Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The Jefferson Commission has a full plate of items on its agenda for the meeting on Thursday evening, Aug. 6, including some issues that could prove thorny.
All told, there are 12 items listed on the agenda, not including the several that are on the consent agenda; and of the 12, at least two are potentially contentious. These are the items dealing with the proposed removal of the Confederate monument on the courthouse circle and consideration of a facemask mandate to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Relative to the removal of the Confederate monument, however, the discussion may be curtailed. At least, that’s the chairman’s intent.
Commission Chairman J.T. Surles states upfront on the agenda page that: “Due to the large interest from the public to speak in an open forum about the future of the monument at the courthouse, I’m suggesting only a brief discussion this evening. We will schedule a special meeting dedicated to this subject at a later date when in-person meetings resume.”
Which may easier said than done, given the interest that this issue has generated and the emotional impact that it carries.
The other potentially controversial agenda item is consideration of a measure to require the wearing of facemasks in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Opposition to facemasks runs high in some quarters, where the facemask is viewed as either ineffective or a government plot to curtail individual freedom and further subjugate the populace.
Others of the items of the agenda include a self-assessment ordinance that would allow subdivisions the ability to develop projects that are larger than the individual homeowners could fund singly (such as the paving of a road); the solar ordinance, which aims to regulate the number of solar-energy generating facilities that can locate in the county at one time and how they go about getting permitted; and the selection of a staff member to represent the county in future discussions with NextEra relative to the high voltage transmission line that is slated to cross this county.
The meeting is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, August 6, and will be live-streamed from the Emergency Operations Center at the industrial park.
The Zoom meeting ID is 875-1874-5040 and the passcode is 312968.
The meeting’s full agenda and attachments can be viewed on the Jefferson County webpage at www.jeffersoncountyfl.gov. For more information, contact Planning Official Shannon Metty at (850) 342-0223.
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