City Council Tells Ruth St/Powers Av Residents to "Sink or Swim but We're Done With You!"
The special meeting last night on the berm was a joke. The “fix” was in and residents of the flood-prone neighborhoods got the rough end of the pineapple again. The only actions required of Council other than swallowing their principles and voting the Allen Green agenda was to provide enough filler to butter up the residents and slide them out the door. That filler was provided in ample mounds by the lovable but dottering old nob Bob Ford. I almost fell asleep watching the telly while he ran over ancient knowledge as if he’d just discovered it. Sops like the ones he threw out about “not abandoning our residents” and making a series of “symbolic motions” should make real men puke. Come on Ford, at one time I thought you stood for something, now you’ll literally stand for anything.
Councilman Ford did such a good job of blowing smoke that Don Burnette didn’t even have to say anything. By the by, what’s with the little poofter these days, anyhow? He had that deer in the headlights look last night–maybe the knife in the back from Lance Green, his newly-announced opponent for Mayor, has him worried? Seems Mayor Green expects ass kissing but doesn’t reward it, eh Donald.
The only parts of the meeting that weren’t fluff and fantasy came from the audience. Dianne Gardner (see video below) stood up and told the council what she thought of them reneging on their responsibilities and of trying to buy out residents. Ted Noftall then presented one of the best summaries I have heard to date about why we should build the berm and the problems associated with not building it (see second video below).
Well mates, enough for now but the issue is sure to surface again.
C Dundee
It is a crying shame that the city has spent all of this money on consultants these past few years. Think of the many improvements that could have been made with all that cash. What a joke.
I hope the good folks on Ruth Street and Powers Avenue will not allow the city to BUY AND BULLDOZE their homes, because guys, that’s the plan. Try to replace what you have now with the pittance you will receive from our city and FEMA.
Meanwhile the members of this council, 3 of whom are retired on the government tit, sit safe and protected in their homes either on Riverside Drive or West of Nova where we give a damn about residents.
The real question is why doesn’t this council have the intestinal fortitude to insist that this permitted berm be built rather than allowing this mayor and Jake to push them toward destruction of this beleaguered neighborhood that has no defenders. Symbolic verbiage is all this neighborhood is getting.
Fascinating to listen to Scott Stiltner suddenly decide that BUY AND BULLDOZE is a good value for his dollar but the already paid for berm is not. What about all the money wasted on a project that could never work without the berm? Did you listen to Mike Gardner and Ted Noftall who are presenting factual data backed up by hard copy documentation? Did you read the memo from Giannini about “inundation” from the Halifax Canal?
How can you men sleep nights? The lives of the residents on Ruth Street and Powers Avenue will be forever changed if they sell out because our council is full of moral cowards whose concern is only for their political futures. Interesting that at least 4 on council have aspirations to higher office. Terrific….you are incompetent or corrupt at this level…and incapable or unwilling to perform due diligence on this project and many others…. and all 4 of you are looking to higher office. I hope voters in Port Orange and the County will remember your choices on this issue.
Good luck old folks on Ruth Street and Powers Avenue. You are going to need it.
It’s retaliation for objecting to the way the sneaky slight of hand scam was done on eliminating the berm. “You can’t fight city hall” is a slogan begun by city hall insiders, developers, consultants, engineers, construction companies, mortgage companies, bank lending firms, and all feeding off of tax payers’ money. Probably the Ruth St people will have to sell to the city, the area will be filled in with dirt probably stolen from the well fields, bulldozed to a level where flooding goes somewher else, and sold to a developer who right now is licking his chops over getting those streets and that land into his bank account.
Isn’t Coraci Park flooded by ordinary rain, and construction is being accomplished to eliminate all the mud. Some say it is location,location, location. Think,construction, construction,construction. Another construction company owner wants be mayor of Port Orange. Does that tell you anything? And a mortgage lender wants to be Mayor.Does that tell you anything?
We are putting down more and more concrete in this area, and next thing you know they will be blaming climate control for flooding problems.
— hank
I over heard two on council discussing Scott Stiltner about what a follow along guy he is. They said that by his own admittance he was scared to death up there once he took his seat. He is not capable of making his own decisions. Look how he shut down about the fluoride issue after he ran his campaign on it! He was a big tuff guy when he wore that badge (more like a stalking bully) and now he is a big puss following the Green Lead.
I agree with Councilman Wimp. The solid Public Safety employee vote put him over the top in the election and put him on the Dias. And the first thing he did was throw us under the bus.
Its disgusting how he jumps to ever order he gets from Green
To bad we have to wait 3 years to dump him.
Awe that is so cute. Another temper tantrum because they didn’t get their way. Even their best buddy Ford threw the plan under the bus this time, but then followed up with his “symbolic vote.” I can’t believe he didn’t ask for yet another study on the berm. It’s OK, Mayor Ted will save the day.
Well Cheap Seats, sadly you appear to be correct. The taxpayers on Ruth Street and Powers Avenue who worked for and voted for Bob Ford apparently thought he was an loyal advocate for their repeatedly flooding neighborhood. I remember one of them saying to me “Bob will insist that this berm be built because he knows it will work and he really cares about us because he is a decent man.” A quote. I know many of them worked hard to get Ford elected. So what can one reasonably conclude at this juncture? That loyalty to principles and one’s word have a short shelf life when the politician involved is a careerist and opportunist. The Ruth Street/Powers Avenue residents have become a social and professional liability at this point and Bob Ford is now hanging with the beautiful people who so villified him during the 2014 campaign. Amazing.
Sell-out Bob has been wanting to play footsie with Stiltner ever since he was elected. Last Tuesday evening he sold-out his Ruth Street supporters an the berm they need to prevent their neighborhood from flooding for some symbolic motions that he hoped Stiltner would support.
That was a big mistake because his supporters have been covering for Bob on this blog and elsewhere for some time now and it looks like that is no longer happening.
He’s in now – has little need for Ted, Gardners, etc now. More of a liability than an asset to him.
Did anyone else notice that Ford recommended allocating exactly nothing to alleviate flooding in the Ruth Street area. I wonder if the Gardners and others in that neighborhood are having any buyer’s remorse and if they now realize that maybe Sonia would have been the better council selection all along.
The system has taken over Bob Ford, and he isn’t the man he was when elected. Tantrums are results of frustration and the people we are dealing with thrive on anxiety and frustration. That’s why “We’ll get back to you”. Anxiety and frustration will lead to tantrums and after the tantrums, can you guess what comes next? These part time measley paid city council asses better start thinking about what comes after the tantrum. — hank
I am unable to understand much less explain what motivates the Port Orange Council.
They must remember that the discussions following the May 2009 flooding ( that closed Dunlawton Ave as did the 2004 and 1994 flood events ) were focused on preventing any future flooding in the lower Dunlawton corridor. IF THEY did not remember, Mike Gardner reminded them with the Council clip from 2010 where in QLHA advised that their design which included the berm would prevent that roads closure in even a 100 year storm event.
When they found out in the fall of 2014 that the berm as designed and permitted was never constructed they must remember they were advised it was omitted not for engineering considerations, but rather as a sop to the Mayor’s good friend Mrs Grubbs and her baseless assertion that her property extended right to the canal itself.
Mayor Green was right up to his eyeballs in the decision to omit the berm that was never communicated with Council. Even knowing that not only did they never question why the discussion mysteriously became focused on possible increased flooding in some un-specified area or area’s up stream they funded and accepted two engineering studies containing contradictory conclusions.
Council and the people they were elected to represent were hosed on those studies. Pegasus Engineering gave the Manager and Mayor what they wanted to hear and are currently working for the City. CDM Engineering told Council from the get go they were friends with and work with Pegasus and QLHA and wouldn’t be criticizing either of those firms work product.
The $64 dollar question is why Council went along with any of this. .
At the 02-09-2016 special council meeting not one member of council gave the reasons for the vote they cast either for or against. Ford and Bastian never explained why they voted for constructing the berm and Green, Burnett and Stiltner never explained why they voted against its construction.
Councils decision to not construct the berm has effectively set the stage for FDOT to raise the Dunlawton Ave road bed in the area that floods. That will leave residents not living on Ruth St but on Ruth Street DownUnder. Those who remain that is, and who can withstand an already started campaign to begin acquiring property in that neighborhood at pre flood sale prices.
I SUPPORT CONSTRUCTION OF THE BERM AS DESIGNED AND PERMITTED FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS.
1) It was designed by Quentin L Hampton & Associates a local design engineering firm in whom the City of Port Orange has continuing confidence.
2) QLHA has never indicated in writing that their berm design was a flawed design and that it should not be constructed.
3) The berm design was permitted by SJRWMD and that agency has never expressed any reservation about constructing the berm.
4) Two consulting engineering reviews by Pegasus and CDM confirmed that the berm would prevent flooding in the lower Dunlawton corridor in certain but not all storm conditions.
5) Both consulting engineering reviews failed to identify any specific areas of new or increased flooding either upstream or downstream that would be caused by the construction of this berm.
6) The 0.3 of a foot upstream water elevation increase noted by CDM which is still contained within the canal banks in this instance is not a deal buster for SJRWMD.
7) The major plan modification and subsequent search for flood control mitigation that must be found, will cost more than the construction of the berm itself.
8) The specific considerations involved in the major plans modification that Green, Burnett and Stiltner voted for have never been explained to Council – at least not in public.
Ted Noftall
Candidate for Mayor
City of Port Orange -2016
Thank you Ted for a detailed 8 section logical, truthful and honest analysis of the problem. You know I am convinced that these city hall elitists don’t deserve the truth and will distort the truth and manipulate your 8 very sound analysis of the problem. We are not dealing with principled people as you are. This green machine has tentacles into a lot of money making entities in this area. With it comes power and influence, and the addiction to sorely be considered a “team” player, and the team involved does not consist of hard working Port Orange residents. The we are family of proud Port Orange elitists does not extend to its extended family, the common interest. We construct, construct, construct, keep the information in a closed knit circle, so deals can be made, even if it means eliminating a berm without making the part time city council members aware of the slight of hand manuver. And to continue the dynasty and vision for the “investors” of Port Orange, another construction company owner wants to be the next mayor.
And a mortgage lender wants to be the next mayor. I am a tax payer and not an investor in construction companies , mortgage companies or banks. Nothing good is going to happen for those involved with Port Orange city politics. The foundation of the Port Orange vision is corroded and deteriotating with almost every adventure the city elitists are trying to milk out of the citizens. This half ass city council and its mis manager who knows how to carry secrets in a brief case, can’t even get Pro Waste to pick up garbage at my curbside, empty the garbage can, and deposit the empty garbage pail at my curbside. Maybe we should pay a consultant to figure out why this simple task can’t be completed. Ted, thanks for all you do for our common interests. If you change after you become Mayor of Port Orange, I’ll come after you with a pitch fork.