Traffic, roadway drainage, and parking woes at Mickler’s Landing were among the challenges highlighted Aug. 2 when the Ponte Vedra Beach Municipal Service District (MSD) presented its fiscal year 2017 budget to the Board of County Commissioners.
MSD Chairman Gary Jurenovich also presented results from the most recent audit of the MSD, which provides supplemental services to residents living within the district – including street lighting, street signs and additional garbage collection.
One of the biggest expenditures of the organization is the contract MSD developed with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office for five deputies, who patrol the area and stay within the MSD unless they are called outside the area for service, according to Jurenovich.
“The residents do like that and we are going to continue that,” Jurenovich said. “In fact, we just negotiated two weeks ago in extending that contract for four more years.”
He also said the MSD made the decision to keep the millage rate the same at .375 mills.
Approximately 1,380 homes are included in the MSD, which encompasses the area from the Duval County line south to Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, primarily east of State Road A1A.
The MSD was chartered with the state approximately 34 years ago and recently celebrated a milestone 400th meeting.
“The goal, I’ve always said, for setting up the service district, is to maintain or increase property values… by maintaining or increasing property values every year in the service district, these are ad valorem tax dollars that flow down here to St. Augustine and it’s considerable because ad valorem tax dollars, as we know, are based on property values,” Jurenovich said.
The value of non-exempt property for the MSD for the taxing year 2016 was more than $1.7 billion.
“The MSD is strong, the MSD is growing, and all of this channels money, tax dollars down here to the county,” he said.
Challenges
Traffic continues to be a challenge for residents in the district, Jurenovich said, as well as standing water on Ponte Vedra Boulevard, which can lead to road damage and create potholes. He also noted that deputies have reported stepping out of their vehicles into standing water that, in some instances, has covered their shoes. The worst portion of the flooding, he reported, is a one and a half mile stretch of road between Corona Road and Miranda Road. Jurenovich told the commissioners that in order to maintain or increase property values, this is going to have to be addressed somehow.
Another challenge Jurenovich highlighted is parking at Mickler’s Landing. MSD deputies patrol the area and Jurenovich said the MSD has surveyed the parking lot and consistently sees parking overflow on the weekends.
“I think we’re going to have to go to paid parking,” Jurenovich told the commissioners, adding that more people are parking at Mickler’s Landing because of the parking fee Jacksonville Beach is charging. It’s an issue, he said, that the MSD would like to further discuss with the county commissioners.
Projects
Jurenovich pointed to the recently finished sidewalk project on Ponte Vedra Boulevard as one of the service district’s recent accomplishments. The formula used by the MSD every time they do a project is 60 percent of the funding is footed by residents, 20 percent by the MSD and 20 percent by the county, he said. The sidewalk project was long overdue, Jurenovich remarked.
“I see people on this sidewalk daily and with the amount of construction, the amount of new homes that are being built in the MSD, it wasn’t done soon enough, getting people off Ponte Vedra Boulevard, because it’s becoming quite a busy roadway,” he said.
Currently, the MSD is in the process of purchasing new street signs, including new poles, new stop signs, street signs and speed limit signs.
“This will give the neighborhood a much nicer look,” he said. “Quite frankly, the old signs are 34 years old and when you’re on the ocean, they don’t last that long.”
New trustees
MSD trustees are elected every two years; a total of seven trustees sit on the board. Three of those seats are up for election this year with a total of six candidates in the running.
The candidates are well qualified, according to Jurenovich. One, he said, is going to run for re-election, one was on the Zoning Adjustments Board one was on the Architectural Review Committee. All of the candidates reside within the MSD.
“There’s apathy everywhere, but when people want to become involved in their community, that’s a good thing,” Jurenovich said. “I think what makes the MSD what it is, is because we’re not paid. We live there and we want to see our community grow and be strong, but it’s just community involvement.”
