San Antonio's city leadership is back to full strength with the addition of a longtime community activist.
By CHASE SQUIRES
Published September 9, 2004
SAN ANTONIO, Fla. - The city has its newest city commissioner on board, adding Nisa Woodham to the five-member panel to replace Wendi Merritt, who moved out of the area in July.
Woodham, 40, is an executive assistant in the admissions office at Saint Leo University and has been a regular at commission meetings to address issues affecting her Meadowview subdivision on the west side of town.
"Watching the whole process and wanting to be an active member in the community, I just decided that I wanted to throw my hat in," Woodham said Wednesday, the morning after the board approved her membership. "I said, "I think this is something I want to do.' "
The next few weeks will be busy for her as Woodham said she planned to read through the minutes of recent meetings and seek an orientation session to acquaint her with the issues affecting the town.
Mayor Roy Pierce welcomed Woodham's presence. He said she always has represented her neighborhood well in city meetings and always presents a fair argument.
"She has always spoken intelligently and rationally," Pierce said.
Woodham is a lifelong resident of the area. She grew up in Dade City, graduated from Pasco High School in 1981 and moved to San Antonio eight years ago. She is married and has two teenage daughters.
In other business at Tuesday's City Commission meeting, commissioners set the city's tax rate at $2.41 per $1,000 of assessed, taxable property value. That's down from last year's rate of $2.53, but holds the line at the rate set by state calculations using increases in property values. That rate, called the rollback rate, generates the same amount of tax revenue as the city raised last year.
And Pierce said the city's trash collection contractor has agreed to run three days of brush and yard debris collections today, Friday and Saturday. Pierce said residents are asked to break their downed limbs and debris into manageable chunks and place them by the curb for collection.
Trucks will make several rounds through town, so there likely will be more than one pickup.
The countywide Coastal Cleanup is scheduled for Sept. 18, and local Boy Scouts plan to get an early jump on the work with a cleanup day Saturday.
