Oakland names new town manager

The Oakland Town Commission has promoted from within to fill the role of town manager.

Elise Hui was named to her new position at the March 11 commission meeting. She had been working as the assistant town manager/town clerk under Andy Stewart and was named interim manager when Stewart was terminated in February.

The town attorney’s office will negotiate an employee contract at the maximum starting salary of $135,000 with a 15% town contribution toward her retirement and a vehicle allowance of $230.77 per biweekly pay period.

“I’m sure I speak for all of us that I have complete faith in you,” Vice Mayor Mike Satterfield said. “I’m proud to call you town manager.”

Oakland now is looking to hire a new assistant town manager.

ASPHALT MILLINGS FOR ROAD PROJECTS

The town has been experimenting since last summer with various products and methods to reduce the amount of dust that gets kicked up on the town’s dirt roads. Officials have decided on recycled asphalt millings that are screened before being applied with a paving machine and roller. This option provided the smoothest surface and will require minimal maintenance. Best of all, it produced no dust when tested on West Hull Avenue and Petris Street.

Commissioners Kris Keller, Sal Ramos and Satterfield suggested seeing how these two roads fare during the rainy season and the summer.

Several residents in attendance stressed a sense of urgency to the matter for health reasons.

There was much discussion from both the commission and the audience about this issue. Residents have been complaining about the dust as new development brings an increase in traffic to the roads and as more people have shopping and grocery deliveries made to their homes. Those in attendance said they do not want to wait any longer for relief from the dust.

“We discussed this at the very beginning — the key was to knock down the dust, and that material is definitely (doing) that,” Mayor Shane Taylor said. “I feel that it’s doing what we set out to do, and I’m confident in utilizing that material on another road. … On Petris, just hanging out at the Oakland heritage center, the dust is not nearly as bad as it used to be.”

Residents expressed concern about the damage that could occur to the asphalt millings after a hurricane when the town uses a skid steer for cleanup.

Others urged the commission to come up with a long-term solution for the town’s busiest roads.

“I’m glad you did pick a product,” resident Jon Hammerstein said. “I’m disappointed in no follow-through process. Make this a No. 1 priority. … This is really intolerable. I’m suggesting that there be a group of people that can really analyze this and figure out what we can do. There are other ideas here tonight. … It’s a health issue for the town. … There are times when government has to modify budgets and priorities and accomplish something in a hurry. Tonight, I did not hear about accomplishing in a hurry.”

Taylor said he’s comfortable with the material used in the last test and doesn’t see any reason to wait. He did caution there is only so much money that can be budgeted per cycle. He asked Mike Parker, public works director, to provide a list of roads to be scheduled for maintenance as well as how much is in the budget for the work.

“We can’t do them all in one year, but (we can) start chipping away at the list,” Commissioner Sal Ramos said.

The more heavily traveled roads with the most dust will be taken care of first.

TUBB STREETSCAPE

The Town Commission approved working with engineering firm Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., which was asked to submit a proposal to the town to provide a streetscape design; a conceptual site plan for town-owned property at 1 Petris Ave.; vision planning along North Tubb to identify ways to enhance the corridor and development opportunities; the development of required comprehensive plan amendments and updates to the land development code to implement the vision; and grant funding support.

The project aims to transform the public corridor into a dynamic, sustainable space that serves the community's needs while integrating green infrastructure, public amenities and stormwater management features.

The consultant will also prepare the zoning map with the new overlay boundary and future land-use map text amendments required to implement the vision along with an accompanying traffic analysis to support the amendments.

The fee proposed for the project is $154,000. Kimley-Horn will work with the scope of services provided, moving forward with the Complete Streets program Oakland started several years ago. The goal is to simplify and enact what becomes of the vision plan to create an implementable plan.

“I think this is a step in the right direction to get it going,” Taylor said. “Hopefully this is the spark that gets everything started down Tubb Street. That’s the goal.

IN OTHER NEWS

• The Oakland Town Commission approved the final plat for Briley Farm Phase 1B, which is comprised of 27 detached single-family lots on about 24.58 acres. This final plat includes a wetland conservation area, landscape buffer, open space and stormwater tracts that will be privately owned and maintained by the homeowners’ association. The right-of-way and alley will be owned and maintained by the town.

• The elected officials accepted resident Jon Hammerstein’s offer to serve as a commission designee for the Oakland Nature Preserve board of directors. Per ONP, the commission must have two representatives on the board. The other is Town Manager Elise Hui.

• The Town Commission approved the consent agenda. It included a new agreement for the Oakland Police Department to enforce traffic laws within the gated John’s Landing subdivision because the previous agreement expired; a request from the Public Works Department to increase by a not-to-exceed amount of $20,000 a line item in the budget to purchase a replacement vehicle; and the acceptance of two police vehicles donated by the city of Clermont.

• The Public Works and police departments will assess the addition of a four-way stop at Daniels Road and Henschen Avenue after a resident complained about speeding drivers in that area.

• Lou Lambros, Oakland’s community outreach director, announced a new Facebook series called “In the West Orange Chairs.” Mayor Shane Taylor was the first person interviewed for the weekly feature.

“I want to get stories from everybody,” Lambros said. “With your help we can get some pretty cool stories.”