April 2016 E-News

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The Village Council and former elected officials of the Village gathered at Evelyn Greer Park on March 12th to celebrate Pinecrest's 20th anniversary. Visit us on Facebook for more photographs from the event.

Village Council March 15th Meeting Update ▪ The Village Council passed a resolution awarding a bid to Bejar Construction for the Pinecrest Gardens' Covered Walkway Roof Replacement project. ▪ The Village Council passed a resolution waiving fees for police services for the annual race/fitness walk benefiting Special Olympics to be held on April 24, 2016. ▪ The Village Council adopted a policy directing participants in the Police Department's Neighborhood Watch program to refrain from using the program and mailing lists for political advocacy. ▪ The Village Council directed that the Village Manager’s fire rescue study proceed with an analysis including two new stations to be located on the Village’s perimeter and not within the central residential area. ▪ The Village Council cancelled the proposed 132nd Street Sidewalk project.

Meet Pinecrest’s New K-9 Unit K-9 Officer Julian Acosta and Maze, a 3-year old Belgian Malinois, are currently attending 480 hours of basic apprehension and obedience certification training; which will be followed by eight weeks of drug/narcotics detection training. The K-9 Unit will provide a quick response to crime scenes where the suspect has evaded the police and will assist police in the detection of illegal drugs during building and vehicle searches. Officer Acosta and Maze are April 2016 E-News

slated to be on patrol by June 2016.

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www.pinecrest-fl.gov/police | @pinecrestpolice | Facebook

Time Capsule to be Opened in 2046 As part of the Village’s 20th anniversary celebration, Pinecrest officials dedicated a time capsule at the Pinecrest Municipal Center. The capsule contains items including a 2016 U.S. coin set, a Pinecrest Police patch, submissions from local schools, a replica Pinecrest street sign, mementoes with the 20th anniversary logo, and copies of various Village publications. The capsule will be opened on the Village’s 50th anniversary in 2046.

Flood Management: What You Can Do? Several of the Village’s efforts relating to flood management depend on your cooperation and assistance. Here is how you can help: * Do not dump or throw anything into swales, lakes, canals, or other waterways. Dumping into our swales and waterways is a violation of Chapter 15 of the Village’s Code of Ordinances. Even grass clippings and branches can accumulate and block channels. A blocked channel cannot carry water and when it rains, the water has to go somewhere. Every piece of trash contributes to flooding. * If your property is located adjacent to a swale or waterway, please do your part and keep the banks clear of brush and debris. The Village has a swale maintenance program which can help remove major blockages such as downed trees. * If you see dumping or debris in the swales or waterways, please contact the Public Works Department at 305-669-6916 or submit via our MyPinecrest app. * Always check with the Building and Planning Department before you build, alter, regrade, April 2016 E-News

or fill on your property. Building permits are required. * If you see building or filling without a valid building permit card on display, contact the Building and Planning Department at 305-234-2121. * Visit www.pinecrest-fl.gov/flood for information on flood proofing, flood insurance, and flood safety.

Historical Marker for Miami Serpentarium Site The Village Council unveiled a historical marker commemorating the former site of the Miami Serpentarium at the Pinecrest Town Center on US 1 just south of the municipal center. The Miami Serpentarium was founded in 1946 by Bill Haast and was one of Florida’s first tourist attractions with 50,000 visitors each year. Haast’s intuitive foresight, determination, pioneering efforts, and sacrifice are credited with advancing the use of venoms in science and medicine. Nancy Haast, from the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories in Punta Gorda, Florida, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill, who brought along a 100 lb. albino boa named Prince, were special guests at the event.

My Pinecrest Banner Contest Thank you to all the students who participated in the My Pinecrest, My Community Banner Contest and congratulations to the following five students whose submissions were selected: Isabella Rivera (Pinecrest Elementary); Jenna Blank (Pinecrest Elementary); Isabel Duran (Palmetto Elementary); Zoe Hadley (Palmetto Middle); and Seth Stultz (Palmetto Middle). The banners were on display at the Village's 20th anniversary celebration event on March 12th.

The opinions expressed below are those of the noted elected official and are not necessarily the consensus or opinion of the Village Council. April 2016 E-News

From the Desk of Mayor Lerner Earth Day. Join us at Pinecrest Gardens on Sunday, April 17th from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. for our 7th Annual Earth Day Festival. Each year, Earth Day brings communities and organizations together to advocate for a healthier environment and sustainable life. This year, on the 46th anniversary of Earth Day, the Village of Pinecrest, with support from the CLEO Institute, will again host an Earth Day Festival with a focus on the impacts of climate change and how South Florida must prepare for the impacts of sea level rise. Join our newly created Climate Action Coalition which will have its first organizing meeting during the Earth Day Festival. Learn about the impacts of climate change on our community and how we can protect our natural and built environment. The day will include many great speakers and topics as well as the Dream in Green We Lab, wildlife shows, plant sales, and vendors. Join us for a full day of learning how you can contribute to a more resilient community including a workshop presented by We Lab to learn terrific sustainable living tips, and take home a package of energy efficient and water conservation improvements for your home. The Climate Action Coalition will focus on assuring that our local governments are planning for and financing the critically important infrastructure improvements necessary to protect our built and natural environments. Join South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard and I, along with various experts, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., in the Historic Entrance Building, for a discussion of the Compact of Mayors and what each city is doing to plan for and protect our homes, businesses and infrastructure over the course of the next 10 to 20 years. For more information, please contact me via e-mail at [email protected]. For more information on conservation and energy efficiency tips, check out www.epa.gov, www.energystar.org, www.miamidade.gov/green, and www.dreamingreen.org.

Transportation Solutions. A transit solution for south Miami-Dade County is bringing light rail along the corridor on US 1. Rapid transit connecting south Miami-Dade County to Downtown Miami and beyond has been a pipe dream for more than two decades. The transit planning over that period of time has largely ignored the part of the county south of downtown, excusing their oversight by claiming there simply is not, nor will there be, sufficient population density to justify the investment. Sadly, our elected leaders instead sought cheaper transit alternatives, settling for a rapid bus transit system. And sadder still, they never funded or made the full improvements we were promised and we paid for with our half penny sales tax to bring full bus rapid transit to the busway. Some history is in order. Once funding and construction began back in 1997, with Phase 1 of three phases required to connect the Dadeland South Metrorail station to the southern part of the county at Florida City, it was touted as a "state of the art US 1 federal transit demonstration project." This project, when complete, would have provided a federally funded bus rapid transit system. Phase 2 came in 2002 and upon completion of Phase 3 in 2006, and finding that the rapid was lacking in the bus transit, studies were commissioned by the MPO to identify additional ways to enhance and to subsidize additional costs. The problem was the 20-mile ride for south Miami-Dade residents, who started in Florida City or Homestead, wasn't rapid at all. Rather, if it stopped at every one of the more than two dozen stops, and the lights at every intersection, the commute took up to 70 minutes. Later in 2006, the county's Southlink Citizens Committee recommended either light rail or full bus rapid transit and the county determined the preferred alternative was full bus rapid transit. That was 10 years ago. The technology to synchronize the lights along the busway has been available for years, but was never instituted. The additional park and rides were identified, and some property purchased, but were never built. The additional infrastructure and technology April 2016 E-News

notwithstanding, ridership has increased as a result of population, traffic and desperation to get to jobs in the northern parts of the county. The need has been so great that until recently, buses filled up and left passengers standing at the stops unable to board. Finally, with a new commissioner in south Miami-Dade, additional buses have been added. While a light rail system, as many other U.S. cities have developed over the past two decades, had been suggested as an alternate in the Southlink study of 2006, leadership and vision was missing to make it a reality. And to make matters worse, our county MPO then began a study to divert the transit function completely and instead study the feasibility of creating another expressway out of the busway. The MPO lost its way completely, funding a several million dollar study (the MDX Study in 2011) which wasted precious time and money for three years, to determine whether it would be feasible to make the busway into an expressway with an express lane, and charge tolls to pay for the infrastructure, all of which was an absurd idea. Many of us, including Pinecrest, were opposed to the study and the idea of removing a federally funded transit route, which also would have required the county to repay the federal government the $18 million that was spent on building the busway, if they diverted the function away from transit. Pinecrest registered its concerns with a resolution that I sponsored which recommended stopping the 30-month study more than halfway through. Thankfully, the Miami-Dade Legislative Delegation took on MDX during the legislative session of 2015 for raising tolls and for failing to invest in anything more than more expressways, and as a result, they froze the study and thankfully ended it before it was ever completed. It lasted three years and wasted untold millions of tax dollars. Three years and millions of dollars wasted on ridiculous plans imposed on us by the MPO. So is there any wonder we are fed up, have lost trust and are now taking the matter into our own hands as a coalition of mayors, commissioners and legislators representing south Miami-Dade? South Miami-Dade mayors have a shared vision for light rail for the south Miami-Dade corridor. Finally the gridlock countywide has become so unbearable, the demand for transit solutions is being heard in every corner of the county. We in south Miami-Dade have been discussing our crisis and our options for several years, and finally the five mayors along with our county commissioners and state legislators have all joined in a unified vision for light rail to be brought to the south Miami-Dade corridor. Mayors from Homestead, Florida City, Cutler Bay, Palmetto Bay and I along with County Commissioners Daniella Levine Cava and Xavier Suarez, and State Representative Kionne McGhee have held several workshops with the new MPO Executive Director, Maileen Boucle, and Miami- Dade Transit Director, Alice Bravo, and are in the process of finalizing a memorandum of understanding. The goal is light rail along the entire south Miami-Dade corridor from Dadeland to Florida City. The MPO will immediately begin a NEPA study, required to apply for federal funding, and we fully expect to have our proposal approved by the full MPO next month. The proposal that will go before the MPO for our and other parts of the county's transit plans must get our combined support in order to assure the gridlock we all currently experience everywhere in the county will find real transit solutions in the next few years.

What's Happening in Pinecrest? Upcoming Public Meetings

Village Council Meeting Tuesday, April 12, 2016, 6:00 p.m.

Additional Information April 2016 E-News

Calendars Parks and Recreation Pinecrest Gardens Senior Citizens

Complete Calendar of Activities and Meetings

The E-News is a monthly publication of the Office of the Village Clerk.

Editors Guido H. Inguanzo, Jr., CMC, Village Clerk Michelle Hammontree, Communications Manager

Village Council Cindy Lerner, Mayor James E. McDonald, Vice Mayor Cheri Ball Doug Kraft Bob Ross

Yocelyn Galiano, ICMA-CM, Village Manager Guido H. Inguanzo, Jr., CMC, Village Clerk Mitchell Bierman, Village Attorney

Village of Pinecrest Pinecrest Municipal Center 12645 Pinecrest Parkway Pinecrest, Florida 33156 t 305.234.2121 f 305.234.2131 www.pinecrest-fl.gov April 2016 E-News