By LEGION TAYLOR
Reporter

A citizen appeared at the St. Marks city commission meeting two weeks ago to call for Commissioner Paul Sheddan to resign from the commission entirely.


That citizen, Charles Dunlap, appeared at the meeting on Thursday, Dec. 14, and asked Sheddan directly to step down, saying that his outbursts were unbecoming of a community leader and that he is unfit to stay on the commission.
“You cannot function in the best interest of St. Marks,” Dunlap said. He also asked that there be a change made to the city charter to allow the city commission to vote out commissioners, as currently there is not.
Sheddan remained silent, but Mayor Steve Remke stressed that the mayor only has the power to run meetings, and is by all other metrics the same as the other members of the commission. No motion was made, and no action taken.
In other matters:

  • Justin Ford from Dewberry Engineering came to talk about the new paving project, specifically to ask the commission for approval to begin designing the improvements. He also alerted the commission that they would need to hire a different firm to do inspections, as his company could not both do the work and inspect it, under Florida law. The commission voted to give Dewberry approval, 4-0, with commissioner Dan Albers absent.
  • Shadrach Hines of St. Marks Waterfronts announced that the golf cart parade will be pushed off to the 22nd, due to inclement weather last weekend.
  • The city got its emergency generator installed, with most of the cost being covered by FEMA as the generator is to provide backup power during storms.
  • The city’s Wakulla River Park phase 1 grant has run out, but some pieces of equipment are currently on back order and will be placed in the park once they are delivered.
  • The city is applying to have Tallahassee street resurfaced, and to have Mock street paved.
  • Coast Charter School will start to pay its own insurance, as the price has increased over the last few years and the city commissioners do not want to continue footing the bill. The City of St. Marks owns the school building used by Coast.