Year-old Youth Council has full plate

After a year of meetings, proposals and discussion, Destin’s Youth Council still has work to do.

“I really enjoyed my first year here,” council member Preston Green told The Log. “I just don’t think we’re quite through here yet — we put the ingredients in the pot.”

The Destin City Council created the Youth Council in 2007 to give Destin teens a vehicle for speaking up about city policy. Members have to be high school students and Destin residents and must meet academic requirements as well.

Seniors on the council will graduate next month, so the city is taking applications from students who want to serve on the 2008-9 council. Green and fellow Fort Walton Beach High School Juniors Daryl Chapman, Clay Willis, Macy Morgan and Molly McCombs are among the members applying to serve a second year.

“We just started to make accomplishments together,” Morgan said. “It’s not finished.”

“It’s eye-opening too,” McCombs said, “to see how this all works.”

City Clerk Rey Bailey told the council members he had already received seven or eight applications for the second year, which will begin next month.

Bailey said the Youth Council should take credit for two accomplishments over the past 12 months:

•The council convinced the city to revive its adopt-a-street program, under which groups and individuals commit to make litter pickups on the city streets they adopt. The City Council approved the new program in April.

As for the Youth Council adopting a street, Bailey said, “the only problem is, you have to be 18 or older ... There’s supposed to be one adult for every five underage members.”

•The Youth Council proposed using the recreation building at Buck Destin Park on Legion Drive for a Youth Recreation Center. City staff had recommended demolishing the building rather than spending money to make it ADA-compliant, but the Youth Council’s proposal helped sway the City Council to renovate the building rather than tear it down.

“The first year, you’re just learning the ropes,” council member Chase Roberts said. “The second year I look forward to getting out in the community and doing some service things.”

True to their words, the council members made several suggestions for new projects during the meeting:

•Abby Szklarski, the only sophomore at the meeting, said the stretch of Benning Drive between Legion Drive and Mountain Drive is so dark, she and her mother avoid walking there at night. Szklarski said it could use a street light.

•Roberts suggested they work with a graphic design student to develop a Youth Council logo, so that people will know when the council is involved in community activities.

•Green, an umpire with Destin Little League, said the league is running short on people willing to volunteer as umpires: “We never have enough people running the scoreboard, never have enough people making hamburgers.” Green said it’s difficult to have just one umpire work a game because “you have coaches in one ear, parents in another.”

Green said buying equipment to umpire can cost as much as $130 for the shoes alone, and asked if the city could find money in their budget to help defray the cost for people who wanted to umpire.

•Bailey brought up the question of attendance: Only eight of the 14 members attended the April 25 meeting, and the March meeting had been canceled for lack of a quorum.

“I know some of you play sports, some of you play cheerleading,” Bailey said, asking for suggestions on boosting turnout.

The members discussed setting an alternative date for when the regular time — the last Friday in the month — wouldn’t work, but with Monday nights reserved for City Council activities and many of the Youth Council members attending church on Wednesday evenings, no one came up with a good alternative.

Green said he didn’t check his e-mail every day, and that they might want to consider an alternative method for sending out reminders and schedule changes. Someone suggested texting cell-phones, but Bailey said that could be tricky because communication has to go on the record.

“You’re covered under the Sunshine Laws,” Bailey said. “Everything that’s going before this council must be discussed in public.”

Bailey suggested the new council take up the topic next month.

WANT TO JOIN?
The City of Destin will be accepting applications for membership to the Destin Youth Council until Friday, May 9. Teen applicants must live within the city limits of Destin and must be between the grades of 9 and 11. Additional information, by-laws and applications are available from the City of Destin Web site at www.cityofdestin.com or by contacting the City Clerk at Destin City Hall, 4200 Two Trees Road, 850-837-4242.