City Clears Final Hurdle for Piggly Wiggly Sign

Port St. Joe city commissioners finally reached the end stage in addressing a request from George Duren to construct a changeable message sign at the Port Shopping Center, which includes Duren’s Piggly Wiggly grocery store and Bluewater Outriggers.

Duren requested a variance for the new sign, which would be roughly the same size as the existing sign but with the ability to change messages. However, under the city’s sign ordinance, a variance was not an option provided Duren.

Therefore, commissioners agreed to amend the ordinance.

Originally, the intent was to delete the language banning changeable message signs in the city, but commissioners, after some wrangling, ultimately chose a different path, amending the ordinance to effectively create a set of criteria for changeable message signs that only Duren could meet.

Those provisions including the business seeking the sign must have at least 50,000 square feet of commercial space and multiple tenants, the sign must be within the boundaries of the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency and that the city commission would be the final arbiters of the legality of the size, i.e. required size, height, etc.

Commissioners last week read the amended ordinance for the second time and adopted it. They also will schedule a workshop to look at the entire sign ordinance, which commissioners determined is not being properly enforced and is in many instances too restrictive.

Commissioners also expressed concern about not turning the Highway 98 corridor into something resembling 23^rd Street in Panama City, a major reason they set forth the language to allow Duren’s sign rather than delete the prohibition on changeable message signs altogether and leave a “black hole” in the ordinance, as Mayor Mel Magidson put it.

Downtown Parking

Commissioners read for a first time an ordinance that supports the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency in its quest to purchase land for downtown parking along Highway 98.

The PSJRA has entered into an agreement to purchase lots along Highway 98 around Fourth Street for $325,000 and Matt Fleck, executive director of the PSJRA, said the agency hopes to close soon on the property.

At that point the agency will contract for design and engineering for the proposed parking and search for grants to pay for construction.

“We are moving ahead to make that available for downtown parking,” Fleck said.

The long-term aim is for the agency to possibly lease the land back to the city, though commissioners have expressed heartburn about taking on the maintenance of the lot and where the money for that maintenance could be found in the budget.

In other news concerning downtown, Fleck said the Highway 98 corridor improvement project is in “full swing” on the west side of the highway.

Old sidewalks have been taken up and new curbs and streetlights are being installed.

The plan is to maintain lighting on the east side of the highway until the new streetlights on the west side are installed for a continuous source of light throughout the period of construction.

Water Plant

Glenn Davis, supervisor of the new surface water plant, informed commissioners that acceptance testing for the new plant is ongoing and “looking good.”

Turbidity levels have been reduced, the number of complaints concerning discolored water is also down and cleaning of micro-filter membranes is taking place every other week and that city staff, city engineers and the contractor providing chemicals are working through caustic line solution issues.

Davis added that his staff was identifying specific target areas in their flushing program that has proved problematic or for which major valves and the like have yet to be found, a process suggested by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as a way to better monitor the system.

“We are doing everything we should be doing,” Davis said.

Infrastructure Projects

St. Joe Beach sewer now has 382 connections and the final 85-90 connections should be completed by mid-February, said Public Works director John Grantland.

Commissioners also approved a change order of more than $274,000 to L&R Construction to install the trunk line for the Beacon Hill water and sewer, the final project to be completed under the city/county interlocal agreement by which the city annexed WindMark Beach in exchange for completing a number of infrastructure projects in unincorporated areas.

Bill Kennedy of Preble Rish Engineers, the city’s engineering firm of record, reported that the Sand Hills Pond project that effectively created an outdoor amphitheater and recreational area along the waterfront between the marina and Frank Pate Park should be finished by the end of the month.

The pond has been completed and the laying of sod began last week.