Despite some setbacks, village doing just fine

Deck

The mayor and police chief gave their annual reports to the Village Council on Tuesday. The council also discussed the construction of its future library and community center.

Pinecrest Mayor Gary Matzner gave his second State of the Village address Tuesday, reporting the village had a great year despite setbacks from hurricanes and has much to look forward to as it celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

Matzner said while the year started with a focus on capital improvement projects, including upgrading Pinecrest Gardens, the focus quickly changed as hurricanes Katrina and Wilma rolled through South Florida.

“Katrina was the first real test of our emergency response capabilities,” he said to about 10 people who attended the council meeting. “And despite the damage and 10 inches of rain, I think we passed with flying colors.”

Now, Matzner said, the village must make improvements to better prepare for future storms.

“This next era will be marked by improvements to our utilities and infrastructure,” he said, adding that he favors bringing in natural gas lines, supplying county water to residents with wells and burying power lines.

Pinecrest Police Chief John R. Hohensee also gave an end-of-the-year report, saying the village’s police department is stable and “our crime statistics have again been reduced.”

Serious crimes, which include robberies, sex crimes and aggravated assaults, went down about 4 percent - to 724 last year from 753 in 2004, he said. Burglaries, however, increased.

“We need the community’s help to lock their stuff up,” he said, urging residents to lock their car doors and homes and not to leave things like laptops and cellphones in cars where robbers can see them.

He said the department gave out 13,000 traffic tickets in 2005 and is proud that “the word is out to watch when you’re driving in Pinecrest.”

In other business, the council discussed bids it received for construction of the future library and community center, which will be located at Pinecrest Gardens, 11000 Red Rd.

Village Manager Peter Lombardi said only two firms submitted bids, but other firms that were interested said they did not apply because it was during the busy holiday season.

The Miami-Dade Public Library System has agreed to pitch in $3.2 million for construction of the library as well as a portion of the design costs and common elements such as courtyards and construction management, he said.

The village will pay the balance.

The lowest bid came from Aventura Engineering at about $6.7 million, which exceeds the architect’s construction estimate done in September by more than $400,000, Lombardi said.

He said costs might be a bit higher than anticipated because of increasing costs and demand for building supplies.

Lombardi told the council it could redesign the project to cut costs or reject the two bids and solicit new ones.

The council, which has 90 days to decide whether to accept the bids, deferred a decision until its next meeting on Feb. 13.

The council will discuss annexing the small triangle of businesses - bounded on the north by Southwest 67th Avenue, on the west by South Dixie Highway and the south by the canal - at its next meeting.

Interpretation And Connections

The January26 brief653644196 covers the same address and police report but omits Gary’s Katrina quotation, police prevention advice and the construction/annexation discussion. Preserve these separately rather than silently expanding the brief. Connect the January initial bids/decision deferral to the June25 rebidding report654203556 and October1 groundbreaking report654515181. Do not infer a final award, signed contract, completed utilities or annexation from previewed decisions. Gary’s hurricane-response assessment and chief’s crime figures are attributed claims, not independent evaluations.

Column joins: quickly/changed; end-/of-the-year; received/for construction; construction/estimate. Complete final paragraph ends next meeting.