The State of Hallandale Beach - Part III: The City is Humming with Back Hoes, Forklifts, Dump Trucks and Even Dredging

We have implemented the new on street parking program. It was a tough program to implement and seemed counterintuitive, but it freed up on street parking for our residents. No more commercial storage of vehicles outside individuals storing trailers and personal recreation vehicles. The added new revenue helps to offset vehicle replacement costs.
This year we amended the program to help residents and businesses by providing a discount to home care workers and commercial employees.

Promise Made Promise Kept!

We expanded our code enforcement and have created a robust campaign to clean up our neighborhoods and corridors. Code enforcement is not just about beauty. It is about crime safety and everyone’s property values. Code enforcement has also become a vital tool for controlling vacation rentals and businesses that are now allowed in residential areas. We are doing what we can since the state has tied our hands. Promises Made Promises Kept.

We also have continued working on addressing our overburdened building department by adding staff and contracting with multiple outside vendors. I have spoken to many Mayors, and all are seeing the same difficulties with hiring and keeping qualified employees. Our state legislators are working to amend laws to provide the ability for professional’s from outside of Florida to do plans and reviews online.

This past year I worked to amend a Broward Board of Rules and Appeals Policy that does not allow licensed contractors who are doing business to perform plan reviews and inspections for our cities. This change is what other counties have now. It needed to be changed and BORA is committed to it. While they will not be able to work in Broward this is a start to adding much needed resources. While we know the system is difficult to navigate we are doing what we can within the restraints and demands of the industry. Promise Made Promise Kept!

I dubbed last year the Year of the Shovel. There are still challenges with materials and staffing but if you have driven around the city lately every part of the city is humming with back hoes, forklifts, dump trucks and even dredging. We are replacing water pipes and valves throughout the city. Replacing lift stations and sanitary sewer lines.

We programmed a $10 million capital project to replace the gravity drainage system in the lowest part of our city, which is the Northeast Section. This area sees the worst flooding and was underwater during the 1000 - year storm. Our city, due to proper planning and the hard work of the Department of Public Works did not stay flooded like many cities.

While the project will not be done quickly, I am excited to announce our city engineers are developing a temporary project to interconnect 2nd Avenue between 8th and 10th to the 14th Avenue system.

Also, Halladale Beach Boulevard and Federal Highway are slated for resurfacing. While we cannot fully expand the scope of these projects. I along with our staff met with FDOT to discuss their responsibility to address flooding. It was found they have not cleaned their system in years. They are now incorporating this into the project. We continue to do our own cleaning and maintenance. The major system from Federal Highway to Three Island on Atlantic shores was cleaned. Promise Made Promise kept!

We will be continuing the State of The City in next week's article.

I can be reached at: jcooper@cohb.org Or: joycooper@aol.com or Facebook Mayor Joy Cooper. You can always call me on my office number at: (954) 457-1318. Or Call/Text me at: (954) 632-5700 Working for you! Always have! Always will!