The Ponte Vedra Municipal Service District is looking into potentially adding streetlights, especially at places that are designated as school bus stops during the upcoming school year.
Trustee Charles Callaghan has been reaching out to Beaches Energy and although there are other school bus stops, there are four that are currently being focused on due to how dark they can get during morning hours as children wait for the school bus to arrive.
The four areas being considered include the intersections of 531 Le Master Drive and Poinciana Way (by the island); Le Master Drive and Waterbridge Place; Maria Place and Le Master Drive; and 33 Corona Road.
The points where Le Master Drive meets with Poinciana Way and Waterbridge Place are both middle school bus stops.
Callaghan has also been talking with Matt Brooks of Beaches Energy about the possibility of fixing some lights that are in place but not working throughout the district.
In other news, the MSD was informed that they will be getting $25 million from the state to help with a future dredging project for the north end of the Ponte Vedra Beach shoreline from the Guana Reserve to the Duval County line.
According to trustee Kitty Switkes, the project is expected to add 100 feet to the beach once completed.
“It looks like we’re finally going to get our beach back to where it was at prior to (Hurricane) Matthew,” Switkes said.
Trustee Mickey White did some research when it comes to road widths around the MSD and found that most of the older built roads are 19 feet wide, while the newer roads tend to be 22 feet.
According to White, he looked into the road widths because he thought it would be good info to have when determining which roads may need “no parking” signs along them.
White plans to take his inventory of data and talk with both the county fire marshal and road department before coming back with the next wave of info at the August MSD meeting.
“It (signs) gives the deputies the ability to tell people parking on the side of the road that they can’t and to get it moving,” White said.
He also brought up to the board that he is continuing to pursue the early stages of hopefully fixing the drainage problem encountered by many in the MSD, who experienced flooding on their properties.
Some members of the MSD attended the meeting and voiced their concerns for the flooding as well.
According to White, unfortunately, the solution is not as easy as it looks when you have older neighborhoods with lakes behind them, where the excess rainwater can supposedly go.
“But there’s a legal way to do it and that’s not as easy,” White said. “This is going to take years to solve.”
However, the first step that must be taken is that he believes the Florida Department of Environmental Protection needs to grandfather in the MSD so that it can create new avenues for the floodwater to travel to the lagoons onto of the ones that already exist.
According to White, without that grandfathered ruling, the task of fixing the problem would become even more of an uphill battle to get the flooding situation corrected.
The MSD also agreed to approve a 0.27 millage rate for the 2024 fiscal year budget, which discussion will pick up about in the next couple of months.
