Christian Peterson
reporter.riverbendnews@gmail.com
On Tuesday, April 1, the Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners met for its regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting began with the approval of the minutes, with one correction. The minutes said there was a discussion regarding a pre-bid meeting when it should have said pre-construction. After this was corrected, the minutes were approved.
The board then called for public comment. The first comment was from Kat Meeks-Bass, who was asking the board for repairs to 39th Place, where she resided. She said that she came last year requesting the same thing and was told it could not be done. However, the county had allegedly repaired it right before the hurricanes. She said she wasn't interested in hearing excuses and that she expected the road to be fixed by the next meeting or that she would return with more people. County Attorney Adam Morrison then began speaking. He told Bass that the board was not making excuses, but he, in fact, had told them not to repair the road as it was a private road. "It's not an excuse; it's illegal," Morrison stated. Bass responded that it was still an excuse, and Morrison explained he was not interested in arguing with her; the road was private, and unless the residents could prove that it was public at one point and incorrectly removed from the public roads list, then the county could do nothing.
Wayne Hannaka stood up next and continued his trend of speaking about the way that the county works, explaining what the Clerk of Court office does. Moses Clepper then stood up to speak, voicing his frustration with what he felt was a lack of research from the board on items. He did, however, compliment them on their proposed action for the Live Local Act Property Tax Exemption.
The board then proclaimed the week of Thursday, April 24, through Wednesday, April 30, as National Student Leadership Week. After this, board members moved on to their first time-sensitive item: the adoption of an ordinance prohibiting the renaming of county roads, requiring that all new roads be named pursuant to existing law. Morrison explained this was in reference to the board and emergency management's wishes to stop adding honorary brown sign names to roads. He stated the current signage was causing confusion among emergency management and residents and was a danger to residents. The board approved the ordinance unanimously. The second time-sensitive item was an ordinance establishing procedures for the burial or cremation of remains pursuant to Florida Statute 406.5. Morrison explained that this was related to unclaimed remains and simply codified the actions that had already been taken. The entire process is listed in the body of the ordinance. The ordinance was approved unanimously. The final ordinance was opting out of the Live Local Act Property Tax Exemption, which the board approved unanimously.
The board then moved on to its consent agenda, pulling three items for clarification and approving the rest. The first pulled item was the approval of the AIG Storage Tank Third Party Liability renewal warranty with Terrorism Act Premium. The board explained that this was a rider to their policy and cost $20; it was approved unanimously. The second pulled item was authorization to assign a credit card to the public works department with a limit of $10,000. The board explained this was to cover certification for employees in solid waste as well as order parts. However, it is still required to submit to the purchasing policy. The final pulled item was to issue an intent to award a construction bid to Blackwater Construction Services. The board explained there had been an error on the paperwork, and this simply proved who the bid was awarded to.
Before moving into general business, the board was told that the county is a part of the Public Works Association. On top of that, four of the operators had competed in a local competition; one of them, Charles Hoffman, had earned a shot at the state competition. The board had two additional items to look at. The first was authorization to advertise for bids for equipment and construction related to the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The board approved this unanimously. The board also approved applying for an Emergency Bridge Loan from Florida Commerce for $2.3 million with zero percent interest. After this, the meeting was adjourned. The next Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 15, at 5:30 p.m. in the Judicial Annex, located at 218 Parshley St. SW, in Live Oak.