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LOCAL NEWS |
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Council Up-Date
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BY
VERONICA PONTES-MATZNER |
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 Both
the beginning and end of this months council meeting was highlighted by our
new police chief. The first order of business was to officially swear-in
Chief John Hohensee, although he began his new position on December 6, 1999.
Again, at the end of the evening Chief Hohensee came before the council,
this time to give a report. He told the lawmakers that his first order of
business was to conduct individual interviews with each member of his staff.
He said that this would help him ascertain and address the department's
deficiencies. Chief Hohensee, concluded by saying that because he has only
been with the department for eight days he was not in the position to
provide any kind of detailed report. However, the chief did report that the
department has five candidates to help fill open police positions.
Unfortunately, two officers resigned last week. One departed to become a DEA
agent, a position he applied for before becoming a Pinecrest officer two
years ago. The other officer joined the Miami Beach department in pursuit of
more action. When almost every police department in the state is hiring
there is going to be a constant stream of employees coming and going.
The Parrot Jungle issue has again come off the back burner.
Having secured the necessary financing, the attraction definitely will be
moving out of Pinecrest. Within the next three years the Parrot Jungle
attraction will move to its new site, Watson Island. As it now stands, the
Village of Pinecrest and Miami-Dade County will jointly own the existing
site, which will become a park. The county parks bond issue appropriated $4
million for the purchase and the Village of Pinecrest has made a $2 million
commitment toward the purchase. However this falls short of the $12 million
asking price. The hope is that the present owner will secure state and
federal grant money to makeup the price difference. As part of the process
the
Village of Pinecrest, which will control the zoning, must develop a plan for
its use. This 22-acre parcel is not only beautiful, it is also unique. In
the past three years there has been much debate as to how this land should
be used. It's no surprise that the surrounding neighbors have objected to
its use for any organized sports activity as well as any nighttime activity.
While, I understand their concern, this is a huge parcel that should be able
to accommodate both the needs of the neighbors and the needs of the
community. I feel strongly that it would be a mistake, as well as unfair, to
the neighbors of the other Pinecrest parks to tightly restrict the uses of
the Parrot Jungle park site at the expense of existing neighborhoods and
parks, especially without any experience of its true impact. The next step
is for the council to present an outline for the use of the land based on
the reprots of several citizen groups.
On many occasions the council has discussed traffic -- too many cars going
too fast on residential streets. I regularly get comments about Pinecrest
police giving too many speeding tickets and my standard answer is that the
police are simply responding to the number-one complaint the police
department receives from citizens -- speeders. Once again a citizen came
before the council to complain about people speeding through his
neighborhood.
Notwithstanding all the complaints regarding speeding, I think it is a waste
of taxpayer dollars to hire a traffic engineer to do a traffic analysis and
suggest traffic calming devices, such as four-way stops. Not only do
four-way stops promote pollution by encouraging stop and go traffic, they in
effect penalize all drivers. Simply ticketing speeders is a very effective
deterrent. While nothing can totally deter people from speeding, it has
certainly had a discernable impact on slowing down cars in Pinecrest. The
advantage of using ticketing as a traffic calming device is that the
repercussion of the ticket is only felt by the offender. Additionally, it's
an added revenue source to the Village. I can be reached at
305-666-7969 or via fax, 305-666-8487.
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