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County officials reach out for suggestions, solutions for Wells Road

By Don Coble don@opcfla.com
Posted 10/27/21

ORANGE PARK – Clay County officials brought a lot of questions to last week’s community forum to address the problems along Wells Road, and now they’re relying on the public to provide the …

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County officials reach out for suggestions, solutions for Wells Road


Posted

ORANGE PARK – Clay County officials brought a lot of questions to last week’s community forum to address the problems along Wells Road, and now they’re relying on the public to provide the answers.

The Gateway to Clay is a long-range initiative that will utilize federal and state funds to enhance the main entrance into the county from Jacksonville. More important, it’s designed to make the area more desirable “to live, work and play,” according to Clay County Commissioner Jim Renninger.

Officials, including Renninger and commissioner Wayne Bolla, Clay County Fire Rescue Community Paramedicine Program Coordinator Glenn East, Orange Park Mayor Randy Anderson, Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook, Sheriff’s Office Assistant Chief of North Patrol Domenic Paniccia, County Manager Howard Wanamaker, Clay Chamber President Wendall Chindra and county Community and Social Services Manager Victoria Hapner met with residents and business owners at the Holiday Inn and Suites on Wells Road.

All of them were eager to learn what the community wants most.

“What could be improved? What’s in the realm of possibility? What should be improved? What infrastructure needs to be renovated? What traffic controls should be modified? What kind of trees do we want along Wells Road?,” Renninger asked.

“We’ve had code enforcement out looking at issues, trying to resolve those

issues. We’re looking at public nuisance issues. We’ve had those issues out on [U.S. Highway] 17, we actually shut down, when I was on the town council, we shut down a hotel because it was a public nuisance. We can go a long way if we want to. We need to look at that kind of stuff.

“Please let us know if there are any unsightly issues on commercial property, residential property. We have ways to investigate.”

Whether it’s a more tactful location for a garbage can or adding patrols to push drug traffickers out of the county, the county wants as much feedback as possible. To accomplish it, the sheriff’s office already has contacted people at 181 properties along the 4.2-mile road. The agency also used a drone on Sunday, Oct. 24, to detail the area from above.

“Our goal is where the outcome is going to benefit them,” Renninger said. “It benefits the residents; it benefits the businesses to bring people into their businesses. We made that clear upfront. Then we went door-to-door from one end to the other. We accomplished that in about two weeks. How do the sidewalks look? How do the medians look? How do the trees look? How do the gutters look? How do the bus stops look? Do we need some trash cans here? The businesses themselves, the residential properties, do they need a little renovation? Maybe there’s a little rust on the gutters, everything from top to bottom.

“We not only did this in the daytime, but I had my people do it at nighttime, too. The problems in the day could be different at night. Do people feel safe going into this restaurant, do they feel safe going into this business?”

The biggest tool to fulfill the area’s concerns, however, is a survey on the county’s website. It invites everyone – not just the people who live and work along Wells Road – to offer suggestions to put a better light on an area that needs a facelift – in aesthetics, enforcement and perception.

Paniccia is the point man for the sheriff’s office, but he insists success will require everyone to pitch in.

“The first part of the phase is the assessment,” Paniccia said. We’ve gone around the businesses. We’re assessing Wells. When we say Wells Road, we mean from the 2000 block, which is the top of the hill where the apartments are [Laurel Grove to the north], all the way to the river. There are 81 properties we’ve contacted last month. That’s face-to-face contact where we introduce ourselves and try to make it very clear it’s not just a code enforcement thing. We’re not here to just say, ‘Hey, you need to get this fixed.’”

Craig Phillips owns the Chick-Fil-A across from the Orange Park Mall – the heart of business and traffic on Wells Road. He said he’s planning to spend $2 million next year to expand and improve his restaurant, so he wanted to know if his vision for the future matches the county’s.

“We believe what’s going on along Wells Road. I’ve got 125 employees right now, and in the summer it’s up to 150,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of them live right here in 32073 [Orange Park]. I really care about all of those employees. I want to make a difference with them. It means a lot to see the community’s participation and see everyone jumping in on this. I love it.

“The reality is, there are some challenges that we’ve come in contact with. Is there going to be a link to Gateway to Clay? This is a long-term thing. I’m making a couple of million dollars in reinvesting in this restaurant, I’m building out for 10 years. For me, what are the milestones? Where are we going? What are some of these big-bucket items we’re trying to address, and what does that timeline look like?”

Improvements will come one pothole, one coat of paint and one arrest at a time.

Hapner said the project won’t be a quick fix. They plan to issue another survey in a year to see if residents have noticed any changes.

Residents Linda Knapp and Carolyn Marquis both asked how success and repairs would be reported. Wanamaker and Hapner said a link called “Gateway to Clay” would be added to the county’s website, claycountygov.com. It was added the next day under the Community link on the desktop.

It’s also a way to complete the survey.

“The survey is really just your opinion,” Hapner said. “What are the items you think we should focus on the Wells Road corridor? Is it safety? Is it social services? Is it beautification? We want to make sure we put priorities on your priorities.

This is going to be a good data point for individuals so we can cage on what you want us to focus on. We ask for your partnership to push this out to the community. At the end of the project, our goal will be to do the survey again so we can do some comparisons. Did we focus on what you wanted? Did we make improvements and a difference in the area?”

Renninger said the future of the county depends on improving the busy corridor.

“One day we’ll all gather and it will be beautiful,” he said.