Brown will provide planning services to City of Trenton

By Cindy Jo Ayers

The Trenton City Commissioners voted unanimously to turn the planning services over to City Manager Taylor Brown at their December 13 meeting.
Brown’s background, including both education and experience, is in community planning. Prior to being hired as Trenton city manager, Brown worked as Gilchrist County planner.
Before voting, the commissioners discussed the less than satisfactory performance the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council has provided the city for years.
Mayor Glen Thigpen reminded the commissioners that the city’s comprehensive plan has not been updated and it is now 20 years old and needs to be updated as soon as possible.
“We would get a more personalized plan (by hiring Brown) than we would from the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council,” Thigpen said.
Commissioner Tim Kinsey expressed his concerns that Brown’s extra workload after hours would take away from the city manager’s family time.
Brown explained that with the economy being what it is his family has been unable to sell their home in Alachua County, but he felt that the extra income that the planning service job would provide will allow them to make the move to Trenton.
Brown also said that he spends a couple of hours each day traveling to and from work. He went on to tell the commission that he plans to use that travel time to work on the city’s planning once they move here. The city manager went on to say that he feels very comfortable in the position as city manager and does not feel the extra duties would be too much. He assured the commissioners, saying, “If it’s more than I can chew, I’ll be the first to tell you.”
Ultimately, Commissioner Randy Rutter made a motion to give the planning duties to Brown with an increase in annual salary of $9,000. Brown agreed to the terms and assured the commissioners he would begin the planning work very soon.
Other city business included an agricultural lease agreement between the City and Prieston Jones.
Jones, a local hay farmer, came before the commission regarding the lease of 21 acres of property the City of Trenton owns on the east side of town. Jones has proposed that the lease be set for $30 per acre for the first two years and then $40 per acre for the rest of the lease which was proposed for five years. Jones said that the reason the rent was less for the first couple of years was because he will have to put several thousand dollars worth of work into the field before it is ready for a hay harvest.
The city manager told the commissioners that he had several people call City Hall to inquire about the lease; and after some discussion, the commissioners felt that it was only fair to open up the proposal process to the public so that any local farmers wanting to rent the property might be given a fair chance to do so.
Traffic stops in Trenton are up according to new numbers reported by Trenton Police Chief Jim Raven. A total of 60 traffic stops were made in Trenton during the month of November.
According to the Trenton Fire Department’s monthly report for November, firefighters responded to one structure fire outside Trenton, two fire alarms, five vehicle crashes, and ten medical calls.
All city commissioners attended the December 13, 2011 meeting.