Author: Ken Garner

The city expects to begin building Phase 1 of the North Santa Rosa Regional Water Reclamation Facility in East Milton later this year, but in December the Santa Rosa County Commission postponed a key vote transferring property the city needs to dispose of treated wastewater from the new facility. A group opposed to the proposed plant site are organizing residents to speak against the county’s deeding the property to Milton when the county commission reconsiders the matter at its meeting beginning at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 9, at the County’s Administrative Complex on Caroline Street.

The proposed resolution reads, in part, that the city is “fully committed” to the project “at the site owned by the City…based on the permits in hand and applied for, the grants and loans received, and the City funds committed to the project.”

The resolution also asks Santa Rosa County to honor its memorandum of agreement to transfer the 100-acre parcel to the city and to “expedite” the transfer of the property.

Despite residents’ concerns, the city has all but one of the approvals necessary from funding and permitting authorities to begin building Phase One of the project. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection currently is considering the city’s application to dispose of 1.256 million gallons of treated wastewater per day using rapid infiltration basins and a spray field on a 100-acre county-owned property – land the county already agreed to give the city in exchange for guaranteed capacity at the wastewater facility.

FDEP has ordered Milton to stop discharging treated wastewater from its existing Municipal Street treatment plant into the Blackwater River by the end of December 2025. City staff repeatedly have warned residents and councilmembers that any change of plans now will jeopardize about approved grants and permits, ensuring the FDEP deadline won’t be met and dramatically increasing the project’s estimated $70 million price tag. Phase One, construction of the plant and the initial effluent disposal system, is expected to cost more than $48 million.

Critics believe the proposed site, on undeveloped property between Santa Rosa County Jail and the Blackwater River upstream of the city, creates unacceptable ecological and environmental risks. They argue that better locations for the plant are available and that most, if not all, of the grants and permits can be transferred to a new site – a claim city staff have refuted.

The Milton City Council will meet as the executive committee beginning at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 3, at City Hall, 6738 Dixon St. The meeting’s agenda also includes a presentation from Smoke Free Santa Rosa and Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) asking the city to ban smoking at all public outdoor properties and reviewing an application to have the city declared a Florida Trail Town.

The commission will convene at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 9, for its first planning meeting of the new year. Anyone who wishes to address the commission will be asked to sign up before 4:30 p.m., when the speakers’ sheet will be given to Wright and the public forum will begin. Each speaker will be limited to four minutes, as they have been in the past. Wright will stop the forum at 5:30 p.m. and the agenda will begin with an invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Jerry Couey of Milton questioned whether the commission would give the public forum the same attention if it occurs before the meeting is called to order.

Wright said he would make sure of it.

“I’ll make this statement now: I expect all commissioners to be here. Every elected member of this board should be here at public forum,” Wright said. “That’s an expectation I’ll go ahead and set right now on the record. I think that’s reasonable; I think that’s the right thing to do, I think if the public is going to be here to speak, we need to be here to listen.”

Wright, elected chairman at the board’s organizational meeting in November, announced at the commission’s Dec. 5 planning meeting that he had moved public forum from early in the meeting to the last item on the agenda to help keep public hearings and other county business on track. Commissioner James Calkins objected and asked Wright to hear residents’ thoughts on moving public forum.

“I believe if you want to hear from the people, we will lose some people by moving (public forum) to the end, especially when we have a long agenda,” Calkins said. “I would like to hear from the people here today about how they feel about it being moved to the end.”

Several residents – all of whom regularly speak during public forum – objected to the change, one suggesting Wright was trying to discourage residents from addressing the commission, another declaring the commissioners are duty-bound to listen to residents’ concerns and others complaining about the inconvenience of waiting while the commission conducts its scheduled business.

After Wright announced his compromise at the Dec. 8 meeting, Debbie Gunnoe of Navarre asked whether her comments during public forum still would be recorded for the public record.

“That’s my purpose for coming here for public forum – for what I call the people’s forum, not public forum,” she said. “I come here to make sure that it’s in the Sunshine, that I have all five commissioners here, that I can speak what I have to say, that I can get a response…if we have questions, will we also have the rest of the staff here so that we can get our questions answered?”

Wright assured her that the new format “is no different…other than we have a set time for it.”

“This is my effort to try to bring us together, to try to find some common ground,” Lindsay said of a draft resolution she presented during the council’s regular meeting Dec. 13. The draft reads, in part, that “the government of the City of Milton supports the design and construction of improvements to Highway 90, including through Downtown Milton.” The resolution also declares the city’s desire to work with the Florida Department of Transportation during the project’s design phase, expected to begin as soon as late January; its expectation that FDOT protect the Imogene Theatre during the project; and the city’s plan to enforce a 25 mile-per-hour speed limit through its historic downtown.

The “Highway 90 question” has been a major issue in city politics for most of the past decade. Lindsay has supported cooperating with FDOT to ensure the city has input into the widened roadway’s design; the council in 2019 passed a resolution opposing the plan and pushing the state to choose a different route. All eight members of the previous council publicly declared their opposition to FDOT’s plan and supported efforts to persuade the Florida-Alabama Transportation Planning Organization to remove the project from FDOT’s project priorities list.

Four members of that council are gone; three lost reelection bids and one chose not to seek reelection for personal reasons. But the four commissioners left from the previous council balked at the mayor’s proposed resolution.

Councilman Casey Powell praised parts of the resolution that state the city’s concerns and said he’s always supported the city being involved in the project’s design, but “I have reservations about saying that we support the design and construction, as it’s currently stated.”

Councilman Jeff Snow agreed with Powell and suggested staff revise the draft for consideration at the council’s executive committee meeting Jan. 3.

“I think we can come up with something we can all agree on,” Snow said. “We do want what’s best for Milton, whether you’re for the four-lane or not…we need to be at the table, I agree with that. But we should expect the best for Milton, whichever one we build.”

Lindsay agreed that councilmembers should communicate their suggested changes or concerns to City Manager Randy Jorgenson and said she would work with Jorgenson to develop a new draft. But she emphasized the city is running out of time. An FDOT official said last week a contract with Illinois-based engineering, planning and “allied services” firm Hanson Professional Services Inc. could be approved by the end of January.

“I want us to be able to reach a consensus that is collaborative with FDOT so that we have the best chance to be heard by them and not being considered an obstructive force,” she said. “I don’t want us to be a negative force in this because they’ll be less inclined to take us into account.”

The new council voted unanimously to consider a revised version of the resolution at the executive committee meeting.

To see Lindsay’s draft resolution, go to:

https://civicclerk.blob.core.windows.net/stream/MILTONFL/0f73fd6a-8c8b-4aac-89b2-213c498227be.pdf?sv=2015-12-11&sr=b&sig=9N%2FqE9ESlfGVoeXwGLU2Fc%2BeH2IhLvtNYngQfHt4EL8%3D&st=2022-12-17T22%3A38%3A55Z&se=2023-12-17T22%3A43%3A55Z&sp=r&rscc=no-cache&rsct=application%2Fpdf

Ian Satter, a Florida Department of Transportation spokesperson, emphasized last week that the department still is negotiating contract terms with Hanson Professional Services Inc., an Illinois-based engineering, planning and “allied services” firm with offices across the nation, including Tallahassee.

FDOT selected Hanson’s bid on Nov. 28; Satter said the contract is expected to be finalized and design work begin by late January.

The Community Improvement Board had included in its meeting documents for its December meeting Hanson’s initial project design proposal from its bid submission to FDOT.

Satter emphasized that FDOT will ensure all stakeholders – public officials, residents, business owners, commuters and anyone with an interest in downtown Milton – will have multiple opportunities to review and comment on design plans.

“Remember, this is the beginning of a process that could take two or three years,” he said. “The project development and environment study (completed in 2019) analyzed every possible route and concluded that expanding the existing corridor is the best solution, but it doesn’t determine the design. That’s what this project will do, and we will do our best to make sure we include the city and the public in the process.”

FDOT’s plan to widen Caroline Street between Stewart Street and Ward Basin Road is part of a larger project to increase capacity on U.S. 90 between Scenic Highway in Pensacola and U.S. 87 South.

The widening project has been a key issue in Milton city politics for several years but attempts by the city council to convince planning officials to find a different route have been largely unsuccessful. Mayor Heather Lindsay introduced a draft resolution supporting cooperation with FDOT at last week’s regular city council meeting, but some councilmembers felt the resolution should assert the city’s desire to participate in designing the project without indicating they accepted the state’s preferred route.

The council is expected to consider a revised version of the resolution at its executive committee meeting Jan. 3.

Lindsay, beginning her second term as mayor, and four new councilmembers took their oaths of office at the beginning of the meeting. Mike Cusack, Gavin Hawthorne and Jason Vance defeated incumbents Vernon Compton, Robert Leek and Shari Sebastiao for Wards 1, 3 and 4 seats, respectively, and Marilynn Farrow received two votes more than former mayor Wesley Meiss to win the Ward 2 seat vacated by Shannon Rice, who chose not to run for a second term for personal reasons.

The new council unanimously approved Lindsay’s appointments with one significant change; Lindsay selected newcomer Farrell to represent the city on the Florida-Alabama Transportation Planning Organization’s board of directors, but the council instead chose Roxanne Meiss for the role. Meiss had represented the city on the TPO during her first year in office before withdrawing to care for her mother.

“I’ve been through all the training for it and have a good working knowledge of the position,” Meiss said, adding that she’d be willing to give up her assignment to the Historic Preservation Board if necessary.

The council approved appointing Meiss to the TPO and Farrow to the Emerald Coast Regional Planning Council, with Meiss retaining her spot on the Historic Preservation Board.

Lindsay added three committees: the Business Advisory Council, Locklin Lake Committee and Ordinances Committee. She also combined the Economic Development and Stormwater committees into Growth, Development and Annexation.

“We need to get citizens and residents involved in these efforts,” Lindsay said. “Nothing works without people working together to make government work for the people.”

Lindsay said she would help organize the Ordinance Committee but expects residents to take over its operation for the city.

“It can be a working committee that helps the people know what our ordinances do and also helps generate discussion about how we might improve how our laws work for us,” she said.

The Business Advisory Council is intended to give those who own businesses in Milton but aren’t Milton residents (and can’t vote in Milton city elections) a voice in local government.

“They want to have a voice; I want to help them have that voice,” Lindsay said.

Outgoing Councilman Robert Leek will chair the Business Advisory Council, she said.

Former mayor Wesley Meiss had begun working with staff and residents in the Locklin Lake area in central Milton to get funding to restore the lake. Lindsay said she asked the county’s legislative delegation to support the Locklin Lake Restoration Project at a public hearing earlier this month. She said outgoing Councilman Vernon Compton will lead the Locklin Lake Committee to continue that effort.

Thelake, created in 1827, is bounded by Stewart Street and Dogwood Drive to the east and west and Park Avenue Northwest and Berryhill Road to the north and south. A natural collection point for stormwater and sediment discharge, silt has diminished the water’s quality and contributed to a proliferation of exotic aquatic plants in the lake and downstream.

Ian Satter, public information director for FDOT District 3, said work on the 2 ½-mile section of the busy thoroughfare will require some lane closures, but the department will schedule that work to be done overnight, between the hours of 8 p.m. and 5:30 a.m., to minimize the disruption of traffic.

According to FDOT’s website, the project will resurface existing travel lanes, auxiliary lanes, median crossovers and paved shoulders. Crews will make Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades, including sidewalk and curb ramps.

Chairman Colten Wright was the only commissioner opposed to moving the item to the board’s committee meeting Jan. 9.

“I don’t know about you guys, but my email has been blowing up,” new District 2 Commissioner Kerry Smith said when suggesting the commission postpone the decision. “We’re getting all kinds of new information. I’d like to take some time to go over this before we vote.”

The city plans to build the North Santa Rosa Wastewater Reclamation Facility on a 24-acre parcel between the jail and the Blackwater River in East Milton. Earlier this year, the Milton City Council and SRC Commission each approved a memorandum of understanding transferring a 100-acre parcel of property adjacent to the plant site to the city in exchange for permitted capacity at the plant when it begins operation in 2025. The parties were waiting on a new survey to be completed before the county transferred the deed to Milton.

Residents opposed to the location of the new plant said turnover on the Milton City Council could help their cause and asked the SRC Commission not to decide on the deed before four new city councilors were seated on the eight-member city council Tuesday, Dec. 13.

Milton City Manager Randy Jorgenson argued against tabling the decision because, he said, it was a “technicality” pertaining to a memorandum of understanding already agreed to by the parties.

“The commitment to use this land for this purpose has already been made by Santa Rosa County,” he said, adding that any delay of the project could threaten federal grant funds approved based on the current location.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has ordered Milton to stop discharging treated wastewater into the Blackwater River from the existing plant on Municipal Drive by Dec. 31, 2025.

The city acquired the proposed plant site in 2009 and began working to acquire property for wastewater disposal and funding for the project, expected to cost up to $70 million.

The city has secured about $48 million to build the project’s first phase, which includes building a plant that can process up to 2 million gallons of wastewater daily (with additional phases increasing capacity up to 8 million gallons a day); the existing plant is permitted to process up to 2.5 mgd but is near capacity.

Phase 1 also includes building rapid-infiltration basins and a spray field on the property in question. FDEP currently is considering the city’s application to permit up to 1.256 mgd of treated wastewater to be disposed of at the site; the city is searching for more property for wastewater disposal.

Residents and area environmental activists opposed to the proposed plant site argue that the 100-acre parcel doesn’t have enough capacity for all of the plant’s wastewater because of challenges presented by the soil’s density, composition and moisture.

Pam Mitchell, who lives beside Cooper’s Basin and the Blackwater River near the proposed plant location, helps lead a coalition of organizations challenging the site. She asked commissioners to insist that FDEP conduct an environmental impact study of the property; she called an “environmental assessment” by a firm contracted by the city “self-serving” and incomplete.

Mitchell stopped short of asking the county to cancel its agreement with the city – her “pipe dream” – but did ask commissioners to delay their decision on the deed.

“We’re just asking to let the new council be seated and let the chips fall where they may,” she said.
Jorgenson said there was no reason to put off the decision; a condition of the agreement requires the city to return the property to the county if it isn’t used for wastewater disposal.