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    On Saturday, Feb. 18, the Gazette learned that Miami Springs councilman Dan Espino was planning to run for District 5 of the Miami-Dade County School Board. (Espino filed the paper work on Feb. 16). The implications were big as it was revealed that once he qualified, he would be forced to immediately resign his Springs council seat.

 

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    As the inspiration for the establishment of the Message from Marli Foundation, a long three-year bout with ovarian cancer came to an end for Marlene Wolff on Monday, Feb. 20 when she passed away peacefully.

 

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    At a Feb. 27 Miami Springs city council meeting, City Manager Ron Gorland got his way when the council gave him the go-ahead with his restructuring of city staff after a lengthy discussion and close 3-2 vote. Gorland’s plan, which would reduce the number of city employees reporting directly to him from 13 to eight, would cost several employees their job but overall would save the city about $117,000. It would promote Finance Director William Alonso and Recreation Director Omar Luna to higher-paying positions with greater responsibilities.

 

MARCH

    The only thing missing at Medley’s March 5 council meeting were the scissors when the council, spurned on by recent reports of possible misspending by Councilman Gerardo Silva Jr., decided by a 4-1 vote with Silva dissenting to cancel their individual town credit card accounts. New travel and expenditure procedures were put in place where any council member wishing to travel and do any kind of purchasing at town expense would first have to have it approved by the council itself.

 

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    Even though the incident took place on Feb. 17, it wasn’t revealed until the first week of March that an 11-year-old fourth-grade student at Miami Springs Elementary claimed he had brought a gun to the school. He also claimed that this father was “in the military and had a bomb.” The incident prompted an investigation by Miami Dade Schools Police and though the student “was a constant behavorial problem,” he did not have a gun or a bomb, the final report indicated. The student was suspended for 10 days.

 

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    The Miami Springs council had been discussing a variety of changes to the elections process in previous weeks but got down to the real meat of the subject at its March 12 council meeting: staggered four-year terms for each of the four seats. After deciding not to change Election Day from the traditional April date to November, eight other potential ballot questions were discussed before eventually deciding on two — one, to change the terms of office for all council members, excluding the mayor, from two years to four; and two, to stagger the terms — which would be part of the Aug. 14 election.

 

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    The quick action of two Miami Springs police officers was credited with saving the life of a local man who had suffered a heart attack and stopped breathing around 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 25. Veteran officer Bob Evans and probational police officer Kyle Kegley were in the area when a call went out for assistance in the parking lot of the Homestead Inn & Suites, 101 Fairway Dr. The officers arrived on the scene within a minute and found Prem Kishore Juvvadi, 40, not breathing behind the wheel of his parked car.
    The officers got an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), a compact unit that’s used to shock a patient’s heart and hopefully get it beating, from the trunk of the patrol car and went to work on Juvvadi. At Palmetto Hospital, it was determined that Juvvadi had a blocked artery and doctors put in a stint. He was released a few days later. “The police were there quickly,” said Juvvadi’s wife, Archana. “Without them, my husband wouldn’t be alive.”