Miami Springs OK’s spending on improvements for dog park, ball fields, golf course
The Miami Springs City Council voted 5-0 on Dec. 13 to approve reallocating $1,653,924.65 in remaining American Rescue Plan Act funding toward infrastructure improvements at its dog park, ball fields and golf course.
“The City of Miami Springs received a total of $6,970,380 as its allocation of ARPA funds, half was paid in September 2021 and the other half will be received in September 2022,” City Manager William Alonso said. “The attached city projects shows projects that may be partially or totally funded with the $1,653,924.”
Miami Springs’ updated list of “eligible” projects totals $1,817,000, and results in a “shortfall” of $163,076, officials said. The projects include:
$300,000, four new racquetball courts at Stafford Park
$250,000, walking path lights at Stafford Park
$100,000, exercise stations at Stafford Park
$125,000, playground at Ragan Park
$200,000, Peavey-Dove Park fencing
$90,500, dog park water fountain and picnic tables
$96,750, little league field
$45,000, ball field shades
$70,349, pool shades
$58,401, Westward Drive tree lights
$40,000, irrigation system at Curtiss Mansion
$15,000, noise panels at the senior center
$146,000, additional police officer and squad car
$280,000, first “debt service” payment for golf course greens’ renovation
Stafford Park is slated to receive $650,000 in COVID-19 relief funding. It sits on a 455,462-square-foot lot across from a middle school and is owned by the Miami-Dade County School Board, according to the county appraiser’s website.
The park was named after former Miami Springs police officer Charles B. Stafford, who was shot dead 30 years ago after he chased a driver, who failed to yield, to Liberty City.
Though not projected to get federal pandemic money, the Miami Springs Historical Society Inc., which abuts Stafford Park, recently held a grand re-opening for its museum after the city provided $52,150 for renovations.
The 900-square-foot site, once a storage shed for lawn mowers and park supplies, had its last grand opening in 2013. The society sent a memo last summer asking the city to cover half of its current $24,995 budget, and cited expenses including $3,000 for newspaper ads.
“Years of fund raising, building permits and associated changes and the collaboration of the city of Miami Springs in this public private endeavor has created a place where the community can see and celebrate its heritage,” Virginia Gardens Councilman Richard Block, a society member, said in an email to the Herald.
Earlier this month, the Miami Springs City Council approved a resolution authorizing an $8,215 payment to settle a lawsuit which named the historical society as a party, according to an internal city memo.
The museum is located at 501 East Dr. and is open on Saturdays from 12 to 4 p.m. The entrance fee is $8.
For information, visit https://www.mshmuseum.org
$3.5 million golf course renovation approved
The City Council has allocated $280,000 in coronavirus recovery funds towards a $3.5 million renovation of the Miami Springs Golf Course, which will require long-term financing.
“The renovation of the golf course is going to run about $3.5 million,” Alonso said. “If we do a 15-year note, at around 2.5 percent, it’s an annual debt service of about $280,000.”
Miami Springs last approved a golf course renovation in 2009, a move that cost lots of green but left taxpayers in a sand trap.
“We did one project about 12 years ago for $600,000 and it was done wrong, totally wrong, so that was taking that money and throwing it out the door,” Golf Course Director Paul O’Dell said at the Dec. 13 City Council meeting.
Though it is unclear what went wrong, the Miami Springs golf course has faced some water hazards.
Last year, three wells situated on the Miami Springs golf course were closed for nearly six months owing to chemical contamination, according to the county.
In 2013, a Miami Herald report showed officials discovered an unregistered 1,120-gallon diesel tank buried in the Miami Springs well field at the same level as the water supply.
According to the city, the proposed golf course renovation plan would tee off with $280,000 in ARPA cash for a first-year debt service payment, which includes interest and principal. Miami Springs is then projected to make fourteen $280,000 annual debt service payments totaling $3,920,000.
It remains unclear how much the golf course renovation may move the city’s property tax needle. Miami Springs’ property taxes — which are among the county’s highest — has its current rate set at 7.2095 for every $1,000 of taxable home value.
Miami Springs takes third swing at annexation in 2022
At the last meeting of the year on Dec. 13, Miami Springs leaders mulled its 2022 plans to annex a swath of land along Northwest 72nd Avenue.
The city has failed in its last two attempts, since 2009, to annex land west of the airport, that includes at least one large strip club, after protests at County Hall by west airport area business owners who questioned the city’s intentions.
Founded in 1926 by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, Miami Springs has a spotty record when it comes to extending its boundaries. About 10 years ago, the city annexed land near Northwest 36th Street and created an adult entertainment district that permits sex shops, lap dances, bondage, and humiliating activities, the city ordinance says.
Since it created an adult district in what locals call the “Abraham Tract,” officials in the three-square-mile city north of Miami International Airport have sought more police officers to offset a surge in crime.
Miami Springs adds cop, aids South Florida task force
COVID-19 recovery funds will provide Miami Springs with another officer and a squad car, at a cost of $146,000. The city estimates the cost of keeping the officer, however, will cost taxpayers $100,000 annually.
Miami Springs police last fall submitted a budget request of $7,792,957, an increase of $252,333 from the prior year, according to the city’s proposed 2021-2022 budget.
“We have one officer assigned to a task force,” said Miami Springs Police Chief Armando Guzman, who earns $140,376 per year, and joined the department in 2015 after working as a Miami Dade College public safety chief.
One of the department’s objectives, an internal memo shows, is to combat “the drug problem through interagency cooperation by the assignment of a police officer to the South Florida High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area/South Florida Money Laundering Strike Force.”
Last September, Guzman said in a memo to the City Council that Miami Springs police have worked with the South Florida Financial Crimes Strike Force — since 2016 — which has led to “numerous cases being solved, arrests, and confiscations of elicit [sic] drugs and substantial amounts of money being seized and put into the Law Enforcement Trust Fund.”
A public records request by the Herald seeking more information is pending review by the City Clerk’s office.
Miami Springs “expected” uses of prior ARPA funds, officials said, include $3,692,476 for stormwater and road improvements along East Dr., and $1,348,721 for a median project along South Royal Poinciana Boulevard.
“They [proposed projects] all seem reasonable and the details obviously for what we’re getting,” said Miami Springs Mayor Maria Mitchell.
The Dec. 13 meeting was lightly attended, and no residents spoke for or against how Miami Springs plans to spend its remaining ARPA funds.
At the time this article was published, Miami Springs had not yet set a date for its next Council meeting. For information, visit https://www.miamisprings-fl.gov/meetings
Theo Karantsalis can be reached at karantsalis@bellsouth.net.
This story was originally published December 23, 2021 at 2:30 PM.