Three Davids are now part of Grove Village Council

Grove resident David Himmel, of Sail Laser in the Grove, was named the new Coconut Grove Village Council member at last night's meeting. Only one other person was up for the position, Center Grove resident Harlene Kennedy, who had applied for the position at another time when someone else vacated the seat in the past, but maybe three times will be a charm for Harlene, there's always next time. Or maybe she can simply run for a seat at actual election time, the old fashioned way.

Above are the seven council members who were present at time of voting, they made their decision after the two candidates spoke about themselves for a bit, including what type of dogs they each had, David has a cocapoo, I can't remember what Harlene has. The above council members from left are Renita Samuels-Dixon, Heather Bettner, Chair Michelle Niemeyer, Stephen Murray, Kate Callahan, Patrick Sessions and David Collins.

Himmel was an excellent choice. For one thing, he is not connected and what I mean by that is that he is a fresh face and has no alliance with anyone else on the Village Council other than the fact that he went to high school with Village Council Member David Wells. But at voting time, David Wells was not present and he did not vote, so all the other remaining members chose David Himmel on the basis of what he said during his speech. That's David Wells, on the left, with David Himmel.

Another great thing is that Himmel is not connected to any other Coconut Grove group and not swayed by anyone or anything. After speaking with him, I can see that he has no agenda and really is there just to try to improve quality of life in Coconut Grove. I think his real claim to fame was being co-winner at last year's 4th of July Hot Dog Eating contest with Evan Martinez, you can see him here taking the prize. For some strange reason, this really endears him to me. I like real people doing real things.

With David Collins on the Council, that makes three Davids now. Himmel will be sworn in at next month's meeting. He sat in the audience last night for the meeting.

The subject at hand after the election was Halloween, and how to control it in Coconut Grove. A lot of interesting issues came up and in the end a 12 board committee was formed, headed by Village Council Member Kate Callahan. The committee will consist of business owners, residents, Village Council members and police.

We'll have more on what was said about Halloween on Monday. But the main gist was that the committee will meet to come up with a solution to the "disorganized chaos," which is what Kate called Halloween in Coconut Grove.