By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
A Chiefland woman was recognized by city police Monday at the city commission meeting for raising more than $6,000 to buy Christmas gifts for 27 children who might otherwise have gone without gifts last year.
Capt. Jay Bolton said Marie Poppe, who owns Poppe’s Sweets, volunteered to hold two cake auctions to raise funds for the families that the police department was unable to assist through its traditional Christmas fund-raiser.
Bolton said the city police department has been holding fund-raisers for about 15 years to buy Christmas gifts for families with children who would otherwise face a Christmas without gifts.
In 2020 Bolton said the department’s fund-raiser was cancelled due to COVID-19. In 2021, it was cancelled when the department was unable to attract vendors to its Fall Festival at Railhead Park.
“Ms. Poppe was going to be a vendor at the Fall Festival. When she was told that we would have to cancel it because we didn’t have any vendors show up, she took it upon herself to do two different cake auction fund-raisers. She raised us over $6,000,” Bolton said. “That brought Christmas gifts for 27 kids. We just wanted to recognize you and say thank you for your efforts.”
“This was a community event that made this happen,” she responded.
City police have hosted quite a few different fund-raising events over the past decade and a half to generate funds for Christmas gifts, including selling beef ribs, a Haunted House, and a Fall Festival.
For many years the police department held the Haunted House in the former Central Florida Electric Cooperative warehouse, but the warehouse was sold a few years ago and is now an industrial manufacturing plant.
The department created the Fall Festival at Railhead Park to replace the Haunted House. It worked out well until COVID-19 closed the festival down in 2020. The following year the department couldn’t get any festival vendors.
That’s when Marie Poppe stepped in to help.
Naming Street after Martin Luther King
Commissioners took community input from leaders of the black community on what street should be named for the late civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, but postponed a final decision.
City Manager Laura Cain was assigned the job of finding out the process of mounting a street sign memorial to King under the traffic light at the corner of U.S. 19 and State Road 345 in south Chiefland.
Eddie Jean Williams, a respected leader in the black community, said she has seen a memorial to King hung under traffic lights in other cities including Alachua County. She suggested contacting Alachua County officials and obtaining guidance on how they got the memorial mounted under a traffic light.
“To me, you’re not renaming a highway, you’re put up a memorial,” she said.
Respected Chiefland historical author and artist Carolyn Cohen said she would like to see the memorial on U.S. 19.
There was a brief discussion on how long it would take to get state permission to mount the memorial sign on U.S. 19 and some in the audience wondered if they wanted to wait that long.
But Cohen said the memorial sign should go on U.S. 19 if at all possible.
“If we can get 19, try for it,” she said.
There had been discussions at previous meetings of naming SW 2nd Street from State Road 345 to State Road 320 after King. The idea hasn’t been totally ruled out. Commissioner Lance Hayes made that suggestion.
Commissioner Lewrissa Johns was the first to mention naming a street after King. Her idea was to name a street that runs near former Mayor Betty Walker’s home after king in honor of Walker.
But the idea of using U.S. 19 idea to honor King seemed to hold sway.
The Florida Legislature might have to pass a local bill to mount the memorial sign at the intersection of U.S. 19 and State Road 345. The local legislative delegation typically submits this type of bill to the Legislature for approval.
American Rescue Plan
Commissioners voted unanimously to hire James Moore & Co., the city’s auditors, to advise city officials on how to correctly file reports with the U.S. Treasury and advise the city on how to legally spend federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The city is expecting to receive two installments of $550,000 each for a total of $1.1 million. Commissioners haven’t decided how to spend the money. City Manager Laura Cain said infrastructure is one possibility. The American Rescue Plan Act is a coronavirus recovery program authorized by Congress.
Purchasing New Police Vehicles
Commissioners voted 5-0 to give the police department authority to place an order for three Ford Explorer police package patrol cars expected to cost $141,982.
Police are applying for a USDA grant to fund 75 percent of the project but the remaining balance, $35,245, would be the city’s responsibility. If the grant were to fall through, the city would have to borrow money to pay for the cars.
The department wanted to purchase three Dodge Chargers, but in the first week of March 2022, City Police Chief Scott Anderson was informed by fleet sales that all Dodge police vehicle orders for model year 2022 have been cancelled.
This trend may continue with other manufacturers at any time. The dealership the police department uses has more than 100 Explorers on order and has said if the city orders immediately, they can get some to the city police department with an estimated delivery time of 6-8 months.
Anderson said the current fleet consists of four 2020 Chevrolet Tahoes and four 2016 Ford Explorers. Repair costs are beginning to mount on the five-year-old Explorers, with most having more than 100,000 miles on the odometer.
“Currently we have only three Explorers in operating condition as one of them needs a steering part which is on national backorder with no delivery date at this time,” Anderson said. “A transmission has been taken out of an old Crown Victoria which has been dead-lined and put into another to make a suitable spare car.”
“Automotive parts are in such a backlog that ordering new vehicles and getting delivery can take over a year. We need to order vehicles now to get on the list and in line. The police department intends to apply for the USDA grant to fund 75 percent of the purchase. However, if that is denied will have to apply for a conventional loan to pay for the new vehicles. Either way, they need to be ordered immediately.”
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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting March 14, 2022; Posted March 14, 2022
