2016-0114 Special City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting January 14,2016 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida Commissioner Aelion. If we feel collectively we have done everything we can do to mitigate the problem, then we have got to make the hard decisions, there is no question. Vice Mayor Gatto said this question might be for the Chief, before the Annex is built in the next two years,would it be possible to guide the kids that are released at 3:00 p.m. south and around to the back so it is possible to open up Atlantic Avenue? That still allows us,which is cut off right now but if it were to open up, we could go to Publix, we could go to the RK Shopping Center, CVS, you know try to look for a creative way to open up Atlantic Boulevard and have the kids go around to the back which is North Bay Road. Then we can also get out of City Hall and make a right turn if we had to because we can't make a right to go to Publix and we can't make a left because we can't get out into the traffic,we are trapped unless we go to Collins Avenue. Is that a possibility at all,to get the kids to go south instead of north? If they are going north that is Publix problem,that is why the parents are parking in Publix. Police Sergeant Lee Athanasiou said right now the reason you are not seeing the traffic flowing,the reason we have RK Shopping Center blocked off is because school pickup,the area where parents pick up their children is on it and we don't want the cars passing by while each kid is getting into their cars. We don't want one of them to step out into traffic and get hit by a car,that is the only reason we block off Atlantic Boulevard. That is the only area at the school where we can stack enough cars to get'them off of the side street. Right now the way traffic is flowing is backed up from in front of the school on the east side of Atlantic Boulevard wrapped all the way around 183rd Street, all the way around North Bay Road,all the way back to 181' Street and then all the way back to Atlantic Boulevard, and from Atlantic Boulevard all the way back to 178th Street. There is no other place to pass through where it wouldn't back up even further. Police Chief Fred Maas said the kids go in all different directions at the end of school. A number of them come to the Library and the Government Center,they come south,and most importantly they cross from the school from the west side of Atlantic over on to the east side and that way we can cross them safely. What we find especially on Wednesdays when everyone gets out of school at 2:00 p.m.,either he or the Captain post themselves at the exit to the Government Center. We keep them from blocking that egress and so if a car wants to turn in or come out and turn left,we stop them from blocking it. Vice Mayor Gatto said that really helps at least on that day when they all get out at the same time. Chief Maas said the other thing is that not too many people are going north on Atlantic since Mr. Katz has closed off between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.that entrance and exit there so people now know they cannot get into the shopping center from the west side,they must go out on Collins Avenue. Mayor Scholl said that probably works in your favor in some ways,he guesses it was an outflow but at least at the end of the day you have more control over the flow of traffic. Chief Maas said a few cars get stuck in the line, and their frustration is if they don't know it, they are in line waiting and when they get up there they realize they can't get into the shopping center. Former Commissioner Roslyn Brezin said so many of the students in this school are not residents. No way can we address this in an easy manner. In most of the condominiums in their offices, and she thinks they will cooperate with us if we make that request, each apartment has documentation showing the occupants of the apartment when the apartment was rented or sold, you cannot stop Grandma from saying that Grandchild lives here, and 13