Kay Ehas returned to her urban core roots in September upon becoming executive director of Groundwork Jacksonville, a nonprofit created to redevelop the Emerald Necklace. Groundwork envisions transforming the 14-mile trail of waterways — from McCoys Creek in Riverside around North Riverside to Springfield and down to Hogans Creek near the sports complex — into parks, playgrounds, trails and public uses.
I majored in social work and joined VISTA – Volunteers in Service to America – and they sent me to Jacksonville. I’d never heard of Jacksonville, but Jacksonville really grows on you and I ended up staying. I did social work for a while and then I went into corporate human resources. I thought, I can’t save the world, so maybe I could benefit a company. I did that for a while, before going to grad school to get a master’s at Florida in communications.
I worked with Jim Overton (at City Council) and went with him to the Property Appraiser’s Office. I got involved with Riverside Avondale Preservation on a volunteer basis and chaired that for three years. Jerry Holland became property appraiser and after a year and a half he said, ‘I don’t really need this position’ (chief administrative officer). It was a blow, but it was the best thing that could have happened.
I had been saying for a while that I wished I could find a job that would pay me for my passion, which is urban core revitalization. The Groundwork CEO job is just a really good fit for me.
Our mission is cleaning up, restoring and developing the Emerald Necklace, which goes through 14 urban core neighborhoods and surrounds Downtown. It was conceived by Henry Klutho, the architect who came down after the Great Fire of 1901. His vision was a linear park that connected the creeks, the parks and the neighborhoods.
The trail master plan will be done by the beginning of October. Groundwork is in major planning mode because you cannot do this project without having really, really good plans that have a lot of input from a lot of people. Part of the trail planning process is to identify a model mile, and to get that model mile built so people can see what’s possible and want to build more.
On average, a mile of trail is $2 million, which includes amenities, and creek restoration is $1.3 million a mile. What’s not figured into that yet is cleanup. We don’t yet know exactly what that’s going to entail. There is a lot to learn and that’s part of what makes the job fun and interesting.
My goal is to get the whole thing done in 10 years. I think it’s absolutely doable and everybody wants to see it happen, right? You just have to engage them, galvanize them and figure it out.
I love going to dinner with friends. I really like to read. I do some traveling. I have an old house that constantly needs work, so I’m always figuring out the next project.