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Home My WebLink AboutItem #18 - Personal AppearanceCITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA INTER -OFFICE MEMORANDUM TO FROM Mr. Paul Andrews City Manager rtt.r March 11, 1976 Mrs, Charles Starkey k _r :L.NC:''G Mayor Maurice A. Ferre �'�1 Trail Mini -Park NCLOS;VR S. Mrs. Charles Starkey hand delivered the attached letter to my office today in reference to her request to appear before the City of Miami — Commission regarding the Trail Mini -Park located on the corner of S. W. 8 Street and 15 Avenue. Would you please notify Mrs. Starkey, 200 S. W. 50 Street, Miami, Florida, telephone 444-4830 as soon as possible when she will appear before the City Commission. MAF/vmh enclosure CITY COMMISSION MEETING OF MAR 2 5 °Aro 7L- 30/ �7 Mayor Maurice Ferre P.O. Bo: 330708 Coconut Grego Station Miami, ela. 33133 200 S. 50 E►ve. Miami, -ela . 33134 March 11, 1976 Re: Trail Hini.►Park Doer 1•iayor Ferro: As per my letter of Feb. 6, 1976 to City Manager P. Yv. AndreWs, to which I have not as yet received e reely, I am again questioning the extravagant expenditure of close to :,e100,000.00 for the Trail hinii Park being developed on a lot 55' X 9O1 on the corner of S. W. 8th. St. and S. of . 15th. Ave. I understand that the plans for this park were donated by Cuban Architect Raul Alvarez and designed with a S'anish Motif in keeping with the over all future redevelopment of this particular area end that the bids wore made according to those particular specifications. 1 also understand that 0. A. Davis, Inc. was the low bidder. however, in all fairness, 1 must say that some of the other bids were utterly ridiculous. My husband and I have been involved in A.,t. management, including construction of same in the Miami area and also in real estate, for the past 20 years, so we are a little familiar with construction costs and while I know these costs have sky-rocveted in the past cou )le of years, I know that they- have not yot reached the heights of these proposed bids. In fact, I could not even find the names and addresses of some of these proposed bidders in the phone book but perhaps they migcit be listed by someother name. :i: feel that since this .;}56, 248.00 plus the . 5, 62ti..80 plus the .;1.,124.00 in other monies allocated out of the Parks for roople Bond issue, added to the approximately 4314.,000.00 for the cost of the lot and these sums do net include tables for the Domino players who have used the lot for the past 5 years and will continue to do so, and no sanitary facilities which would cost an additional 30,000.0O sh..uld they have to be installed in the future, the entire cost of this Bark should be reviewed. Especially in view of some unexplained discreoancies in the cost break down 1 have seen that was submitted by A. Davis, in which Westside Nursery was listed on his original proposal as the Landscape Sub -contractor at a cost of 9,660.00, and the sub -contractor is actually Lewtaw :Vurseries at a cost of either 0,000.00 or 0,700.00, without written permission being submitted for the change. The landsoapo proposal calls for 36 almost full grown trees, 1$' tail, the ;lot plan shows 31 and my information is that trees that s+.ao require at least 20 sq. ft. canter to center to allow room for growth of these i 1ael- Olive trees, and as shown on the plan they will only nave 6' center to center between there, meaning 1U trees would cover these gruunc's and still leave room to grow. £he balance of the landscape material is just as over -planted. I nm sure that th. Spanish Motif could ba carried out without IR0,318.00 being ,pent on the electrical work ;end really cannot understand why it is necessary to have expensive ventilator fans in the ceiling of the 2 open sided shelters (unless they are designed to dissipate the smoke from the cigars of the domino° players). The plot plan shows more fixtures than would normally be necessary to ddequatoly light the area, also. Mayor riet t 1 knOW that doors are necessary for the 61 n' 6{ st_.rage shed, but tiffst they coat 070.00? And 9 wood benches) even at 161 long or some 101 long, at 0,566.00 are pretty expensive benches. The roofing which will help to Catty OUt the Spanish style is about the only item that even 1oolt reasonabie. Surely there is a lot of fet in this contract that could be tritnrned, especially at a tine when everyone is being asked to tighten their belts and Watch their budgets. l cannot understand the ruoh by the City Fathers in awarding this eo retract as of Jan. 8, when the bids were only closed as of Dec. 23rd, and our City Fathore usually do not make decisions that fast. I also cannot Understand how or why the usual normal procedures were by-passed and no one in the City Departments have questioned the extremely high cost of some of these contract items. 85% of the surrounding neighborhood whose taxes or rents have doubled in the oast few years do not even want the park since the dominue players presently constitute a nuisance inasmuch as they play until all hours of the night keeping everyone awake, violence erupts at times when the players d _ not pny off on their bets) garbling going on to the extent of Senior Ct-V :,ens losing their social security checks in their games, prostitutes hanging out on the corner to get their shore of the available money and allof this is depreciating the value of the surrounding properties. The rmbling can be verified by the Vice Squad of the Police Dept. end i am sure that once the £iini-Perk is developed, all the_ e things will continua as they have in the pest. No public hearings wore held to inquire of the neighborhood to ask their opinion of the park. As you know 1 had talked to at least 100 people in the surrounding not ;t boyhood in i:etting the 50 signatures on the petition against the 'ianateo parking lot and practically all we e opposed to the park or to the expenditure that J. L. Plum: r, Commissioner, had stated th.. cost would be at the time the City purchased the lot, and of course it is costing much more than that. Unfortunately, the Xmsrican residents in the area ar.. afraid to spea=J out in their oppusitionrfor fear of retaliation from their Cuban neighbors. 'there have been no Darks developed in that area in the past 2u years, nor is there any money in the present uity budget to improve or widen the narrow streets or curb them, or do any repaving. Since tho City does own this lot and a mini -park would perhaps help improve the area, l am certain that it could babe been developed for a much lesser cost. Cr if nut, and the Latin ''harrber of Commerca and the S. W. 8th. Street °lerchant` s Beautifiention `'ornnittee wish this expensive development, perhaps they couldm3ko a donation of bout ,t�50,000.00 by assessing each of them, who after allthe park is supposed to benefit. And of course, they were on -,inali.y sueposed to have donated the zil envy for the trees and plantings on e. 8th. Street from ". 12tri. Avenue to ''. N. 17th. Ave. but did not, and the trees ended up costing the taxpayers in excess of 05,000.00, plus tho cost of the additional plantings. T sent copies of my letter to the uity 1'iana tier to ::veryone listed on the bottom: of the letter, but as the copy to your office was inexplicably rendered unreadable, and several were not delivered from your mail room to the udress cos, I do not know if ever;Y one received them or not. NayOt Fette We dertaidly hope that yoUr oftlee Can give its some logical antWete to thee pU»Sling qUestims, After all, even though theSetexpenditUres ate doming out of the PaOts for People Bond issue, taxoayer t money is still involVed and 1 am sure that our City Fathers with to spbnd their money as wisely at possible, since it all comes out of the taxpayers peeketa Ultitately, if nedeasary, we and the others who object to this unrealistic expenditure would like to disdiss this matter immediately in front of the Pall City Commission meeting in the hopes that this can be completely reviewed before any more work is completed on this contract, cc: P. W. Andrews, `ity Manager Al]. City Commissioners Vince Grimm, Adm. Public works Mr. Roger Chewning, Adm: Parks Dept. Ray Goode, Dade County anager "r. Wilfredo Gort, Beautification Comm. Gloria Marina, Miami Herald Reporter Respectfully yours) % and Mrs. Charles Starkj 17-