Showdown Time on County Admin Building

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:


Vote will probably be taken at February 9 meeting.
“Should the Jackson County Commissioners agree to spend over $10 million in public money at this time for the construction of a new administration building near the court house for county operational departments? Yes or No?

That question will most probably be decided at the next meeting of our county commission, which is scheduled for Tuesday, February 9, at 9:00 AM in the Commission meeting room on Madison Street in Marianna. If they decide to build themselves this new, three story, 59,000 sq. ft. building on the site of the old county jail, they will be committing themselves (and all citizens of Jackson County) to a new debt which will apparently total somewhere between $10,000,000 and $15,000,000.

A low interest USDA loan of $8,000,000 is currently available for the project, and the sources for the balance of the needed funds is uncertain. Some Commissioners feel the new debt can be serviced through the savings of $100,000 per year currently being paid to local property owners for space used to house some of the county functions, combined with approximately $350,000 per year the county receives from Waste Management in tipping fees for the landfill operations. Others argue that to spend this money on the building would be inappropriate since that money could be used for other county needs which could potentially relieve the need for future increases in county taxes and fees to be imposed on county residents. Ted Lakey, County Administrator, states that now would be a good time to initiate this project, since interest rates are low, the loan is available, and construction costs have fallen since the initial cost estimate for the building which was over $15,000,000.

Support for the construction of this new building is coming from downtown merchants who feel their business traffic would be enhanced if more people had to come to the court house-admin building area. They are represented by Main Street Marianna and the Executive Committee of the Jackson County Chamber. Most county employees also favor the project.

Opposition is coming from the general taxpaying public of the county which has no vested interest in the building being built downtown….or anywhere else. Some argue that the plans for the facility do not provide adequate parking, and the construction would only worsen the already terrible parking problems in the Court House area. Some feel the lack of downtown parking would hurt downtown business activity and their situation would be worsened by the new facility. Some feel that by promoting a more expensive option, the downtown retailers are pushing for their own interest at the expense of the rest of the citizens of the county.

The Commissioners requested that Ajax Building Corp., with the assistance of Paul Donofro Associates, prepare a revised cost estimate for the project, along with a comparative analysis of the cost of purchasing and renovating the old Wal Mart building in the Crossroads Shopping Center. That report was presented at a workshop meeting on January 26. It presented four options, with the new building cost at $9,000,000 (not including site preparation and parking), while the purchase and remodeling of the existing building was estimated at $8,400,000.

I feel this is a flawed approach to making a fair evaluation. First, the two firms who prepared the analysis have a vested interest in the project. Their profits would be significantly increased if the new facility is built instead of renovating the existing building…..so why are we surprised when they show such a high cost for the renovation? The analysis should have been prepared by a qualified, uninvolved third party. Also, to my knowledge the Commissioners have done little investigation of the costs and level of satisfaction from other counties in Florida and adjoining states who have faced the same issue, ….and chose the less expensive renovation option. They should gather cost per square foot data from these other projects, as well as the general level of satisfaction from the employees using the renovated facilities in other counties.

The outcome of the vote which is about to be taken is uncertain at this point. Commissioner Spires has openly expressed his desire to spend the money and start the project. The other four Commissioners are in a “wait and evaluate” mode, and have not yet made an open commitment one way or the other. If you have an opinion on this issue, you should NOW contact your Commissioner and tell him how you feel. Also, it might be worth your time to attend the next meeting.

If you set back and watch television instead of getting involved at this time…..you will have no right to complain about higher taxes or fees from the County in the coming years.

Personally, I am against doing either project in this uncertain economy. The location of the building is secondary to the issue of whether or not it is wise for the county to enter into such a large debt when there is no guarantee of continued revenues for other operations. State assistance for county needs will certainly be reduced for several years to come, and local revenue flows are also uncertain. Until we know the U.S. economy is well on the way to recovery, I feel our Commissioners should not create a new debt for the citizens of Jackson County to bear.

If the Commissioners will decide to do nothing at this time…….they will be “Getting it

Right”!

Rudiments, Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning:

- Keeping my New Years Resolution…Say something nice! - My congratulations to this years winners of the Chamber awards. The winners were, Lanet James as Citizen of the Year, Chuck Hatcher for the Excellence in Leadership Award, and David Melvin Engineering for the Wayne Mixson Economic Leadership Award. Congratulations to all!

- Burrrr - Hundreds of local residents are shocked and outraged over their unreasonably high December electric bills from Florida Public Utilities. Many families are really struggling to survive while paying for electricity. Most of these people have already turned their thermostats down to the low 60’s and are wearing coats around their homes. This situation is becoming critical, as displayed by the protest which occurred at the City Commission meeting in Marianna on Tuesday evening. (P.S. Most of these bills did not include the latest 13% increase granted by the Public Service Commission in November. I hate to think of what charges the January bills will contain.)



Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.