City of Hallandale Beach Monument sign at 400 S. Federal Highway in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall. Yes, the sign's lights STILL DON'T come on at night, and haven't since current HB City Manager Renee C. Miller has been in charge of the day-to-day operations of this city -June of 2012. So, that's about 15 months and counting. And it's just the tip of the iceberg here. July 11, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights ReservedWell friends, here we are a month later and there's still no official response from responsible officials at the City of Hallandale Beach regarding what I and many other Hallandale Beach residents believe are some highly-questionable decisions being made regarding the city's proposed 2014 Parks Bond issue involving that involves tens of million$ and an effort to finallt try to improve the city's Quality-of-Life.
Among other questions currently lacking an obvious answer is:
a.) Why is the Hallandale Beach Parks Bond vote now scheduled for August instead of November's General Election, when greatest number of HB voters can vote at the same time that they are voting for Governor, other statewide races, state legislative races and two Hallandale Beach City Commission seats -those of Comm. Alexander Lewy's and Comm. Anthony A. Sanders?
b.) Why does the city seem absolutely determined to phrase the Bond question in such a manner that voters will NOT have assurance that all funds voted upon and approved are ONLY spent for city parks maintenance and expansion? Instead, based on what has been heard publicly on this matter, it seems that it will be written so that the City Commission could use any voter-approved Parks Bond revenue for other purposes, instead of only for Parks, like more pet projects of the mayor and the city commission, despite the city's parks long being an open source of embarrassment and frustration to HB residents, esp. those with kids who know what other area cities offer their residents.
As of Noon today, there has been no response from Sarah Shamah, whom HB Parks and Recreation Director Cathie Schanz said I should contact regarding my germane questions about some park issues. (Schanz even cc'd her.)
Not that Director Schanz has tried to answer these questions, either, despite my sending an email reminder to both of them on September 20th, reminding them both that I expected a full response to my handful of very reasonable questions that the city's taxpayers are entitled to know before it's too late.
Since I didn't have any luck hearing from them, why don't you contact them yourself and ask them why they won't answer some simple questions honestly and in a reasonable time frame?
From my perspective, one month seems plenty of time to get around to answering some pretty simple questions.
Here's their contact information:
"Shamah, Sarah" - sshamah@hallandalebeachfl.gov
"Cathie Schanz" - cschanz@hallandalebeachfl.gov
Cathie Schanz, CPRE Director, Parks and Recreation
Cultural Community Center
410 SE 3 Street Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
Phone: (954) 457-1452
Hours: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday – Friday
As most of you regular readers of the blog know from my many past posts on the subject of the city's poorly-maintained city parks, while I have been a very strong and vocal supporter of the HB Parks Master Plan in general,
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/final-hallandale-beach-parks-rec-master.html
and have attended 95% of all the meetings on it all over this city from the very beginning -even attending the Parks Advisory mtg. to hear the pitch from the consultants at Bermello Ajamil Partners Inc. before the public officially heard it at a City Commission meeting-
I remain unconvinced that in a city that's only 4.2 square miles in total, that it ought to have two separate swimming pools within two miles of one another, since that makes zero financial sense for this city's already under-the-gun taxpayers, especially since Northwest HB comprises only 13% of the city's population according to the 2010 U.S. Census, and you can catch a city MiniBus for free that takes you from that exact spot to the existing pool in less than 15 minutes.
Fix the existing pool you have and make it better.
But that sort of logic doesn't appeal to City Hall, since this is a city that annually borrows millions of dollars from its Reserve fund simply to pay normal operating expenses instead of cutting costs and expenses.
Here's the original email and below that are some reason that i think things are being constructed in such a deliberate fashion that disadvantages Hallandale beach taxpayers and gives the City Commission more money to squander and waste on pet projects that help them politically.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Schanz, Cathie
Date: Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 10:39 AM
Subject: RE: re Hallandale Beach Parks/Rec. and taxpayer dissatisfaction with cost of B.F. James Park DOUBLING and a prospective Parks bond issue that prevents strict accountability of taxpayer dollars
To: "DBS", Parksrecreation
Cc: "Shamah, Sarah"
Hello Mr. Smith,
Thank you for contacting me with your comments and concerns regarding the Parks projects.
I trust you found last night’s meeting informative. If you require additional information on the projects, you may wish to contact our Capital Projects Manager, Sarita Shamah, directly. I have copied her on this email.
All the best,
Cathie Schanz, CPRE
Hallandale Beach Parks and Recreation Director
From: DBS
Sent: Monday, July 29, 2013 11:47 AM
To: Schanz, Cathie; Parksrecreation
Subject: re Hallandale Beach Parks/Rec. and taxpayer dissatisfaction with cost of B.F. James Park DOUBLING and a prospective Parks bond issue that prevents strict accountability of taxpayer dollars
----
And yes, after I wrote it and sent it out, on very little sleep, I realized that I'd actually reversed what I'd meant to say about what sort of Bonds that voters should be voting upon. But you get that by now I suspect, so I've left it below as it was when originally written -and very tired.
After the fact-filled Bulldog article that really makes a great predicate for better understanding this whole issue of the city's longstanding habit of purchasing land, then largely neglecting it and then buying yet more land, all with little actual idea of what to do with it, is my original letter to HB Parks Director Schanz.
The one that led her to emailing me the name of Sarah Shamah, someone whom I'd never heard of, as a person to speak with.
Trust me, you'll be reading that name more in the future here on the blog as we investigate the doubling of costs of the new city park in Northwest HB, something my friend Csaba Kulin has already been hard at work looking at for a while.
Broward Bulldog
-----
And yet despite all these things, HB taxpayers just can't seem to get any straight answers.
Take a good look at what it says there.
Or rather what it doesn't.
Family orient pool Basketball Courts Passive Open Space Pedestrian walkways Playground On and off site parking
That is to say, at
Oh, wait, that link to the city's Park Master Plan doesn't show what it will look like either.
The reality of the matter is that if you want to go swimming in this city it is both cheap and convenient already.
While I have been a very strong and vocal supporter of the HB Parks Master Plan in general,
In any case, the city left the gate open -there was NO lock on it!!!
Which is why in no time, people were consistently dumping materials there that became hills, which I have dozens of photos of from the past year.
Even worse, there is no sign of any kind along Old Dixie Highway indicating WHEN it will be an actual city park after MILLIONS of dollars have already gone out the door.
Date: Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 4:37 PM
Subject: Hallandale Beach Breaks Ground, Begins Work on Two City Parks
To: "Dobens, Peter" <pdobens@hallandalebeachfl.gov
Hallandale Beach
Breaks Ground, Begins Work
On Two City Parks
B.F. James Park, Joseph Scavo Park
|
DATE: Friday, July 26, 2013
“Progress. Innovation. Opportunity”
B.F. James Park Groundbreaking, Construction
| |
Groundbreaking, Tuesday, July 23, 2013
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Under construction Friday, July 26, 2013
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Joseph Scavo Park Groundbreaking, Construction
| |
Groundbreaking, Wednesday, July 24, 2013
|
Under construction Friday, July 26, 2013
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Joseph Scavo groundbreaking.jpg 223K View Download |
07-23-13 BF James Groundbreaking.jpg 225K View Download |
07-26-13 Joseph Scavo Construction.jpg 179K View Download |
07-26-13 BF James Construction.jpg 403K View Download |
07-26-13 Park Construction Begins.pdf 531K View Download |