High Springs City Commission raises water and solid waste rates, moves to purchase historic Priest Theater
Updated at 6:30 p.m. on 12/2 to correct the name of the staff member presenting the utility rates and budget amendment.
BY DAVID LIGHTMAN
HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. – At their November 28 regular meeting, the High Springs City Commission voted to increase water, wastewater, and solid waste rates. They also voted to accept a grant award from the State to be used to purchase and renovate the historic Priest Theater, and they approved an advertisement to hire a new City Manager. They decided to temporarily table a motion to consider replacing City Attorney Scott Walker with someone more cost-effective. City Manager Ashley Stathatos was absent due to an illness, and Commissioner Byran Williams was also absent.
Rate increases
During public comment following a presentation by Finance Director Diane Wilaon about proposed water, waste water, and solid waste rate increases, Kathy Greiner asked, “I just have a question. What happened or what did you find out about the $350,000? Was it not in the contract? Did nobody know about the contract except for an exclusive few?”
Mayor Katherine Weitz answered, “I looked back at the April 27th packet, which is when we voted on the approval of the contract, and there was reference to an Addendum A where the rate schedule was. That addendum wasn’t in our packet. There wasn’t a rate schedule included in our packet. I looked online. I looked at what was emailed to me and I didn’t find it there, either… Commissioner Grunder and Commissioner Williams and I agreed at the last meeting that we were told that Waste Pro was going to honor the current prices until the new fiscal year. Our assumption was that that meant we were going to be billed the same that GFL had been billing us, when it now turns out, in actuality, Waste Pro was billing us the same that we are billing our residential customers. That was not what we thought was the case. I don’t know where that misunderstanding really came in. I can’t speak to… how that happened, but I know that we didn’t have all the information we probably should have had.”
Greiner asked, “At the last meeting, I understood that someone was going to talk with Waste Pro about that. Has anyone done that?”
Weitz asked Walker if he had been in contact with them, and he answered that he had. She asked what he had to report, and Walker told her, “It’s in my letter. It’s, all of this, is the information that was in that process.”
Commissioner Steven Tapanes told Walker that he had asked to be included in the conversation with Waste Pro but this did not happen. Walker said Waste Pro is open to talking to them at any time. Walker said that as far as amending the contract, Waste Pro would be willing to listen to the City. He described his progress so far: “The thing that we did was sort of a fact-finding mission of what happened. How did we get from point A to point B?”
From the podium, Greiner said, “This is an example of where we’re sitting out here, and I’m not getting what you all know. You asked to be involved in the conversation. You were not. I don’t understand why you were not. And then when I asked about what went on with the conversation, he says it’s in a letter that I don’t have. I don’t know what that letter says, and nobody has explained that to this point.”
Tapanes answered, “He didn’t try to renegotiate the price. What he did was try to find out when that error happened and collect whatever facts he could. So now, once he’s got those facts, now it’s me trying, or us trying, to sit down with [Waste Pro] and see if we can get them to renegotiate somewhat of their price… If I went in there without the information that I needed, then I would look stupid.”
Greiner said, “It’s very difficult when they’re having a conversation with the Attorney and they’re not including the commissioners.” Tapanes answered, “Yes.”
Scott suggested having a workshop with Waste Pro, including members of the business community. He pointed out that it’s better to have conversations out in the open.
Weitz said she thought Waste Pro had acted in good faith as far as the misunderstanding with the contract. She pointed out that City staff rushed to get a lot done quickly, and the mistake was “internal.”
Tapanes made a motion to send rate increase notifications in December bills and increase water rates by 5.7%, calculated using the CPI [Consumer Price Index]. Commissioner Tristan Grunder seconded the motion.
Responding to a question from Weitz, Wilson answered, “The increase would be $1.51 on 5,000 gallons.”
The water rate increase passed unanimously.
Tapanes moved that they raise wastewater rates by the CPI (approximately 5.7%), and Grunder seconded the motion.
Wilson explained, “For a 5,000 gallon bill, we would be going from $41.67 to $44.05. That’s a difference of $2.38. On the commercial side, it would go from $54.20 to $57.29, a difference of $3.09.”
The wastewater rate increase passed unanimously.
Wilson showed the following slide to explain the proposed solid waste rate increases:
At first, no one wanted to make a motion. Tapanes reluctantly made a motion to pass the proposed increases and have a workshop in January, to include AMI (smart meter) data. Grunder seconded the motion.
Grunder said, “It’s not [Walker’s] fault… We screwed this up, and I am sorry from me personally to everybody who voted for me and didn’t vote for me. I’m sorry. We screwed this sh*t up.”
After some further discussion, the motion passed unanimously, with the understanding that every effort will be made to reduce rates at the workshop.
Walker said all three rate increase resolutions will be ready to be voted on in December, and then they will go into effect.
Budget adjustment
Wilson introduced the next resolution, a State-required budget adjustment at the end of the fiscal year. She said it is simply to make the budget balanced, and a future audit may change the numbers only slightly.
She showed the following slide with anticipated and actual budgets for various departments.
She listed specific causes of budget overages, shown below.
Weitz clarified, “We have to do this. The numbers are what they are.” Grunder made a motion to approve the budget adjustment, Ordinance 2023-17. The motion passed unanimously. Weitz said the second reading will take place at the next meeting.
Priest Theater grant
After an intermission, Weitz introduced the next agenda item: discuss, consider, and act on the Priest Theater, shown below in 2007, before closing and falling into a state of disrepair.
Local contractor Joe Hoffman said something must be done soon to the historic building, or it will collapse. He gave the Commission an estimate of $650,000 to restore it to a sellable condition.
Weitz and Commissioners expressed concerns about someone buying the building and changing it too much. A staff member explained that the $1,040,000 grant being offered to buy and restore the building places restrictions on its use, limiting it to culture and arts.
Kelly Barber from the Heart of High Springs spoke: “Please, please, save the Priest. It’s not going to cost the City any money. It just seems like a no-brainer. I haven’t heard anyone in public say ‘Oh, let’s just let the Priest fall down.’ This is something that everyone in our community agrees on. So I hope you guys will save our theater.”
Weitz asked if the Heart of High Springs is interested in buying and operating the Priest Theater, and Barber said they are.
A young woman in the audience spoke: “Good evening. I’m the eldest grandchild of Bobby and Janice Sheffield and the daughter of Alan and Janet Alligood, the families who have operated the Priest since 1984. I’m not here to share a sentimental story tonight. I plan to share why I believe the City of High Springs should accept the awarded grant to stabilize the Priest Theater… The Priest was built in 1910 at the time Henry Ford’s Model T was just two years old… The Florida Theater in Jacksonville was built 17 years later in 1927. The historic Coco Village Theater was built 14 years later in 1924. The Lyric Theater in Stewart and the Tampa Theater were both built 16 years later in 1926. These theaters in other cities, despite their age, have been restored and currently serve as hubs of learning, community, and fun. Some were restored by their home city. For example, the Tampa Theater was restored by the City and its citizens in the 1970s. The Priest Theater is one of the oldest theaters in our state, and that is something special, I think very special. The Priest Theater is a piece of history that should be saved. The City of High Springs and its residents deserve a historic and meaningful community space that is full of possibilities for the future, not a flat parking lot or a flat building.” She closed by asking to have the theater preserved in honor of her late grandmother, Janice Sheffield. Most everyone in attendance applauded.
Michael Shields, member of the Heart of High Springs Board of Directors, said, “The Priest Theater is the beacon on the hill.”
Grunder made a motion: “I would love to make a motion that we accept the appropriation and we move forward with figuring out how we can purchase the Priest.” Commissioner Andrew Miller seconded the motion. It passed unanimously.
City Manager search
Commissioners addressed the need to find a new City Manager. Stathatos’ current salary is $109,000 plus a car allowance. They decided to make the salary in the range of $100,000 to $120,000 plus a car allowance, and they will cover relocation expenses.
During public comment, former Commissioner Sue Weller suggested a requirement to reside in High Springs (after relocation). She also suggested a way to find a temporary City Manager, should that become necessary.
Miller made a motion to approve the ad as described and put it online for 45 days, and Tapanes seconded the motion. It passed 4-0.
After some discussion about finding a replacement for the City Attorney in the interest of saving money, Tapanes made a motion to table the item until after a new City Manager is hired, and Grundy seconded the motion. It passed 3-1, with Miller in dissent.
Sounds like a Grand Jury needs to look into that garbage scandal.
Stop with assumptions. It makes A– OUT OF YOU AND ME. Go with facts. Obviously there is a huge issue with an amount of $350,000. I agree with Joe this seems to be moving more to a audit inquiry with potential charges. I am still wondering why all this individual supervisors of various department need these expensive vehicles to drive up the street by themselves to a meeting.
Let someone private buy that theatre & renovate it…another boondoggle. I’m getting out of high springs.
I’m with you! Smaller government, less taxes. Focus on essential services! I don’t mind gov, good gov, I don’t mind taxes, reasonable taxes. My property taxes are too high and they are making the cost of living go up. The private sector does it better, collect the taxes on the land, don’t take the theater off the tax rolls. Police, fire, parks, & roads. Stay in your lane. How about make the theater a homeless shelter to help the homeless? No! Churches should help their fellow man. That’s
Why they’re tax exempt.
1. Cities and states throughout human history have created public spaces and buildings of value, which have enriched citizens’ lives, instilled civic pride, and attract admiration and visitors. Tourists don’t go to Paris and London to visit the strip mall on the edge of town.
2. The picture you see above of the Priest is the result of the “private sector”. It’s hit or miss and if everything is for sale, everything can end in the trash can.
3. The project will be paid for by a grant.
4. High Springs’ economic future is going to be in large part based on natural tourism. The public uses of this building – or the city could rent it out for private events or businesses – fit in that model.
Your comment about churches helping the homeless instead of gov’t…you do know that most churches are challenged to even pay their pastor a decent salary, right? Most are not wealthy mega-churches. Most are quite small, and struggling as fewer people attend, and an even smaller group of those tithe regularly to support the mission of the church.
Gov’t and fatherlessness and a breakdown in societal morals and accountability are creating the homeless problem – churches certainly help those who cannot help themselves, like with food pantry distributions, but we cannot bear the full cost of the fallout of the current societal breakdown.
I say this as a Christian who has helped multiple homeless people through a very difficult time. The problem is just too big to be left to churches alone.
We as a country need revival, and we need accountability in society.
Have faith in God & Jesus…government wants to be god. Personal responsibility is the key.
You’ve been feeding bums like the crazy cat lady. You’re an enabler…stop giving the man a fish and teach him how to fish!
Survival of the fittest and rule of the jungle.
Well, if that’s the conclusion you reached from my comment, I didn’t communicate clearly.
We prefer to help according to the “teaching to fish” philosophy.
We are not enablers, and we are not contributing to the maintenance of an irresponsible lifestyle.
We do believe that if someone CAN work and refuses, that person is not a candidate for our help, and should not be a candidate for any government assistance, either.
The help we give, we give in Jesus’ name. We are not advocates of the “survival of the fittest” or “rule of the jungle” approach. That sounds very much like a “might makes right” justification.
We want to help and bless the vulnerable, to protect them from becoming prey of the strong/abusive.
Well at least Grunder took responsibility for his screw-up. Don’t see politician doing anything like that anymore. All they do is lie.
If the city can AVOID using ANY tax payers money to restore the theater then fine.
If not, then imminent domain & raze it.
Finding decent city managers is like finding an honest politician.
Quality city managers are easy to find. Why there are three experienced city managers right down 441 in Alachua. Clovis Watson, Adam Bookari, and Traci Cain are all available today to Lead High Springs into the future and be just like Alachua. I think Ms. Cain already lives in High Springs so no relocation expenses. What a win-win.
You must are kidding about hiring Clovis, he had so many issues as city manager, and when he was withthe Alachua Police Department. Look at the mess he left at the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office. He just needs to find a rocm to crawl under.
You are way behind! Traci is no longer in the state and her name changed from Cain 7 or so years ago! Before making suggestions, maybe check on the information you are suggesting 😂🤣Clovis has major health issues. Adam Bookari??? Who is that? Guessing you mean Adam Boukari
Clovis Watson? Are you KIDDING? He ran the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office as if destroying it was his goal. He lost 300 employees during his tenure, ruined morale, violated his own policies and lost multiple lawsuits, and was under investigation by multiple entities when he finally (and thank God) resigned.
So, sure, you put him in charge in High Springs and see how quickly that, too, devolves.
I think a few people didn’t pick up on the sarcasm
Memo to George: I want to congratulate you for being a rare intelligent commentor here on the Alachua Chronicle who recognizes sarcasm when they see it.