AB Commissioners Meeting - What happend?

It was a eventful Commissioners Meeting on the 25'th of August. The Chambers were full of persons who wanted to speak about Paul Parsons Calling for a Referendum to amend Sec 5 of the city commission charter to remove the district residency requirement from the Ordinance 33-08-15. One citizen was in attendance who was in favor of Parsons Referendum and the rest who wanted to talk about the referendum were there to talk against it. With much amazement, Paul Parsons announced that he was going to withdraw his referendum and give the voters a chance to vote per district and have a commissioner living in the district that they vote in. Thank you Mr. Parsons for looking beyond your personal beliefs and listening to the people.

• Mayor Meserve requested that the citizens of Atlantic Beach notify him if they were out of power for a long period of time so they can pin point areas to JEA.

* On a Personal Note- JEA has us in the South End of Marsh Oaks on a very good grid, after hearing the stories of citizens being out of power for many hours and days. I can proudly say I was out for 2 hours Max and it was on Sat. at night when the kids were asleep anyway. Thank you JEA for putting us on the beginning of the Grid.

• The city said that if the citizens want to take advantage of the current city impact fees who have a septic tank, the need to do so by December 1, 2008. After that date the impact fees will be increasing. If you pay the impact fees by December 1, 2008 you will have until May 2010 if you are the Beach Side to hook up to city sewage and November 2001 for Marsh Oaks Residents who have Septic. (Ord. 80-08-76)

• The City also approved the Ord. 90-08-06. This is the ordinance that will restrict the use of temporary building such as canopy tents, canopy screen rooms, temporary carports to 4 days of use. It also states that you will not be able to park your Recreational Vehicle in the front of your house or front yard. It will prohibit the installation of Security Bars, Metal Awnings, etc. on commercial properties. For Commercial Properties you will be grandfathered in until your business changes ownership.

• Ord. 33-08-16 was deferred to the next meeting due to Comm. Parsons withdraw of his Referendum.
  

• Dogs sitting with customers in outdoor eating establishments. The Division of Hotel and Restaurants states that only service or police dogs can be present in eateries. State Law has not been enforced until recently and the city is currently not aware if any local establishments have been cited. In order for the local govt. to allow this they will have to issue permits to allow for dogs to sit outside in the eating areas. The city will look at neighboring cities to see what they are doing to allow restaurants outdoor eateries to have pets.

• The Utilities Department is organizing FOG (Fat, oil, grease) program. They are looking in to a program that will require the local businesses that currently have grease traps to follow a plan to have the traps pumped regularly and report to the City Utilities Department. The Utilities department is stating that the grease has caused $15,000 in damage to the sewage system in 2007. Discharging into the sewer system is illegal.