Welcome Officer Michael Swim and Officer B.J. Cassidy

Let’s hear it for the City of Atlantic Beach and Capt. Mike Classey for giving the Mayport Corridor 2 officers to bring back small town policing. Officer's Swims and Cassidy are going to do some serious foot work to get to know us. They are going to help improve our relationship with the police and get out meet us. The two officers will be patrol on foot and bicycle to make them selves more visible to us. Swims and Cassidy will be patrolling mainly on the weekends and early evenings to meet us and also talk about any problems we are having the area. So if you see them out and about feel free to flag them down and kindly introduce yourself to them. They should be starting their patrol in Mid-August.

I would like to personally welcome Officer Michael Swim and Officer B.J. Cassidy to your new positions and we will be seeing you around.

Mayport Road Issues and Organization

Many of you are really concerned with the Mayport Road redevelopment.

Here is project def from COAB Dec. 12, 2005:
Mayport Road (SR A1A/101) is an urban, minor arterial roadway, under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). The Cities of Atlantic Beach and Jacksonville have identified the need for Access Management Strategies along Mayport Road to reduce the frequency and severity of motor vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian crashes along the corridor.

This is strictly from what I know, I would love for a city official to tap in if possible. My main goal is to make sure I do not misinterpret anything and lead us in the wrong direction.

I do agree that the construction is the pits but personally I kind of went through my issues with Mayport Road during the construction of the flyover. I felt that the flyover should not have been constructed until Wonderwood was completed, so I was against its construction. We too have to make u-turns or drive 10 blocks out of our way to get to our homes. But it was a construction project that FDOT also had their hand in. One thing that we have to realize is our small govt. and even the City of Jacksonville have an obligation to follow the recommendations of the FDOT in order to get the funding for the project. Our city officials have little pull on the decisions made by the FDOT. We can beat up the city as much as we want to but one strong point that must be made is that the construction is not completed and we have no idea what the long term ramifications of this will do to our community and the safety of our citizens. The road is being completed in phases we have just gone though one small phase of construction and have several more to contend with. They still are going to assess the light issues and recalibration of the walking signals, they still have to scrape the roads and repave amongst other things. As for the businesses, I am not to sure they have been loosing any revenue due to the construction or U-turns, if there are business owners who have lost revenue since the construction start please feel free to comment and update me. The construction also consists of U-Turn pop outs to give you more room on your U-Turn. Working along with the Construction effort the city has implemented Dale Hatfield who will work with the businesses and residents to follow code regulations to make our city more presentable to those who drive down Mayport Road. The policing efforts to crack down on crime in the corridor will also be a big plus for us. I do understand the stress and tension the construction has caused but it is not finished yet. We have many trials and tribulations to yet still be explored before we can finalize our decisions on the construction.

Lets Stand up For our Neighborhood

Over the years, we have had a horrible relationship with the Atlantic Beach officials. As you all know up until the most recent years we were simply the eyesore of AB. Now we are gaining attention, and in a positive way. The City of AB has employed a representative for the Mayport Corridor, Dale Hatfield, who is going to help up get the attention we need. They are taking the right steps towards improving our communications with the city and police. But it is our job to make sure that they are not going to do this until things settle down and we quiet down. We need to make sure that this becomes years of an on going program. This Blog is a way for all of us to let each other know about the issues in our neighborhoods. I personally know how hard it is to make it to the city meetings and/or the neighborhood meetings, hopefully this will help all of us to stay informed as to the happenings on OUR side of town. Just remember one thing, when we point our fingers in a negative way towards our officials, it is a natural response to block out negativity. We need to prove that we are here because we love this neighborhood and are a part of this great city of Atlantic Beach. We also need to take steps to get rid of the crime and make sure we all are informed about the issues. We can take back our neighborhood it will just take the assistance of all of us to do it.