Happy Second Anniversary To Us!

March 8th marks the SECOND ANNIVERSARY of this blog. Two years, 109 entries and over 23,000 hits ....and still going strong.

 Promises Made/Promises Kept?
Updates


Promise One
Mayor Scott Coleman promised residents and Council on February 15th that he would talk with the city’s landscape architect about developing plans and ideas for the city’s new green space “by the end of the week,” i.e. by February 18th.
Promise Kept?
No.  Mayor Coleman gets a "Thumbs Down". I dub this one: "false pandering to the public".


Here's what happened after the promise was made. At the February 22nd Council meeting, Mayor Coleman admitted that he hadn’t yet spoken with the city’s landscape architect, Doug Nemeckay.
Nemeckay was present for a follow-up discussion at the March 1st Committee of the Whole meeting. Did Nemeckay come after speaking with the mayor? Did he come ready to talk turkey?
No and no.
Nemeckay said he spoke not with Mayor Coleman but with Service Director Thom Evans  (“Last week I got a call from Mr. Evans”). Significantly, Nemeckay also admitted that he had no idea what residents and Council had previously discussed with regard to the green space: “At this point I don’t know how many ideas there were or what they were.”
Council President Scott Mills placed the issue on the agenda once again for discussion at the March 15 Committee of the Whole and set a special start time: 7 pm.
Mills said that he would invite residents to come and share their ideas for the green space directly with Doug Nemeckay--- a good idea, given how unreliable communicating through the mayor turned out to be.
UPDATE:The 2011 budget that Mayor Coleman presented to council did not include any money for renovating or developing the city's new green space. $0.  The mayor has set aside more than $ 200,000 for renovating the old pool house in the park, to provide a base for the 60 or so kids who attend day camp for 8 weeks in the summer.
During the recent budget review process, members of Council's Legislative & Finance Committee (Leo Lombardo, Cathy Murphy and Lisa Stickan) insisted that a modest amount of money ($50,000) be set aside in the 2011 budget for the green space.
 Promise Two:
Mayor Scott Coleman pledged on February 22nd that the city’s online calendar would be kept “as up to date as it can be.”
Promise Kept?
It took a couple of weeks, but I give Mayor Coleman a "Thumbs Up" on this one, at least so far and at least with regard to the online calendar.
As of now, the calendar appears to be up-to-date. It even shows the Legislative & Finance Committee meeting scheduled for Sunday at 2 pm at City Hall. That meeting was set up just a couple of days ago.
Now, if the mayor just remembers to unlock the doors...


There are other signs that more attention is being paid to the city’s website. For example, the home page contains a new link to the form that residents can download to get reduced flood insurance for two years. (Unfortunately the only ones who can take advantage of the reduced rates are residents who were placed into flood zones for the first time as a result of the December 2010 FEMA flood maps.)
Having said that, I feel obliged to point out that there is still alot of out-dated or missing information on the website. For example, the City Council Meetings & Agendas page shows an agenda for a November 16, 2010 special meeting, and the most recent Council minutes posted are for the January 25, 2011 Council meeting.
Hopefully more than just the city's online calendar will be kept current from here on out.

Speaking of Politics
It is now official. Both Scott Mills and Scott Coleman will be vying for the mayor's chair in this November's election.  See the story links below.

http://hillcrest.patch.com/articles/highland-heights-council-president-to-run-for-mayor
http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2011/03/council_president_scott_mills.html
http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2011/03/highland_heights_mayor_scott_c_4.html


The FEMA Flood Maps
Having looked into the situation further, Brian Mader from the city engineer’s office concluded that many of the new flood plain designations just don’t make “any sense.”
I’ll say.
It does make sense, however, when you learn this one additional fact:
The state agency that is responsible for developing and overseeing the FEMA flood maps is the Ohio Department of Naturual Resources (ODNR).
Yep, the very same agency that supposedly “regulates” (and I use that term very loosely) gas drilling in the state is also responsible for maintaing and updating Ohio’s FEMA flood plain maps.


Mader said that ODNR approved amendments to the city’s flood plain maps in 1988 and 1994.
The 1988 amendment moved the area between the Williamsburg neighborhood and Kennelwood Drive from an insurance-required 100 year flood plain to a no insurance-required 500 year flood plain.
Because of the water retention and drainage infrastructure that was installed when that street was put in (including a 84” culvert), the 1994 amendment took Hawthorne Drive entirely out of a flood plain.
According to Mader, ODNR was supposed to take previously approved map amendments into account when developing the December 2010 FEMA flood maps, but for some reason, ODNR didn’t do that.


Go figure. ODNR drops the ball and once again residents suffer.


The city is taking the matter seriously. Mader was asked to develop a proposal and cost estimate for conducting a professional delineation of the areas in the city that have newly been designated as 100 year flood plains.
In the meantime, residents are in a bind.
My advice:  apply for reduced rate flood insurance if you can and keep your fingers (and toes) crossed as city officials and Brian Mader attempt to sort this all out.