Glen to apply for grant, fine tunes code enforcement

Glen to apply for grant, fine tunes code enforcement

GLEN SAINT MARY, FL - The town of Glen St. Mary took three major steps toward improving the quality of their city during Tuesday's town council meeting.

In a unanimous vote, the council authorized Mayor Juanice Padgett to apply for a $600,000 community development block grant from the state of Florida.

The town applied for this same grant last year but was not awarded the grant. According to the mayor the town's application is far more attractive this year and receives an additional 100 points in the application process. This is because they now have readiness to proceed added to the application.

The grant will be used to install an additional well at the town's water treatment plant and put water lines into the north part of town.

The new water well is required in order to add more houses to the town's water system. It will also be used as a backup in case the town has any issues with their existing well.

The current application lists nearly $600,000 for expansion of the water system to the north.

However, those plans will have to be scaled back as the town has decided not to commit $250,000 of town funds toward the project.

The council also approved the first reading of two ordinances.

The first will limit parking of commercial vehicles inside the town limits.

This topic has been discussed for several months by the council and town attorney Joel Foreman received enough of a concenscous of opinion to write the ordinance.

It will forbid the parking of commercial vehicles along city streets, operation of trailer refrigeration units, running back-up alarms at night and several other items.

The second ordinance established a mechanism to enforce the codes of Glen St. Mary.

As things stand now, when a resident of the town violates a code, town code enforcement officer Donna Loadholtz tries to resolve the issue with the resident.

However, if the resident does not fix the situation she then has to go to the county enforcement board to try and get the situation fixed.

Because the town has no agreement with the county board, the county basically starts from scratch and begins the whole investigation from the start.

With this ordinance, Loadholtz can take her findings to the board and they can begin proceedings right away.