FORT PIERCE \u2013 Both the City Commission and the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency board recently ratified an interlocal agreement in separate meetings for their joint collaboration in the funding and logistics for nearly $500,000 in improvements to the Depot Drive parking area downtown.<\/p>\n
The FPRA Board \u2013 whose members are the city commissioners wearing different hats \u2013 first took up the agreement on May 12. Community and Economic Development Director Shyanne Harnage introduced the item that night.<\/p>\n
This project has been in discussion for quite some time [and] was actually the subject area for our proposal for the Brightline station behind the Sunrise Theatre,\u201d she said. \u201cPrevious to that, our prior city engineer had a preliminary design to improve the parking and access all the way underneath the Citrus [Avenue] bridge and back to the state attorney\u2019s office. What we\u2019re looking at for this interlocal funding agreement is the improvement of this parking area, including additions of a few extra spaces with some reconfiguration. We\u2019re also looking at the installation of pavers [and] pedestrian connectivity. There is no pedestrian connectivity here now \u2013 you\u2019re walking along the street to get wherever you want to go. Lighting will also be incorporated into this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board Member Curtis Johnson Jr. expressed satisfaction with the project due to the fact the Florida East Coast Railroad had recently come out against a Brightline train station in Stuart due to its proximity to the U.S. Coast Guard-controlled drawbridge over the St. Lucie River.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s an excellent idea,\u201d he said. \u201cIn light of recent comments coming out of Stuart, I don\u2019t think this Brightline thing is over. There\u2019s been a number of people obviously that want to know if we\u2019re going to angle for this opportunity again. Who knows what\u2019s going to happen with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chairwoman Linda Hudson pointed out that improving the parking area would benefit any kind of passenger train service on the site.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t given up on any kind of railway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might end up being Amtrak anyway,\u201d Board Member Chris Dzadovsky chimed in.<\/p>\n
The FPRA Board then voted unanimously for approval, and the City Commission took up the same request six days later. After City Clerk Linda Cox read the interlocal agreement resolution into the record on May 18, Commissioner Michael Broderick posed a clarification question with comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes it mean that the FPRA\u2019s paying for this?\u201d he asked. \u201cThere is an agreement in place between the city and the county, and the county\u2019s supposed to be paying 50 percent of these improvements down on the south end of Depot Drive. That was an agreement reached between city management at the time, and so we need to refresh their memories of this. I know we have Commissioner [James] Clasby here. If my memory is correct, the county was enthusiastic about this because of the advantages it would have for courthouse parking and things of this nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe probably do need a formal way of making sure the county doesn\u2019t have amnesia,\u201d Mayor Hudson responded.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Broderick then suggested somebody from either the city manager\u2019s office or the FPRA contact County Administrator George Landry because \u201che was involved in that discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think it needs to be refreshed and we need to confirm that this is an agreement,\u201d he insisted. \u201cHaving said that, if we can get them in for $250,000 and we\u2019re in for $250,000, that\u2019s a heck of better pill to swallow than half a million.\u201d<\/p>\n
For her part, Harnage pointed out that the interlocal agreement before commissioners that night was strictly for the design of the parking lot improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be reaching out to St. Lucie County,\u201d she said. \u201cWe thought we\u2019d have the design ready, but they can certainly partake in that as well, and then approach them for the construction costs as we move forward. This is the design interlocal agreement between the city and the FPRA. We\u2019ll be using the city\u2019s Engineering Department to interface with the consultant, but the FPRA will be funding the design.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Commissioner Broderick continued emphasizing that Fort Pierce would be asking the county \u201cfor a quarter million bucks\u201d and even potentially half of the $120,000 design cost, Commissioner Arnold Gaines \u2013 the only attorney in the group \u2013 attempted to rein his fellow commissions in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to be very careful here,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen one documentation in black and white of what we\u2019re talking about tonight, so let\u2019s be very careful before we put into the public that the county\u2019s going to be up for this. If for some reason the county says. we didn\u2019t agree to that, we can\u2019t say they did because I haven\u2019t seen any documentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Dzadovsky, who spent several terms on the County Commission, also backed a more cautionary posture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was part of that conversation,\u201d he said. \u201cMy recollection is it had to do with trying to secure Brightline and get that opportunity. They might say that was associated with that agreement and that process for a Brightline station. I\u2019d reiterate that the courthouse continues to need additional parking, and so it behooves us to secure that with their assistance. I think it would be a good partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
The City Commission then voted unanimously for approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 Both the City Commission and the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency board recently ratified an interlocal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-284159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}