Comments from Mary Hamburg – Public Information Officer City of Fernandina Beach

Mary Hamburg
Public Information Officer
City of Fernandina Beach
May 26, 2017 1:00 a.m.

Editor’s Note:  City Manager Dale Martin is involved in budget preparations but will be back next week with his “Weekly Comments from Dale Martin.”

Hello, Fernandina Beach. Please allow me to introduce myself! My name is Mary Hamburg and I was born and raised in San Marco, an historic neighborhood on the Southside of Jacksonville. I attended Florida State University where I received a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a Minor in Sociology. Upon graduation, I served for two years as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. My focus was primarily on the education and prevention of trafficking in persons. Back in the US, I worked for a couple years at the international nonprofit, Best Buddies whose mission is the inclusion of students and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I moved to downtown Fernandina Beach in 2011 and began working as the Social Director at Osprey Village, where I remained for six years before accepting the job as the Public Information Officer (PIO) for the City of Fernandina Beach. I am working under the guidance of Administrative Services Manager, Nicole Bednar, in the City Manager’s office. My husband and I live on the island and have two small boys. We enjoy taking advantage of all that our community has to offer- beaches, bike trails, family friendly events, parks, playgrounds, restaurants and more.

As PIO, I will be handling both media and social networking communications. In case you don’t already, make sure you “like” the City of Fernandina Beach Government Facebook page! I’ve also recently started an Instagram account: city-of-fernandina-beach. These tools will be a mix of important messages and posts with a more personal feel.

My second role will be as a main point person for special events in the City. Fernandina is already putting on some wonderful events, and I hope to continue the trend. I’ll work closely with the “Event Committee” which is comprised of Jay Robertson with Parks and Recreation, Police Chief James Hurley, Jeremiah Glisson and Rex Lester from City Maintenance among others. We are in the process of revitalizing our policies and procedures and hope to have these complete next month.

Some of the primary projects I have on my radar include training and certification courses with the Emergency Operations Center, including Federal Emergency Management Agency classes both locally and regionally, working with CGI Communications on updating the promotional videos on the City of Fernandina Beach Website and beginning a “Day in the Life” feature on Facebook where I will highlight different city personnel in an effort to shed light on all of the hard work that goes into making our city great. I plan to attend meetings with the Historic Fernandina Beach Business Association, Fernandina Beach Main Street, Amelia Island Fernandina Beach Yulee Chamber of Commerce and others in an effort to gauge the desires of local businesses.

Because this is a brand new position for the City, there will be a learning curve as we figure out where the shortcomings lie and in what capacity I can be of service. I am leaning on Nicole, City Manager Dale Martin and the citizens of Fernandina Beach to guide me in the right direction. This is an exciting opportunity and I can’t wait to see what becomes of it. I look forward to meeting many of you while out and about in Fernandina! I truly love this city and will represent it to the best of my ability.