Avondale Estates’ Downtown Development Authority lost two members earlier this week when Chairman Robert James and Co-Chairman Megan Grove submitted their resignations. In the weeks prior to their departure Mayor Jonathan Elmore has stated several times that he wants “a fully-funded, robust DDA,” that has the power to, among other things, “build a parking deck put up signage and do marketing.”
James says he couldn’t agree more.
“I’ve been pushing for a funded DDA (Avondale’s DDA is all-volunteer) long before Jonathan got there,” James said. “During my [three-year] tenure one of my responsibilities was to create a better working relationship between the DDA and the [Board of Mayor and Commissioners]. Only recently has it started to get positive, but it’s happening too slow for me. I realize you have to crawl before you can walk. But I’ve been crawling for so long my knees hurt.”
Meantime in a letter to Elmore, Grove wrote that her leaving was “in no way related to Robert’s resignation … it was just an unfortunate coincidence.”
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