- April 24, 2024
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Dear Editor,
The July 28th Observer carried a letter from Ed Kolaska, questioning the sources and amounts of Mayor Bill Partington’s $110,000 campaign contributions since 2020. The mayor’s response was published alongside, defending his 19-year city commission record with the words “I’m proud” repeated in four separate paragraphs. Let’s examine several of his vague statements:
Mayor: “With inflation, elections cost more than ever, which forces my colleagues and I to fundraise. The U.S. Senate race between Val Demings and Marco Rubio has raised $72 million combined.”
Fact: The Senate race has no connection to the Ormond Beach city election, where Mayor Partington has accepted significant contributions from a transportation consultant and bait house operator who have contracts with the city, from recipients of lucrative CRA grants to improve downtown Granada properties, and from developers who have won commission approvals for their projects.
Mayor: “It takes teamwork to provide some of the lowest tax and utility rates in Volusia County.”
Fact: Ormond Beach, currently taxing property valued at $4.5 billion, enjoys the highest assessed property values in Volusia County. Water and sewer rates have been increased 13 times during Bill Partington’s 19 years on the city commission. The current minimum monthly payment for water, sewer, garbage, recycling, and stormwater is $65.34, up from $52.68 in 2014. On Oct. 1, water and sewer rates will go up again by 3.5%. (Source: 2022-2023 City Budget Document)
Mayor: “As shown in 2018 and 2020 (elections), the majority of residents seem pleased with the low, slow growth policies I have worked on.”
Fact: That majority is apparently unaware of Mayor Partington’s vote to abolish Ormond’s strict wetland protection rules and his votes to eliminate the development review and environmental citizen advisory boards. Recently, he voted for a design contract to build a second sewer plant so our city can provide sewer services to the yet-to-be-built Avalon Park mega-development in Daytona Beach. His slow growth policies did not preclude the city’s recent annexation of Plantation Oaks on the Loop, nearly 1700 units at buildout, including 427 manufactured homes that will pay no property taxes while burdening Ormond Beach services and traffic.
Ken and Julie Sipes
Ormond Beach
Dear Editor,
I am dismayed by all the negative letters, so I decided to write and remind us of what a wonderful community Ormond Beach is. I moved here in 1975 and yes, I have seen our sleepy town turn into a real city. And yes, there have been growing pains but there is so much to be proud of.
Ormond Beach developed the Nova Community Center with baseball, indoor space for other sports, tennis and now pickleball. The Ormond Beach Sports Complex, The South Ormond Neighborhood Center and park and Ormond Beach Skatepark are other examples. With these facilities we have a highly active youth sports program. Some of our youths even played baseball at Cooperstown, as noted in the paper a few weeks ago.
Ormond has worked to preserve our historical buildings with improvements to the Casements and Rockefeller Gardens. We have an amazing Historical Society with events and educational programs as well as the MacDonald House Welcome Center and museum.
Speaking of gardens, did you know we have twelve parks? That’s amazing for a city our size. The most recent is Vadner Park, developed by the Garden Club with all indigenous flora.
And let us not forget all the improvements to Main Street and the renovated and expanded Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens.
There have been so many new residents since I moved here. The ones I have spoken to are impressed with all this great city has to offer. Let’s focus on the positives instead of the things we disagree with. Ormond isn’t perfect, but no city is. I believe the leadership in this city I have called home for decades has done its best to make Ormond Beach thrive.
Kathy Arnold
Ormond Beach
Dear Editor,
I was thinking about the status of our waterfront parks. Regarding Cassen Park, the city plans to add more seating and structures. Looking at the conceptual proposals, I’m compelled to try and do an estimation of what the city is proposing.
Using a rough estimate for seating in the various sizes of structures the city is proposing, it is conceivable that seven 16-foot by 16-foot structures could hold four to six picnic tables each. Each table could hold six to eight people. That would be seating for 24 to 48 people in each structure. Seven proposed shaded structures could seat somewhere between 168 to 336 people.
The large covered 20-foot by 28-foot structure proposed for the old bait house site would hold six to eight picnic tables, giving additional seating capacity for up to 64 people.
Something does not add up. The city is proposing to add covered seating and structures for hundreds of people. They are also proposing to add more benches, on top of the existing 50 odd benches which have seating for 200 or so people. This is crazy. Where would these people park?
This makes absolutely no sense. There probably aren’t two acres of pedestrian area in the park that isn’t parking. The citizens should know why, and for what purpose the city is proposing this massive amount of seating, and what is their real long-term goal for the park?
Mary Anne Andrew
Ormond Beach
Dear Editor:
This month, the City Commission is finalizing the tax rate for the 2023 year and I want to commend them for managing, somehow, to keep our tax rate so low in the face of record inflation. While so many other cities and states are scrambling to keep up with the needs of their government. I find it incredible that our city prioritizes spending and budgeting carefully like it does so that we can enjoy a great city like ours at such an affordable cost. Thank you, Ormond Beach.
Scott Edwards
Ormond Beach
Dear Editor:
The Advent Hospital on A1A was closed after hurricane damage in 2016 and demolished in 2019. The property will now provide parking across the street from a future beachfront hotel.
In 2018, Mayor Bill Partington advised the Observer he had talked to both area hospitals about replacing the lost emergency room and was told the market could not profitably support the needed beachside urgent-care facility. "They're not budging," he said.
Meanwhile, Daytona Beach Shores was taking steps to address the closed Ormond hospital, calling it "the only place for acute medical treatment on the Daytona Beach area's beachside."
The Shores City Council unanimously approved a 2018 agreement with Halifax Health to utilize a city-owned building at 3048 S. Atlantic Ave., budgeting $150,000 for roof repairs, interior improvements, a 12-space parking lot, and a widened emergency access driveway. Halifax invested $1.1 million, $150,000 for equipment, and signed a 10 year, $1000/month lease.
The Daytona Beach Shores Halifax Health Express Care opened on July 1, 2021, creating 10 jobs.
Since his 2018 comments, Mayor Partington has offered no progress reports on restoring the lost emergency room. The city has since suffered the pandemic, spent $1 million to buy a church and turn it into a parking lot, funded a $440,000 contract with a transportation engineering consultant, paid $340,000 for outside legal counsel to fight the county property appraiser on a golf course tax assessment, put up $800,000 to match an ECHO grant for the Performing Arts Center, and approved a $900,000 bait house and $1 million boat dock for Cassen Park.
On Saturday, March 19, the bridge and peninsula were gridlocked from dawn until early afternoon by 1,200 marathon runners starting from The Casements on a permit granted by the city, presumable for money. Medical emergencies east of the river were forced to negotiate heavy A1A traffic to reach the distant Halifax Health hospital in time.
Clearly, Ormond Beach needs to invest resources to gain a partnership with a local hospital. Why not use the substantial federal Covid relief funds? Why not extend the CRA to the west side of A1A to tap into a redevelopment fund historically flush with cash?
Mr. Mayor, four years after telling us "They're not budging", emergencies remain a matter of life and death.
Daytona Beach Shores got a deal done, why can't we?
Can there be any higher city priority than bringing back a life-saving beachside emergency room?
Jeff Boyle
Ormond Beach
Dear Editor:
Improvements, really? From what I can see from your article in the Ormond Beach Observer dated Aug. 4, it looks to me like their sole objective in the over $5 million project is to slow traffic down from North Young Street to A1A. The article states they would narrow the road and create a bicycle trail to make traffic go slower. It is already similar to bumper cars on this stretch of road. Not sure how narrowing this area with the increasing of traffic daily would make it safer for pedestrians.
One of the main causes of people going to fast in this area is the frustration they find trying to beat the traffic lights. Everyone here has nicknamed them “the forever lights.” It is in insane the little time people get to get through the light from North Halifax to South Halifax versus the timing of the light on East Granada (Rt. 40).
Would it not make more sense just to post the speed limit lower and enforce it and change the stop light to more reasonable waiting time? And then put your $5 million to somewhere where it would really do some good. I am sure there are many other places.
It has been my experience, being a contractor of 40 plus years, that every engineer that designs a product or a project should have to assembly that product or build the project. Most would see that what looks good on paper does not always work in reality. I hope this is not the case with some engineer sitting behind a desk, who does not live in this area, and thinks this is what this area really needs. Sometimes common sense needs to overrule a desire to have your project go into effect.
I have my doubts that I am the only one that thinks this is a bad idea.
Terry York
Ormond Beach
