He Set an Example

When we attended the Concerned Citizens of Cutler Bay meeting last week in a local park building, I noticed an older gentleman, seated one row ahead of me, who had a lot to say. He asked probing questions of the Town Councilman who was the speaker. The man seemed to be up-to-date on his information, wanting to know what progress the town was making on certain issues.

In today's Miami Herald, I not only learned the man's name---Jim Shiver---but the fact that he died last Sunday. This man was a pioneer in the Cutler Bay community when it came to making things better by citizen action. I want to share some of the details of his life because he set an example for involvement.

He was a native of Miami, graduating from Coral Gables Senior High, serving a term in the Navy in the Korean War. After his military discharge, he returned to Miami, where he met and married and settled into a house in what was known then as Cutler Ridge. In his work he was an aircraft mechanic and later became a U.S. postal carrier.

Here's where his involvement began: In 1976, rust in the water pipes in some parts of Cutler Ridge turned the drinking water orange and damaged water heaters and toilets. Jim Shiver took time off from work and attended 34 hearings to get money from the county and the Florida Water and Utilities company for repairs. (This ultimately shut down the utility.)

When Jim's daughter Jennifer came home from Cutler Ridge Elementary School, sweaty and bitten by sand flies that came through open windows, Jim became PTA president and helped raise $500,000 to install an AC system in the school. When Jennifer attended Southwood Middle School, belonging to a photography class that wanted to take pictures in California, Jim Shiver organized bake sales and spaghetti dinners. Result: Jim and his wife and 40 students flew to California, visiting LA and San Francisco.

And there's more: He raised money and pushed the county to build a footbridge over the Bel-Aire Canal so that school kids would not have to walk beside the heavy traffic on Caribbean Blvd. When he joined the Concerned Citizens group (then known as the Cutler Ridge Civic Association), he helped get a traffic circle built on Caribbean Blvd, putting in a left turn at Marlin Road and US 1, and helping pass a $2 million bond issue that included building a community room for Cutler Ridge Park.

He once told the Miami Herald, "I think we were the government for the people before we incorporated." He gave that quote in December 2007. He was a vocal member of the town parks
committee, which was evident in the questions we heard him ask at last week's meeting.

He was a man who saw things that needed to be done in Cutler Ridge (Cutler Bay) and went to work to find solutions. He paved a road for us.