We are pleased to announce FLOC has been awarded an additional $28,000 from the Elizabeth Ordway Dunn (EOD) Foundation! Last year, FLOC was awarded $21,000 from the EOD Foundation. The majority of these funds were for an engineered master plan. We have been unable to proceed due to prior requirements that have been delaying the process. The city also was required to put out for bids from engineering firms, also very time consuming. We subsequently requested additional funds from the EOD Foundation which were recently awarded. These funds combined with last year’s and $60,00 in matching funds ($40,000 from tree harvesting (slash pine on the property) and $20,000 from private donors) will allow us to sign a contract with an engineering firm. On top of the master plan, we will use the funds to complete the process of land use changes and zoning changes within three municipalities—the City of Hawthorne, Alachua and Putnam Counties. The master plan total will be approximately $80,000, and the cost for the zoning and land use changes will be approximately $6,400. The City of Hawthorne is selecting an engineering firm which will carry out the required master plan with topographic, environmental, historic, and wetland surveys. We have now received a total of $49,000 from The Elizabeth Ordway Dunn Foundation!
Within the next six-eight months, we will complete the following specific activities:
1) Zoning changes in Hawthorne and Putnam Counties
2) Zoning and land use changes in Alachua County
3) Engineered Master Site Plan including historic, environmental, and topographic surveys, and plan for building renovation to comply with ADA standards
4) Alachua County Development Review Board approval
5) A follow-up board development workshop and a skill building workshop
We hope that this will set us on the timeline to have the park open to the public in the next year! We still need to raise $6,750 towards the master plan, and the house renovations funding is not included in these numbers. However, we are getting so close to making this dream a reality. Thank you all for your contributions to this great project!