The virtual meeting of the Williston City Council Tuesday was carried off without too many problems. This is what it looked like on the reporter’s laptop with council members and staff seen in the various boxes. They could wave their hand in front of the computer camera to be recognized or speak up.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Williston City Planner Jackie Gorman informed City Council members Tuesday that a demolition permit has been secured for the old Williston High School.
Speaking to the council in a virtual meeting, with council members using computers at their personal residences to meet as a board online, Gorman said she would contact the property owner to work out the details
BluRock Development bought the property but hasn’t done anything with the old school for months. The weakening of the national economy due to the Coronavirus may have factored into the company’s inaction.
Gorman was giving the council an update for informational purposes.
BluRock has yet to disclose exactly what it plans to do with the property.
Selling Old Winn Dixie?
City Manager Scott Lippmann disclosed at the meeting that the owners of the old Winn Dixie property have contacted a realtor about placing the property on the market to sell it.
“That is apparently on ongoing discussion,” Lippmann said. The realtor hasn’t made a decision on whether to represent the owner.
Lippmann said the owner appears to be leaning toward trying to sell the property based on a market study the city conducted. The city is waiting for the study to be released later this week.
The city has a tentatively-scheduled conference call with the owners.
Lippmann said the market study will be distributed to various people, including anyone that might be interested in selling or developing the property.
“We’re moving in the right direction. We’re not there yet,” he said.
Lippmann estimated the city has imposed approximately $80,000 to $85,000 in code enforcement fines on the owners over the years.
Bumpy Online Meeting
The online council meeting hit a few bumpy spots when City Manager Scott Lippmann and City Attorney Fred Koberlein lost their audio for a time and couldn’t communicate with the board.
Lippmann believes inadequate internet capacity at City Hall was the cause of the online interruptions rather than a technical problem with the hardware or software. He is looking into possibly adding internet capacity. He said the internet is getting heavy use in the evening due to the number of people staying home and he believes it impacted how well the online software operated at City Hall. Lippmann and City Clerk Latricia Wright were the only people in City Hall at the time of the meeting but there still wasn’t enough capacity to smoothly operate the virtual meeting.
Meeting In Person & Online
The council agreed to President Charles Goodman’s suggestion to hold its next board meeting at City Hall. Council members and essential staff would maintain 6 feet of space to prevent possible spreading of the Coronavirus.
Goodman wants to exclude members of the public from the council chambers during the meeting. His idea is for residents to watch the meeting online in their homes or online in the City Hall lobby.
“If we can do this, there’s no reason why we can’t have our meetings in the council chamber and to have them videoed for anyone who wants to participate in the same manner and we don’t have this horrible communications situation,” Goodman said.
Koberlein said Goodman’s concept was a great one but he said there would be obstacles to overcome, including allowing anyone who wants to attend the meeting to do so, provided there were no more than 10 people.
“If we exceed 10 individuals the overflow must go to the lobby and they must have an audio and video capability,” Koberlein said.
Lippmann, Koberlein and City Clerk Latricia Wright are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the arrangements.
Spotlight tuned into Tuesday’s board meeting using an online link but informed Lippmann after the meeting that it would be preferable to cover the meeting in person in the council chambers at City Hall the next time the council meets.
Spotlight noted that the Chiefland City Commission and Levy County Commission are continuing to meet in their respective chambers but both boards use social distancing practices to keep audience members 6 feet apart.
Williston has a relatively new City Hall with the largest council meeting room of any municipality in the county. Lippmann said he believes social distancing could be employed in the council chambers by limiting how many members of the public could attend.
“If we have the council meeting in the room, I think we are required to have at least limited physical presence of the public. At that point we could put all the appropriate precautions in place to protect people as far as social distancing and so forth,” Lippmann said.
He added, however, that the council doesn’t want to give the impression that all has returned to normal and people can enter the council chambers in the usual numbers. He said things haven’t returned to normal, but he believes a limited number of people could be in the council chambers during the meeting with appropriate spacing between individuals.
July 3rd Festival Going Forward
Council members told Wright they were willing to go forward with planning for the July 3rd city patriotic celebration with the understanding it could be cancelled if that became necessary.
Wright said she needed to know if the council wanted to go forward with the festival because a fireworks company must be hired. The festival also includes a patriotic parade every year. The council gave her the green light to begin preparing for the festival.
Giving Utility Customers Break
In response to the COVID-19 problem, council members approved a resolution waiving late fees on utility bills and suspending utility cutoffs until further notice.
Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a Stay at Home order to limit the spread of the Coronavirus, but like other states that followed the same path, the order has left many people without income. The governor may lift or partially lift his order by May 4.
—————–
City of Williston Regular Meeting April 21, 2020; Posted April 23, 2020
