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At the March 18th workshop the board approved purchasing the LaQuinta Inn on Okeechobee Boulevard near the Turnpike for $16.7 million by a 5-2 vote, to turn the Inn into housing for seniors and veterans. Because of its location outside the gates of Century Village, an important constituency in District 2, this was not an easy vote. Several residents from Century Village spoke out against it. Their main concerns were safety and security, things Gregg felt could be addressed by having onsite security and following the recommendations of a Crime Prevention analysis by the Sheriff's office. At the end of the day Gregg did what he believed was the right thing: take care of seniors and senior veterans. Watch Gregg’s reasoning.
Following the announcement that Verdenia Baker will retire by the end of May, the search is on for a new County Administrator. At the March 18th workshop, the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) had an initial discussion about hiring a new administrator, who will be overseeing a nearly $9 billion budget and a staff of close to 7,000. Because this is a big and important job, Gregg wants to ensure we bring on a quality hire, which means we ought to have a recruitment firm perform a national search to ensure a pool of qualified and experienced applicants to choose from. Unfortunately, Gregg was out-voted by four of his fellow commissioners, who preferred to forego hiring a recruitment firm and advertise the job locally for just a week and with no required qualifications. Fortunately, at a subsequent meeting on the 27th, the board extended the application deadline and specified certain minimum requirements relative to education and experience. The board agreed to appoint a seven-member task force that will whittle down the list of applicants and present a list of finalists to the board. Should the board be unsatisfied with the list of applicants, it could still choose to hire a recruitment firm to perform a national search. The County Administrator job pays between $340K and $477K annually, and is posted here. Several news outlets reported on how the selection process is playing out. Catch up on the coverage here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The county is procuring a vendor to install Adaptive Traffic Control Systems at 13 traffic lights on Okeechobee Boulevard from I-95 to Flagler. These smart traffic signals are outfitted with cameras so that they can see what’s going on around them. The expectation is that this will improve traffic flow, especially during non-peak hours. Gregg has been pushing for this project, and we expect to award the contract this summer and deploy the smart signals in the spring of next year.
At the April 1st meeting, the board approved funding for resurfacing the streets in the CAM estates neighborhood located east of Jog Road and north of Belvedere Road. A total of 4.3 miles will be resurfaced and re-striped for $615K.
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