Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
County officials recently accepted a grant from Enterprise Florida that the City of Monticello had earlier turned down.
Diane Scholz, with the North Florida Economic Development Partnership (NFEDP), presented the grant option to the Jefferson County Commission on Thursday evening, June 17.
Scholz explained that the $24,250 grant from Florida Enterprise derived from a 2018 study that the NFEDP had conducted in its 14-county region to identify sites with the highest potential for development.
In Jefferson County, she said, the site identified as having the highest potential for development was the 240 or so acres on the northwest quadrant of the I-10 and SR-59 interchange.
The purpose of the grant, she said, was to help move the properties identified as strategic for development to the point of being marketable as industrial sites.
“It’s the same area as the game changer,” Scholz said, referring the so-named controversial proposal for a youth sports arena that ultimately went nowhere several years ago.
“We believe it has a lot of potential,” Scholz said of the property. “Part of it has been sold to a developer. But the Jamaro Inc. property is still available.”
She noted that the grant required a 10-percent local match. The NFEDP, however, was willing to put up the match, she said.
The City of Monticello, she explained, had originally applied for the grant and been awarded it. But on second thought, she said, city officials had decided that the Lloyd interchange was rightfully in the county’s jurisdiction and so the funding would best serve the latter.
The Monticello City Council voted in May to turn down the grant. In a letter that Monticello Mayor Julie Conley wrote to the Jefferson County Commission, she noted that in consideration of the county’s ongoing efforts to bring sewer service to the Lloyd interchange, her colleagues had decided that it was the more appropriate recipient of the funding.
She also noted that the grant could be used for an environment assessment, a drive-time labor profile, a wetlands assessment, a master plan or any other number of things.
“These activities would enhance the chances of attracting a commercial or industrial facility to the interchange and make a sewer extension there more feasible,” Conley wrote. “It would also allow for national and international marketing of the area by Enterprise Florida, Duke Energy and other economic development entities with direct links to site selection professionals.”
After hearing the presentation from Scholz and reading Conley’s letter, the commission voted unanimously to accept the grant.
The $24,250 that the county will be receiving is part of $348,400 that Enterprise Florida has awarded to 14 cities and counties in the region for site preparation projects as part of its rural expansion toolkit initiative.