NEVILLE DEFENDS MOBILITY STUDY WASTE AND INCOMPETENCE

St. Augustine Commissioner TODD NEVILLE, a/k/a "ODD TODD" NEVILLE (R-PROCTORVILLE), just loves the "great job," his frequent trite trope, done by City staff, which is to say his running dog buddy, City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E. What a bore. ODD TODD has no more idea of contract compeliance or government oversight than a hog.

Guest Column: St. Augustine Mobility study on time and on point
Posted: August 6, 2016 - 8:20pm | Updated: August 7, 2016 - 7:30am

By Todd Neville
St. Augustine
Eighteen months ago as we adopted our vision plan, our community expressed to city leadership that mobility should be our top priority to improve our overall quality of life. Commissioners actively responded to the request and have put in place a specific plan to accomplish these goals in order to attain a better overall quality of life for all residents.

However, like most grand projects, the gravity and magnitude of this project requires constant attention and a multi-phase approach.

Phase 1 is primarily data collection, which includes the important steps of gathering community input, exploring intergovernmental communication and the compiling of past mobility reports. This imperative phase of the project is on schedule and will be completed in September/October of this year. Phase 2 will explore proposed solutions and implementation.

We will be integrating these solutions into our five- and 10-year capital improvement plans.

This will occur late this year and the next budget cycle. The final phase will be actual implementation of the solutions built into our city’s infrastructure.

As a reminder to those who have played such an active role in this process, Phase 1 has nine primary components which are/were: City Commission Meetings; Data Collection — FDOT, TPO, Reports, community surveys; City Specific Data Collection — collection and compilation of data; Four Mobility Advisory Task Force Meetings; Kickoff Workshop; Walking Tour; Public Open House; Design Charrette; Agency Coordination Meetings; Parking Inventory and Analysis; and a final report to the City Commission.

Each item listed is either complete or nearing completion, thanks to the work of our dedicated city staff, involved residents, businesses and consultants.

The Record has done a great job covering each step on the task list, from the initial commission meeting, to the kick off workshop, to the walking tour and to the parking inventory and analysis. Search any of the above items, you will likely find an article in your newspaper about that specific task.

As with any project, flexibility to alter course to achieve the end goal is necessary. We recently added a series of additional community meetings. This was important in order to achieve and ensure a wide range of community input and involvement on a project our community demanded.

As this process continues to evolve, I encourage you to get involved. This can be as simple as sending an email, making a phone call or completing a survey. We are well on our way to improving our quality of life.

Neville is the St. Augustine City Commissioner, Seat 4

COMMENTS

Thomas Francis Reynolds 08/07/16 - 11:39 am 32Warning Warning, put your boots on !
First of all, Thank you to Mr Todd Neville for not insulting Mayor Shaver. It must of been tough or maybe you have finally stopped taking your orders from Joey Bowels. Anyways, Thanks Toad e. (that is better then Odd Todd, his earned nick name)

Step one should have been for each Elected Official to submit a couple or three names for the Mobility Task Force.
Step two should have had the City Manger bring the names of the QUALIFIED Companies to the Task Force for interview and Approval of hiring.
Step three should of gone over cost of hiring a qualified company with the Task Force.
Step four, bring it back to the City Bosses (Elected Officials) for venting and finial hiring approval.
Step five, BEGIN the Work.

Because none of the REAL RIGHT THINGS or Common Sense were applied or done this Opinion piece. Your writing is really well worded, well written, and Professionally done to cover up for the failed Mobility Task Force FIASCO !

martystaug 08/07/16 - 09:39 am 30Plan
Step one, the commission and all planners should take a ride on the bi-plane or little yellow helicopter to see the traffic backups from a birds eye view.
Step two, count the vehicles attempting to enter and traverse the city.
Step three, determine the acceptable number of vehicles that can be accommodated with current parking capacity and narrow city streets.
Step four, divert the extra traffic elsewhere. When the city is full, it is full.
Step five, consider your residents for once instead of only tourist bucks for downtown businesses.
This won't take 5 or 10 years, it can be accomplished in a matter of weeks. What does Mr. Neville think this town will look like in 10 years if things continue without change? This will be another Key West, or St. Auggie World. Quality of life for residents will be gone completely.