Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The why of a $9,000 expenditure for a feasibility study that the Jefferson County Commission never authorized was one of the issues of discussion last week at the board’s meeting on Thursday evening, Oct 21.
Commissioner Betsy Barfield raised the issue, relative to a study conducted by the Municipal Engineering Services (MES), in conjunction with the Florida Rural Water Association (FRWA), to determine the feasibility of extending a force main from Monticello to Lloyd.
The study is tied to the Jobs Growth Fund Grant that the city and county are jointly seeking from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (FDEO) in an effort to bring sewer service to the I-10/SR-59 interchange to spur economic development in the area.
Barfield said that after noting the $9,000 expenditure on the commission’s check register, she had done some digging and discovered that Monticello Mayor Julie Conley had signed the contract for the feasibility study.
Barfield reminded the board that the county was already in the process of securing $100,000 of Restore Act funding for a feasibility study. Which money, she said, the county could expect to receive in the coming months. Why then this other feasibility study, she asked.
“I’m concerned,” Barfield said. “I don’t remember seeing this on our agenda. I don’t remember us approving it.”
She asked Clerk of Court Kirk Reams to enlighten the board on the expenditure.
Reams explained that the issue was one that he had discussed with Commissioner Chris Tuten, chairman of the Economic Development Committee (EDC). About a month and a half earlier, Reams said, the EDC had met with a city representative to discuss the Florida Jobs Growth Grant that the county has been helping the city to secure.
Reams said that the group had discussed what a shame it would be if the city was awarded the $6 million dollar grant and it turned down the money because certain conditions it had set for joining the county in the venture hadn’t been met.
“Mayor Conley was very worried that if the city was awarded that grant, it would turn it down,” Reams said, noting that city participation was critical to the project’s success, as the city owns the sewer treatment plant that is is key to the extension.
“We have to have an interlocal agreement with the city,” Reams said, reminding the board that one of the conditions that the city had set for cooperating was that the county do a feasibility study to determine how much the project would cost to build and operate.
“All those things are addressed in the feasibility study report,” Reams said.
Absent the study, moreover, not only the extension project, but the Restore Act funding also would be jeopardized if the city didn’t cooperate in the venture, he said.
“We don’t want that grant to be jeopardized because it’s their asset,” Reams said of the treatment plant. “The city can say no, and the Restore money will have to go elsewhere. The city is not constrained by a grant that we’ve undertaken. It can say, no, you’re not tying into our system, sorry.”
Hence, the urgency to expedite the feasibility study, he said.
Reams said he had communicated to Tuten that past iterations of the EDC had “moved forward with items that had never been on the agenda under the guise of working under economic development.”
“A lot of times those things are sensitive and aren’t brought before the commission and I can cite examples if you like,” Reams said. “It’s not something that hasn’t happened before. We were operating under those auspices; that’s why we did what we did. It would be a shame to turn down $6 million dollars, if a small study that normally would cost $100,000, would make the difference between the city accepting an award that could mean so much not only for them but for the county.”
Tuten confirmed that his group had met with Conley and had moved on the study because the group didn’t want to miss out on the $6 million due to the lack of a study.
“The feasibility study was the hang-up with the city council,” Tuten said. “The council wanted that feasibility study done.”
Barfield cautioned that her understanding of the policy was that everything that the EDC did had to go through the county commission, except for when the group was recruiting a business to come into the county.
“That was my mistake,” Tuten said. “I’m still new on at this. I thought it was something we could do, to make sure that the grant was secured. It won’t happen again.”
Barfield asked if the city was satisfied with the results of the study?
The response was that the city had yet to see it. But hopefully it would be on the council’s agenda on Tuesday evening, Nov. 2.
“I would just caution again about anybody spending money without board approval,” was Barfield’s final word on the matter.
The proposed extension, as described by the feasibility study, entails construction of a lift station at the I-10/SR-59 interchange and approximately 12 miles of 10-inch sewer force main along Old Lloyd Road, from the city’s sewer treatment plant on Mamie Scott Drive to Lloyd.
The proposed transmission force main would provide connection points for future residential neighborhoods and several existing commercial properties directly along the route, according to the report.
The study considered three different routes, with Old Lloyd Road selected as the preferred route.
The study puts the present-day cost of the project at about $620,194. It puts the annual cost of operating and maintaining the system at $46,817.