Christian Peterson
reporter.riverbendnews@gmail.com
On Tuesday, March 18, the Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners met for its regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting began with the board approving the minutes from the previous meeting, followed by a call for public comment.
The first person to speak was Steve Fontana, who reminded the board that the Suwannee County Fair started on Friday, March 21. He told everyone that the American Patriots would have a booth present and invited everyone to stop by and speak to them. Cheryl Pruit was the following comment. She voiced her satisfaction with Kailin Hoffmeister, the new Veterans Services Officer. Pruit explained that Hoffmeister had helped her and her husband get all their services sorted out. “She’s a blessing to our community,” Pruit said. The next speaker was Keith Broaders, who voiced his concern about the fact that the State of Florida has, according to Broaders, never ratified the 17th Amendment. He said that “the financial elite” are the ones more in control of the federal government, and specifically the senators that are elected. He argued that since Florida has allegedly not ratified the 17th Amendment, the commissioners should be the ones voting for senators instead of the public.
The final public comment came from Moses Clepper. He voiced his concern about the number of items on the consent agenda, which was 16 items in total. He then spoke about six specific items on the consent agenda he had an issue with. The first was the replacement of fire hydrants with Music Construction Inc. Clepper said that the replacement was unnecessary, as whoever the engineer for the project was had installed the wrong hydrants, so new hydrants were unnecessary. He also took issue with the burden of the engineer’s mistakes being on the county. The second item he took issue with was for HVAC improvements at the Douglass Gymnasium. He explained that he had spoken to other vendors and had found cheaper options for the county. The third item he took issue with was an agreement for legal services associated with fire protection and solid waste assessment. He asked why the county would pay for this when they already employ a county attorney. The fourth item he took issue with was paying for federal government relations consulting services. He questioned why the county would pay for this when it can directly contact its state and federal representatives. The fifth item he took issue with was an agreement to purchase and install new equipment and link four tower sites together. He asked why this hadn’t been done all at once when the towers were set up. His final issue was with the purchase of flashlights for the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO). Clepper explained that he didn’t have an issue with the deputies needing flashlights; he was concerned because he claimed that SCSO had violated Florida Statute 119, the Freedom of Information Act. He claimed that he and others had requested financial information from the sheriff’s office and had not received anything. He claimed that no more money should be given to SCSO until they comply with Florida Statute 119.
After public comment, the board moved on to its consent agenda. They pulled three items for discussion and clarification before approving the other 13 items. The first item pulled was the approval of change order number one with Music Construction Inc. for the replacement of fire hydrants and the increase of the construction timeline by 28 days associated with the CIP Water Main Extension, with a budget impact of $20,072.31, to be paid from existing grant funding. The board claimed they agreed with Clepper on this particular item. North Florida Professional Services was the engineer on the project and had installed the wrong fire hydrants. The board was confused about how this had happened, why the county was not told what type of hydrants would be installed, and how the mistake got past the county. Fire Chief Dan Miller stood up to explain why the hydrants needed to be replaced despite being new. He told the board that, while the trucks would still be able to hook up to the hydrants, it had to do with repair. He explained that the repair for hydrants was different, and it was expensive to keep multiple different repair sets for different hydrants. Therefore, the county was trying to be uniform with its hydrants, so they didn’t need numerous repair sets. The board clarified that it was not confused as to why the hydrants needed to be replaced, but how the mistake was made in the first place. They clarified that an error like this would not be tolerated again and requested that county staff look into a way to recoup some of the money. The board then approved the item.
The second item pulled for discussion was the authorization to utilize monies from the Law Enforcement Trust Fund for the purchase of weapon-mounted lights in the amount of $9,563.20 for the sheriff’s office. Chairman Travis Land had pulled the item for some clarification. Sheriff Sam St. John explained that this had come to light after the recent shooting involving Dominic Carroway, a fugitive from Gadsden County. During the early morning hours, deputies discovered that some of their weapons either had no flashlights or had old flashlights. The goal of this would be to give every weapon a flashlight so this wouldn’t be a concern in the future. Land explained that he had no issue with the reason for the flashlights; his concern was that he felt he had found some cheaper options. He told the sheriff that, in the future, the board would like to see all the bids instead of just the one that the sheriff’s office was going with. The board then approved the item. The final item pulled was a bid award contract with SilverStar Landscape for roadside mowing and litter pickup. The board explained that this contract was to try to make mowing and litter pickup go faster through the county. The company was scheduled to start the first week of April. The item was then approved.
The board then approved a Federal Emergency Management Association grant reimbursement. Parks and Recreation Director Jason Furry stood up to give the board a quick update, letting them know that recreational baseball had started. He also told the board that there had been no update on the springs situation, and finally, his department was looking into a design-build style contract for the future. The board then turned to commissioners’ items.
The only item brought up was from Franklin White. He invited Sheriff St. John back up to the stand. He explained to the sheriff that he was getting consistent calls from his district, concerned about individuals riding in four-wheelers and trucks after rain and tearing up roads and fields. White further explained that it was happening so consistently in the same places that he had pin drops he could provide to the sheriff. He requested that the sheriff put cameras near the areas to catch the perpetrators. The sheriff agreed this was something they would look into.
The board then called for County Attorney Morrison’s items, to which he responded that he had two. First, he explained that recently, he, Furry and County Administrator Greg Scott had met with the Suwannee County School Board regarding the county pool. The school board was interested in giving the pool entirely to the county. Morrison further explained that, currently, the Parks and Recreation Department runs the pool, but the school owns it. Morrison explained effectively that this changed nothing about how the pool is run; it simply changed the name on the deed for the pool. His second item, however, was Matco’s use of the rail spur in Suwannee County at the catalyst site. He explained that he had contacted the CEO Matt Furber regarding the continued use of the county's railspur, despite promises that they would build their own railspur for use. He explained that Furber then contacted him, saying that the rail spur was their next project and they would begin working on it soon. Morrison responded to that email, saying that he was more than aware of the board’s frustration with this particular item and that he was recommending to the board give Furber and Matco a 120-day warning and then trespass them from the rail spur if they had not built their own in time. Morrison also explained that he had double-checked with the railroad to make sure they were giving enough time to actually build the rail spur.
Land and White both expressed their extreme frustration with Furber about this issue, as both had dealt with it as chairman. Land said that Matco had been using the rail spur for 10 years rent-free, and for two years straight, he has heard promises to build a new rail spur, yet not a single bit of movement had happened on the building process. The board then explained that they were completely fed up with the process and took the promise from Furber with a grain of salt. They told Morrison to send the 120-day trespass warning and recommend a 90-day check-in. The board also told Morrison to send a hold harmless agreement. The reason behind it, Land explained, was that despite the kindness from the county, letting Matco use the rail spur for free for years, there was an accident recently. Matco had decided to claim no liability and had forced Suwannee County to pay a six-figure sum for the accident. The board refused to let that happen again and expected Matco to sign the hold harmless agreement as well.
The board then turned to hear County Administrator Scott’s items. First, he told the board that he would be pursuing the work with Jennifer Gisonni for hurricane cleanup at the next meeting. Then, he told the board that after Jimmy Norris's resignation, Charissa Setzer would be taking his position in the interim to make sure the Economic Development Office continued to run smoothly. Finally, he requested permission to make a County Administrator Assistant position, as he felt that he could not handle everything to the best of his ability without some help. The board approved the creation and advertisement of the position. After this, the meeting was adjourned.
The next Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 1, at 5:30 p.m. in the Judicial Annex, located at 218 Parshley St. SW, in Live Oak.