Ongoing upscale initiatives endorsed by City Commission
By Bari Auerbach

The first City Commission meeting of 2008 highlighted a myriad of initiatives that will create an even higher quality of life in Sunny Isles Beach. From forging ahead with landscaping, drainage and roadway improvements - to enhancing parks, public safety and information technology, the city continues to prosper as progress keeps moving “onward and upward.”

‘Strong and Secure’

Sunny Isles Beach Mayor Norman S. Edelcup recently delivered the annual State of the City Address, emphasizing the city’s financial strength is gaining “onward and upward” momentum.

“The state of the city’s financial condition is very secure and strong,” Edelcup reported. “We have been able to maintain our funding on scheduled capital improvements this past year; and at the same time maintain a healthy general fund reserve balance of $17 million.

“During the past year, the financial well-being of our city continued to improve.
Nearly one billion dollars of new construction was added while existing property values
increased by $500 million. This brought our total property values in the city to $6.3
billion. As a result of the tax reform mandate from the State Legislature, we dropped
our millage rate from 2.95 per $1,000 to 2.398 per $1,000 of assessed value, a reduction
of nearly 19%. Simply put, the property tax rate was reduced significantly.”

‘Clean, Green and Pristine’

With the goal to achieve “onward and upward” goals relating to municipal upkeep and responsive service, the City Commission has approved a plan to hire eight additional employees, who will work in conjunction with private sector companies to keep Sunny Isles Beach clean, green and pristine.

The Commission also endorsed moving ahead with devising strategies for the creation of more green, open space development as well as retaining transportation and engineering services to address challenges such as the need for more parking space.

Other proactive initiatives in keeping with the city’s “onward and upward” philosophy include undergrounding utilities; acquiring uniform street signs; drainage improvements throughout the city; Sunny Isles Boulevard revitalization; updating the city’s emergency disaster plan; and enhancing communications with businesses in construction zones.

‘New Website to See’

Moving “onward and upward” with advancements in technology, on Feb. 4, the City of Sunny Isles Beach launched the new and improved website www.sibfl.net The city’s website now has a new updated design enabling users to more quickly and easily access information online.

New website links provide information about beach conditions, emergency alerts, online building permit requests plus enable residents, visitors and business owners to communicate more effectively with the city
Currently visitors to the site can communicate with Government Center by sending a message to the webmaster. According to Edel Fonseca, Director of the city’s Information Technology Department, “Plans for the future include improved communications capabilities by offering an e-subscription service and an enhanced method of communicating with various departments to report, for example, a broken sign or a pothole that will initiate and track a work request.”
In 2003, Alyce Hanson, the city’s Director of Administrative Services, was instrumental in helping Sunny Isles Beach create the city’s original user friendly website with assistance from Miami-Dade County’s Government Information Department.
Shortly before the website’s initial launch, she prophesized, “This is an exciting project that I propose to you as a ‘verb’ in that it will always be evolving…The challenge will be to keep information current for residents; to add services useful to those doing business with the city and to add information and visuals of interest to visitors from around the nation and the world. It’s no accident that the city’s website will be user friendly and that e-government will be a priority. It is being done deliberately and in the spirit of cooperation with the end user.”
According to Jose Otero, Web Designer for Miami-Dade County, “Updating the [Sunny Isles Beach] web portal enables the city to offer improved navigation, utilize best practices in the design of the site, and apply the branding for Sunny Isles Beach - Florida’s Riviera.”
The partnership between the city and Miami-Dade County’s Government Information Department will continue and now allow city staff to update the new fully-dynamic calendar. On the updated website, visitors will be able to see all the entries on the calendar or be able to filter out, for example, just “City Meetings”’ or “Cultural Events.”
The design for the “new and improved” website was based on research tracking most prevalently used links and key word searches. Just some of the information on-line links are as follows:

Government Center information including department descriptions and profiles of the Mayor and City Commissioners; city services; news bulletins; calendar of meetings and cultural events; things to do; transportation; code compliance, alarm registration, on-line inspection, permitting and licensing information; important phone numbers and addresses; hurricane guidelines; job information; and links to other government agency websites. There is also a “quick find” search engine to help users locate their specific area of interest.

‘The www.sibfl.net website is yet another example of the commitment being made by the City of Sunny Isles Beach to come up with the most cost effective ways to utilize ‘modern technology’ to create better systems across the board,” Hanson said. “Ultimately, it’s everyone who lives and works in Sunny Isles Beach who will reap the benefits of our 21st century city.”

‘Top Dog’
Dog owners will soon be able to take their “best friends” to a specially designated dog park at Sen. Gwen Margolis Park during an experimental three month period thanks to the city’s “onward and upward” efforts to develop more community-oriented social gathering places..
A portion of the northeast corner of Margolis Park will be fenced off for the dog park which will be open Monday through Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Back in November of last year, the City Commission began discussing the pros and cons associated with the concept of creating a dog park in Sunny Isles Beach. City Manager John Szerlag originally proposed fencing in the western portion of Town Center Park on Collins Avenue for the dog park – an idea which brought up safety issues regarding children, parking dilemmas and other concerns.
Subsequently, per suggestion of Commissioner Gerry Goodman, the Commission concurred Sen. Gwen Margolis Park would be a preferred location for a dog park due to better accessibility and parking.
At the Jan. 17 City Commission meeting, Goodman expressed concerns about the dog park becoming too “high maintenance” for the city if owners failed to pick up after their dogs.
Mayor Norman Edelcup noted, “We’ve made some promises we would find a location [in the city for a dog park] and we’ll experiment for a short period of time to see if it works. We have a responsibility to have this as an amenity – pet owners want to have a place for their dogs to run…The City Manager will set up a pilot program and pet owners are forewarned: If they don’t [clean up after their dog] this experiment will come to a halt.”
Heralded as new “meet and greet spots,” municipal dog parks are increasing in popularity throughout the United States.
"We realized a long time ago that these parks weren't about the dogs so much but about people coming together and building communities," said Steve Temmermand, division chief for Arlington Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources. "There are potluck supper clubs, book clubs, people exchange movies, all kinds of stuff. It's an entire social network. People have met their boyfriends, girlfriends and spouses at these parks.”
In response to the requests of local pet owners, the City of Aventura created a dog park and October of 2007 marked the opening of the Northeast Regional Dog Park – a 1.76 acre area in East Greynolds Park split into sections for smaller and larger dogs.

Located at 16700 Biscayne Boulevard, the dog park was made possible through a collaborative effort by the Miami-Dade County Parks Department, the cities of North Miami and North Miami Beach, and spearheaded by Commissioner Sally Heyman.
“The dog park was overdue," Heyman said, because more owners want to spend time with their pets.

‘Pier Into the Future’

With even more municipal accomplishments on the horizon including the restoration of the historic Newport pier; the completion of Pelican Community Park; and the opening of the city’s first public school in August – Sunny Isles Beach is poised for even more progress as the state of the city continues to move in the best direction - “onward and upward.”

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