Save The Loop

Joe Jaynes, Kitty Garber, Marty Press, Rita Press, Paula Wehr, Dorothy Pflieger, Laureen Kornel, Clay Ervin, Buck Harbuck, Rick Smith, and Linda Kalaydjian.

The meeting was called to order by Joe Jaynes at approximately 5:45. An improvised sign-in sheet was passed around. It was decided that we would have sign in at each meeting.

Each attendee received a copy of the minutes of the previous meeting. A motion was seconded and approved to accept minutes without reading because members had reviewed an electronic copy of the minutes prior to the meeting. Laureen Kornel, who represents Volusia County on the CAG, asked to speak about money matters before the end of the meeting.

The chair asked about posting notice of the time and place of the meeting. Paula Wehr, as corresponding secretary, said that she had spoken to Kathy Kelly at the News-Journal about putting a free notice in the paper. Clay Ervin, who represents the Ormond Beach City Planning Department, said that because the meetings were being held on city property the city would advertise them for free. He said that Paula should contact Ronnie Patterson about the time and place. Paula Wehr will continue to be responsible for this duty.

We then discussed creating a letter to potential member groups who might want to become partners in this effort. Marty Press volunteered to do the letter. Rita Press asked where we would get the list of organizations. Laureen offered to give us a sample membership letter and list of organizations that we could work from. The members of the group were asked to bring names of organizations to the next meeting. Rita also asked if the group should approve the letter. It was agreed that Marty would send the letter via e-mail for review by the members. Paula said that she had the list of supporters from the A1A Scenic Highway group. She also noted that a number of groups had representatives at the meeting, including Audubon, the Garden Club, the City Planning Department, Bicycle Club, Halifax Democratic Club, and others.

Laureen pointed out that the letters of support should be tailored to the organization rather than identical, scripted letters. She said that in our letter to organizations we should list advantages pertinent to that group so that they can pick this up.

The chair, Joe Jaynes, then initiated discussion of the delineation of the corridor boundaries, a continuation of a discussion started at the February 9 meeting. Using the map from the Ormond Loop Corridor Management Plan for reference, the group discussed whether to include more than the traditional Loop, i.e., beginning at the intersection of Granada and North Beach Street, traveling north to Walter Boardman Lane, east on Walter Boardman, then south and east on High Bridge Road to John Anderson, South on John Anderson to Granada, and then turning west and crossing the bridge to complete the Loop. The discussion particularly focused on the merits of picking up the portion of High Bridge that intersects with A1A and that portion of A1A between High Bridge and Granada. After some discussion, it was agreed that we should concentrate on what is traditionally known as the Loop, with the addition of that section of Pine Tree from the entrance to Ormond Lakes to the intersection with North Beach Street. Rick Smith said that section has been acquired as a park and is called Addison Blockhouse State Park. We agreed that, with this one addition, the definition should come from the Ormond Loop Corridor Management Plan.

Letter of Intent

We then turned to discussion of the letter of intent. Joe Jaynes brought the form for the letter, as well as sample submittals prepared for the S.R. 40 Scenic Highway designation and Lake County Road 455 and a copy of the Ormond Loop Corridor Management Plan. Laureen agreed to obtain a map from the county for use with the submittal. Joe indicated that he had access to recently taken pictures of all parts of the Loop that would be good for the visuals in the submittal.

Joe suggested that the real work would be in drafting resolutions for the governmental entities so that they could be put on the agenda. The entities involved are: the cities of Ormond Beach and Ormond-by-the-Sea, the Metropolitan Planning Organization, and Volusia County. Clay said he would try to get a resolution on the agenda for the April 5 Ormond Beach City Council meeting. Joe will talk with county council members about getting the resolution on their agenda. Several of the members pointed out that someone should attend these meetings just to make sure that we show support. Laureen said that the first week in April would probably be the first opportunity to get on the county council agenda as well. It was also agreed that Joe would attend the meeting and be prepared to speak on behalf of the resolution.

We then discussed the time necessary to put together the entire package. It was noted that it would take more than a month to get all the letters of support and resolutions together. However, Rick Smith and others pointed out that it was not necessary to have these items for the initial submittal. There was a discussion of timelines, with Clay providing input about the timeline for the S.R. 40 submittal, which seemed to have suffered from some internal dissension. Laureen pointed out that Gary’s agency is not regulatory in nature.

There was also discussion about keeping track of costs, number of copies required, and other details about the actual preparation of the draft letter of intent. Kitty Garber will assist Joe in putting together a draft copy that borrows heavily from the Ormond Loop Corridor Management Plan. She will try to have something for his review by Friday or Saturday (February 25 or 26).

Bylaws

Rick Smith discussed the bylaws applying to the CAG. He stated that the CAG is a suborganization of the Volusia-Flagler Environmental Action Committee. It is the latter organization that actually has the 501(c)3 status. All members of the CAG will need to become members of this parent organization; membership dues are $25. This is not urgent, however, because we are not yet a CME (Corridor Management Entity). At that time, strict compliance with the bylaws will be necessary.

Funding

Laureen announced that we might be able to get $10,000 to hire a consultant to do our eligibility application. She mentioned that Gary had been happy with the study previously done by the consultant. Because the amount is not that large, she did not believe that we would need to go through a competitive bidding process. She noted that we should be able to piggyback off the previous project.

Next Meeting

After some discussion of schedules, it was decided that the next meeting would be March 16 at 5:30, either in the training room or the library, depending on which was available. The meeting was then adjourned.

Orientation and Training Workshop with Gary Balogh

Laureen noted that we are required to have an orientation and training workshop conducted by Gary; however, she noted that since he had already conducted such a workshop with the larger group, he might consider that requirement as having been met. Still it was noted that the workshop had not been conducted with the CAG itself. The workshop consists of a half hour PowerPoint presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. We concluded that Gary would be invited to attend our next meeting.

Action Items

ITEM 1: Each member should submit a list of organizations that would give us a letter of support.

ITEM 2: Marty will draft the letter using the one from Laureen as a guide and then send it out for review by the members via e-mail.

ITEM 3: Clay will see about getting us on the agenda for the city of Ormond Beach.

ITEM 4: Joe and Laureen will handle getting us on the agenda for the county.

ITEM 5: Kitty will assist Joe in preparing a draft letter of intent.

Submitted by Kitty Garber; revised at meeting, March 23.