Mike Lednovich
Candidate Fernandina Beach City Commission
Group 4
September 19, 2018 10:00 a.m.
Editor’s Note: Every year the Fernandina Observer presents questions to candidates in order to help our readers be informed voters. We have disabled the ability to offer comments on this post. Thank you candidates for responding to our request and for running for office.
Lednovich is seeking a seat on the Fernandina Beach City Commission, Group 4. He faces Bradley Bean and Incumbent Roy G. Smith in the Nov 6 general election.
Bio: Each morning, my wife of 36 years and I say a little “thank you” for the wonderful city we call home. We purchased and renovated a house in Parkway North, where my wife runs a freelance writing business.
My professional career has prepared me to run for City Commissioner and fulfill my pledge to preserve and nurture the treasures that are Fernandina Beach.
For the past 20 years as a business consultant, I’ve helped companies and organizations like Disney World, the Philadelphia School District and Pratt & Whitney chart their path to success and achieve their goals.
I ran the third-largest chapter of Make-A-Wish in the United States and was CEO of a $45 million construction company that built courthouses, schools and city halls.
Teaching Leadership and Strategy to managers and executives at a West Coast university was especially satisfying.
I was part of the executive team that doubled the size a media company to almost $1 billion in revenues.
Previously, as an award winning journalist, I covered the inner workings of Port Everglades and several Broward County municipalities.
As a full-time city commissioner, I will work to protect our beaches, tree canopy, wetlands, historic district, residential neighborhoods, and local businesses that collectively make Fernandina Beach so special.
After completion of Fernandina’s Municipal Airport terminal and repairs to the Marina, where should the city concentrate its capital improvement projects?
The Historic Downtown District requires a renovation. The trees have reached their life expectancy and need to be replaced. The current street lighting is not uniform and half the street lights do not meet state wind requirements. Several blocks of sidewalks need to be redone.
The City water system includes cast iron pipes that are or are near 100 years old. The water main below Centre Street is one of these and needs to be replaced before it suffers a catastrophic failure. The Water Department has the funds for the replacement.
The foundation of Brett’s Cafe over the Amelia River is failing and needs to be replaced at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars.
The city has 40 aging, wooden beach walkovers that will need to be systematically replaced with more durable concrete walkovers.
The municipal golf course is 60 years old and the green complexes have been neglected for six decades. Normally, greens are redone every 20 years. The cost of redoing the greens is $1.2 million.
The city is also near completion of a mobility study which will tell us where street lighting and sidewalks are most needed.
Improved pedestrian walkways along Front Street and crossings for Ash and Alachua should also be a priority.
These projects need to be graded on importance and the urgency to get them done and then funded.
Which of the following 3 city projects would have your highest priority, if elected to the City Commission? How would you pay for it?
(A) Improving the Amelia Riverfront and adding a waterfront park;
(B)Purchasing land for conservation;
(C) Rehabilitating or replacing aging city facilities such as firehouses, or recreational facilities.
Land conservation, it’s an investment in the natural infrastructure of our barrier island against storms and flooding. Once the land is gone, it’s gone forever. Let’s conserve 100 acres of the 856 undeveloped acres in the city.
I support conservation funding by a voter approved referendum. Other funding sources for conservation could be a specific impact fee fund, called an open space, or conservation impact fee. Conservation grant funds may also be available through programs like the Parks and Open Space Florida Forever Grant Program.
Aging City facilities. The next four years will see an increase and added stress on the need for city services. We must be able to provide first-class services for residents and visitors alike. That means improving the support facilities that provide those services and could be paid for with grants, impact fees and taxes.
Waterfront Park. We’ve kicked this can down the road long enough. The waterfront is the crown jewel of the city and should align with our new marina in attracting boaters and tourists to Historic Downtown as well as serving as a gathering place for residents to enjoy the waterfront. Improved performance management of the marina should generate revenues to help pay for the park along with Federal/State grants and city taxes. Some examples of potential grants sources are The Florida Department of Community Affairs; Florida Coastal Management Program grants; The Florida Department of Community Affairs; Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program (FRDAP) for recreational land acquisition, park design and construction.
Why did you decide to challenge an incumbent in this race?
I’m running because policies embraced by the incumbent are taking the City down a path that threatens to eradicate the small-town qualities that make our community such a desirable place to live and visit. We can and must do better.
We need leadership that values preservation of our unique beach town – with its historic buildings, businesses and neighborhoods — not policies that foster untenable development. The incumbent voted to pave over wetlands at 14th and Lime and destroy 300 trees in favor of 204 apartment units. He voted to convert 4 acres of promised recreation/park space to Amelia Park homeowners into a 14-unit housing development. He has repeatedly voted to rezone industrial property to residential development.
Amelia Island is barely 4 miles wide and 13 miles long. We need to transition from models that pursues prosperity through expansion of concrete and asphalt. We must abandon the old, worn out economic dogma that trumpets “Growth equals tax dollars; construction equals tax dollars; more people and more construction drives economic activity, which then equals more dollars for businesses which turns the turbine of more tax dollars.”He has publicly stated that “I didn’t move here for the trees.”
We should instead embrace the spirit that created the Egans Creek Greenway in 2001 and support the reasons we all choose to live here — the island’s astounding natural beauty.
The better alternative is to plan and build a sustainable future. There’s still room for a few more folks, but not much before we begin to exceed the natural capacity of this tiny island.