by Hannah James. Tue, December 10th 2024 at 10:40 PM | Updated Wed, December 11th 2024 at 11:04 PM
MILTON, Fla. — A new wave for the city of Milton is ushered in as four new council members are sworn in Tuesday night. The four new councilmembers won against incumbents who sought reelection.
Ashley Fretwell taking Shari Sebastiao’s seat in Ward 4. Robert Leek taking Jeff Snow’s seat in Ward 3. Larry McKee taking Roxanne Meiss’ seat in Ward 2. And Tom Powers taking Matthew Jarrett’s seat in Ward 1.
On their first night serving the city, a major hot topic item up for discussion was the proposed wastewater project that could contaminate the only source of drinking water for half of Santa Rosa County.
They’re also on a limited timeline. If a decision is not made by the end of this month, some funding could disappear.
“We have to have the contract in place by Dec. 31,” said Sandra Woodbury, City of Milton’s grants manager. “Your objective today is to pick this project to prevent the loss of funds.”
A decision must be made about a proposal to build an effluent spray field. The problem, part of one proposal has a spray field sitting on a wellfield. That same wellfield pumps water to Fairpoint, a regional facility that pumps drinking water to 100,000 residents.
“The biggest issue on tonight is the current design of the plant has spray fields in the Wellfield protection area, and we are going to move those out. I mean there’s no question about that,” said Powers. “Because the water that is going in there will have PFA’s and PFO’s in it, you know, forever chemicals. And that’s not a good thing to put in drinking water. So we’ve got another plot that we’re just going to move it to that. That’ll get us started with what we have to do for the plant.”
Another issue: funds can expire.
“I’m going to push that we will have a decision done this year. We’re not going to give away $5 million, we’re just not going to do it,” McKee said. “…Once you get the spray field, you get the five million. You get the spray fields, you get the effort away from the river itself, you no longer deal with fines, you have time to take a breath. You negotiate and figure out what the best decision is as far as the plant goes for the community, and then make a good decision on it.”
Based on previous reports, the $40 million project was set to break ground in 2021.
“Every quarter that goes by… And there is no activity on these projects we lose ground,” Woodbury said. “We have the potential of losing, my total though and I’m accounting just the grants, is 38.9.”
That’s $38.9 million. With other loans that have already been awarded, also with expiration dates. The city of Milton could lose upwards of $43 million.
“My concern is the risk to the river,” said Cusack. “The river is a viable commodity to this city and this county. It’s tourism 100%. You pollute this river, the city is done.”
The city council determined to reject all bids on the effluent disposal system project on Tuesday night. They also decided to authorize the staff to redesign the project and reissue the bid once the redesign is completed.
Recent Comments