought the most important section of the code is. Turner said she thought it was revising zoning districts and regulations.

Commissioner Wayne Bloodsworth asked two members of the Planning & Zoning Board for their opinions, and they said they had no preference between Megrath and KCT.

City Manager Marshall said, “We allocated more than enough money out of your ARPA funds. All of them are below that. So I don’t know how much I would go on the cost of it because, like we’ve heard a couple times, you’re going to get what you pay for… I think this is probably one of the most important things that you guys will approve this year is this LDC, and either company is great. Just do it right.”

Miller made a motion to award the Land Development Code rewrite job to KCT Consulting. Howell seconded the motion. It passed 3-2, with Weitz and Bloodsworth in dissent.

Maximum millage rate for FY2-26

Attorney Adams introduced the next item of business — establishing a proposed millage rate for next year’s budget, computing the rolled-back rate, and setting a date for public hearings. 

Finance Director Diane Wilson said the proposed maximum millage rate is 6.9900, and the rolled-back rate is 6.3438. She said the proposed maximum rate reflects a 10.19% increase over the rolled-back rate; the proposed rate is 3.71% higher than the current millage rate of 6.7400.

Wilson said two public hearings have been scheduled, both at 6:30 p.m. at the High Springs City Hall: Tuesday, September 9, for the tentative adoption of the millage rate and FY26 budget, and Monday, September 22, for the final hearing to adopt the millage rate and FY26 budget.

Grunder said, “I’m not a fan of going back to 6.9900, even as a proposed.” Wilson answered, “The budget is predicated on 6.7400.” Marshall said setting a higher maximum rate gives flexibility if some budget expenses change in the next two months, such as from a hurricane, but a lower rate can be adopted. 

Howell made a motion to tentatively propose a maximum millage rate of 6.9900, and Weitz seconded the motion. It passed 5-0 during a roll call vote.

Agreement with First Christian Academy for School Resource Officer

The next item was renewing an agreement between the High Springs Police Department and First Christian Academy for the provision of a School Resource Officer. Chief Sheppard said, “The only difference in this contract is a 4% increase.” 

Grunder asked if that covers the total cost of the officer. Sheppard explained that it covers about 65% of the annual cost, but the officer is not utilized all 12 months of the year by the school. 

Weitz made a motion to approve the agreement, Bloodsworth seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.

City Attorney services

The last item of business was to discuss, consider, and act on a request for proposals for City Attorney services. Miller said the “fill-in” attorney at the previous meeting, identified only as Tom, was unprepared and unable to answer questions. 

Attorney Adams said that after watching the meeting online, she “made the suggestion to the firm that Kiersten Ballou step in to cover the one meeting a month I can’t cover. Kiersten’s been a municipal attorney longer than I have. Candidly, she probably knows more than I ever will… I wanted you all to know that we’re reacting to feedback as it’s coming.”

Miller said his patience with the law firm had run out.

Grunder, Weitz, Bloodsworth, and Howell said they would be willing to try having Ballou as the substitute attorney, although they all had concerns about appropriately spending taxpayers’ money.

Responding to questions, Adams said the City can terminate the City Attorney contract at any time and her firm wouldn’t be able to handle the legal aspects of a Request For Proposals for Attorney services, which might cause extra expenses for the City.

Miller asked if the firm could no longer send Tom to High Springs. Adams said, “We would absolutely honor any request like that.” Miller and everyone else agreed to try using Kiersten Ballou as the new substitute City Attorney and to keep the contract with the Folds-Walker law firm.

Final comments

During final comments, Weitz asked Marshall about the Priest Theatre. Marshall said, “The State Architect approved the construction plans, and, working with Paul Streussing, the City Architect, we have put it out to bid. I think those bids, because of the amount, go out for a month. Okay. August 18… [The] scope of work [is] to shore up the walls and put a new roof on there. It’s not remodeling the Priest. It’s shoring it up and making it stable.”

After some discussion, it was decided to hold a budget workshop at 5:30 p.m. on August 6 at City Hall. 

Weitz said she wanted to revisit the topic of businesses not being allowed to sell alcohol within 500 feet of churches. Adams said they may be able to explore exemptions for certain businesses and the affected church congregations.