Mayor: Money, traffic among year's priorities

PINECREST

Pinecrest Mayor Gary Matzner made his priorities clear in his State of the Village address: money for Pinecrest Gardens, solving traffic problems and finding a home for skateboarders.

By Joselle Galis-Menendez | [email protected]

Pinecrest Mayor Gary Matzner wants to keep the village focused on improving Pinecrest Gardens. But the new mayor acknowledged in his first State of the Village speech Tuesday that there may be a few financial bumps in the road.

For the first time, building costs last year caused the village to dip into its reserves for spending money, Matzner said.

“We will need to find additional sources of revenue - or delay certain projects,” the mayor said.

While the county-funded library - to be built at Pinecrest Gardens - is safe from any postponement, the much-anticipated community center at the former site of Parrot Jungle is not.

Matzner hopes the village can find additional money or delay the center so rising property taxes can fill the funding void.

But he remains optimistic.

“I don’t anticipate that will be the case,” he said. “What I am really trying to do is lay a foundation to say we need additional revenue.”

Nothing has been decided yet. The Village Council has scheduled a March 17 planning meeting, where Matzner said council members will examine village tax rates.

The mayor also hopes Pinecrest Gardens will be part of the mayor’s Wi-Fi program - a plan to install wireless Internet in Pinecrest parks and perhaps schools, with the exception of Wayside Park, which does not have electricity.

“We really only have control of the parks,” Matzner said. “But I’m going to talk to the former mayor, who is now on the School Board, to see what we can do to help the schools.”

Matzner hopes that the village’s recent decision to eliminate entrance fees at the park will draw more people and turn Pinecrest Gardens into the community gathering place some have dreamed of.

Vice Mayor Cindie Blanck said she was very excited about Matzner’s approach.

“Coming in after eight plus years with former Mayor Evelyn Greer, he is taking a creative and original approach,” Blanck said.

Matzner also called on the mayors of South Miami, Palmetto Bay and Coral Gables to join forces in solving one of South Florida’s lingering problems: traffic.

The mayor said that while still in the planning stages, he would consider having the village provide additional bus or trolley services to drive middle and elementary school kids to and from school to reduce traffic.

Other projects Matzner plans to take on include adding decorative lighting along the linear park on Red Road between Kendall Drive and Southwest 112th Street, which he hopes will be an aesthetically pleasing way to make the street more pedestrian-friendly.

For those who roll instead of walk, Matzner has in mind a safe alternative to parking lots and railings - a skateboard park.

“This is what I love about term limits,” Blanck said. “Every new term, there is a fresh pair of eyes that can tweak things a bit.”

Documentary Page Labels

• Opening: TURN TO ADDRESS, 4.
• Continuation headline: Mayor: Parks are a priority.
• Continuation: ADDRESS, FROM 3.

Editorial Checks

This broad parks/public-space report includes funding context; it is not the excluded finance-only profile. Obtain the State of the Village address and council records before asserting the entrance-fee decision date or eventual implementation of Wi-Fi, school transport, lighting or skateboard facilities. Preserve the article’s original-site language; it does not concern the relocated Jungle Island business.