Board Sets Priorities for 2008 (by Commission Chairman Ed Brimner)

{sidebar id=1}Yesterday, your Board of County Commissioners met in Medart to determine what priority issues our county staff should work. Although invited, there were no private citizens present for this meeting. There were several staff members and contractors present to add to discussions.

I would first like to thank all involved for the very cordial manner we discussed differences of opinion and our different goals for the upcoming year. I would encourage us to continue in this vein throughout the upcoming year.

Second, I would like to take a minute to let everyone know what we, collectively, thought were good ideas for Wakulla County to pursue in 2008. They were often strongly endorsed by more than one commissioner. In no particular order they were:

Paving of neighborhood roads
Funding for Wakulla Gardens’ sewer expansion
Pursue sharing facilities with Wakulla County School Board
Recreation program expansion including equestrian center/pioneer village, community center, and a regional park in North Wakulla County
Operational Audit
Transportation improvements including a new north/south road corridor, improve 319/98 intersection by pursuing federal funding, improve operational improvements on US 319 from Crawfordville to Leon County Line
Upgrade neighborhood infrastructure in our old platted subdivisions including Greiner's Addition, Lake Ellen Estates, Magnolia Gardens, Wakulla Gardens, and Wakulla River Estates including stormwater, neighborhood parks, paved roads, and sewer
Clean up our bays to include sewer expansion into Live Oak Island and conclude negotiations with Talquin to include shutting down existing treatment facilities near Shell Point
Support funding for Wakulla Civic Center

Following much discussion, the following five items were selected as the top priorities for Wakulla County to pursue in 2008. In parenthesis is the ranking each item was given by each commissioner with 1st being the most important to that commissioner and 5th being the least important of these items (secret votes were weighted). These items will be ratified at the second board meeting in January.

   1. Clean up Bays (BL-2nd; GG-3rd; EB-1st; HK-2nd; ML-1st)
   2. Transportation Improvements (BL-1st; GG-2nd; EB-3rd; ML-3rd)
   3. Upgrade Neighborhood Infrastructure (BL-4th; GG-1st; EB-2nd; ML-4th)
   4. Support Funding for Wakulla Civic Center (BL-3rd; EB-5th; ML-2nd)
   5. Recreation Program Expansion (BL-5th; GG-5th; EB-4th; HK-4th; ML-5th)

It is interesting that only Cleaning up our Bays and Expanding our Recreation Programs were in the top five for all five commissioners.

An operation audit received two votes; Commissioner Green felt this was the 4th most important item and Commissioner Kessler felt it was his most important.

Commissioner Kessler felt paving neighborhood roads was the 3d most important item and sharing facilities with Wakulla County Schools was the 5th most important item.

After hearing the discussions I believe all our commissioners support sharing facilities with our schools and paving of neighborhood roads. These will be issues I commit to support but our very limited staff will not be making these items their focus this year. I also believe mandated changes to property taxes will force consolidation of some county and school board resources.

I want to end by thanking our staff for their hard work in this process. This was the second year the board has gotten together to discuss what we want our staff to accomplish the following year. The old adage applies, “Without directions, you can end up anywhere.” Wakulla County now has direction and it is clear we are focused on environmental issues and quality of life issues. I believe this is another of the many improvements made by Wakulla County in the past 3 years.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ed Brimner
Chairman, Wakulla County Commission (District III)
(850) 251-8709 (Cell)
(850) 926-0919 (Office)
(850) 926-0940 (FAX)

This letter originally published on December 12, 2007.

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