Three Franklin County beaches under swimming advisories this week

There are three swimming advisories in Franklin County this week including one at the St. George Island state park. People are also advised against swimming at Alligator Point and at Carrabelle beach. High concentrations of the enterococcus bacteria were found in water samples taken from the State Park and moderate concentrations were found at Alligator Point. There was no bacteria found in samples taken from Carrabelle beach this week, but the three week average bacteria count is still too high to lift the advisory. Health officials say they also found bacteria in water samples taken from the St. George Island public beach, but concentrations were not high enough to issue an advisory. The presence of the enterococcus bacteria indicates either human or animal waste in the water. Wakulla County also has advisories at both of its popular swimming areas, which include Mash’s Island and Shell Point. There were no advisories issued for Gulf County waters this week.

Sopchoppy gets big money for new sewer

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection announced Thursday that it has awarded a $5.1 million to the city of Sopchoppy for wastewater management. The funds are part of DEP’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program and will go to the construction of a complete sanitary sewer collection system to replace the existing septic tanks in the community. The project is expected to eliminate the ground water and surface water pollution associated with septic systems in areas with high seasonal water table conditions. Wakulla County will provide treatment and disposal of the wastewater. The funds awarded to the city of Sopchoppy are a part of the approximately $212 million awarded to Florida from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to help local governments finance improvements to wastewater, stormwater and drinking water facilities. Sopchoppy was one of the 33 Florida communities recently approved to receive these funds – the cities of Carrabelle and Apalachicola are also slated to receive money through the program.

Franklin County moving toward record number of foreclosures

If the current rate of Foreclosures continues, Franklin County is on its way to a record number of foreclosures this year. Clerk of the court Marcia Johnson told county commissioners this week that the number of foreclosures doubled between 2007 and 2008 and this year could be even worse than last. In 2007 there were 136 foreclosures in Franklin County – that rose to 276 in 2008. Johnson said there have been 156 so far this year and we are only halfway through the year. The information is available on the internet to anyone who wants to see it – just go to www.franklinclerk.com, go to public sales, and click on foreclosures.

Franklin County Commission rejects hiring Armstrong

County commissioners have rejected hiring a particular attorney to represent them in issues dealing with a central sewer on St. George Island. The board on Tuesday said they did not want to be represented by attorney Brian Armstrong because of the history he has in this county and the perception many people have of him. Armstrong is a utilities lawyer who represented the Lanark Village Water and Sewer district during a highly contentious period when many Lanark Village residents were seeking to have the district taken over by the city of Carrabelle. He works for a firm called Nabors, Giblin and Nickerson in Tallahassee which represents counties and municipalities in public utility issues. County attorney Michael Shuler had approached the firm to represent Franklin County before the Public Service Commission in relation to plans from the St. George Island Water company to build a central sewer in the commercial district of St. George Island – but on Tuesday he was told to find someone else. Commissioner Cheryl Sanders said she feels Armstrong would be the wrong man for the job, and in fact the county would rather not deal with the firm at all because of the potential that he may be brought in to do some of the work. County attorney Michael Shuler said he will begin the search for another utility counsel immediately.

County commission asks for delay in St. George Island sewer project

County commissioners voted this week to send a letter to Gene Brown, the owner of the St. George Island Water and Sewer District, asking him to hold off on his plans to build a central sewer system in the business district of St. George Island. The board said it would like for him to delay his plans for a number of months while it continues to investigate what is causing bad water samples taken from popular beaches on the island. The central sewer project is being proposed to help Island restaurants who are facing state action because of undersized or non-functioning septic systems. One restaurant, the Subway on St. George Island, has already been closed down by the health department because of sewer issues. Central sewer proponents also feel central sewer may help stop many of the swimming advisories that have plagued the island in recent years. The cause of those swimming advisories, however, has not been fully investigated and the county would like time to complete their studies. On Tuesday, they heard from Seth Blitch from the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research reserve who said there may now be a plan in place to get much more thorough water samples from the island. That’s plan would include looking at the island in ten sections which would include a section focusing on the business district, a residential area, an area primarily filled with rental houses, and even the state park where there is no development. Water samples would then be taken from 3 sites on the bay side and the gulf side in each section to give researchers a clearer picture of where the pollution is coming from. The health department, which issues swimming advisories when bacteria is found in their water samples, only tests from 4 sites on the island and only on the Gulf of Mexico side. The big question now is how much the expanded testing will cost – Mister Blitch said he does not have an answer for that yet. The county said it can’t sign off on the expanded testing until it knows how much the tests will cost, and where the money will come from.

Franklin County Commission continues battle over airport land purchase

The battle between county commissioners over purchasing land near the Apalachicola airport ended in another stalemate on Tuesday. The board has found itself divided over the issue for months – leading a number of people to wonder why this issue is causing such contention. Basically the county has been given money from the Federal Aviation Administration to purchase 21 acres of undeveloped land at the end of the airport’s main runway to serve as a runway buffer zone. The airport advisory committee would like the county to purchase the property before it’s sold to someone who might develop it and affect airport operations. And if the county buys the first phase, the FAA will provide money to buy more property in the area for a total of about 70 acres. There are also some concerns that if the county doesn’t use the federal money soon that the FAA will take it back and give it to someone else and the county might still have to buy the land. When the issue first came before the county there were questions as to whether the landowners were asking too much for the land; at that time the price was close to 10 thousand dollars an acre. When the issue came before the board on Tuesday, the seller had agreed to accept 9000 dollars an acre. But the board still finds itself divided on the issue. Noah Lockley and Bevin Putnal have consistently voted to purchase the land, especially since it won’t cost any county money. Cheryl Sanders and Pinki Jackal have opposed the purchase leaving the board in a 2 to 2 deadlock. The commission chairman, Smokey Parrish, says he cannot vote on the issue because his employer is one of the landowners – though Parrish would support the purchase if he could vote on it. The board has already considered the issue three times with no change in the votes – its not known whether it will come before the board for a fourth time.

Two Apalachicola men sentenced as part of seafood conspiracy

7 men from north Florida and south Georgia, including two from Apalachicola, have been sentenced on federal charges of shipping illegally caught fish across state lines. The seven men were arrested after a two year investigation which found the men had conspired to transport a variety of marine fish illegally across state lines from Florida to Georgia, then mislabeled the fish and falsified documents. The violations included selling fish that were caught and sold during closed seasons, including redfish, Speckled trout; red snapper, red grouper and gag grouper. They also faced charges of fishing in state waters without proper commercial fishing permits and licenses; selling fish without proper permits; falsely identifying regulated fish species on state and federal documents; and selling Vietnamese catfish as grouper. Authorities said most of the violations involve the federal Lacey Act, which prohibits interstate shipment of fish or wildlife taken in violation of state law. The two Apalachicola men involved in the crime were James Nations, Jr. and Jeffery B. Cannon. Mister Nations was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 90 days followed by 90 days home confinement, a period of supervised release of two years, and a fine of $2000. Mister Cannon was sentenced to a period of probation of two years and a fine $1000. Gary D. Brown of Medart was sentenced to a period of probation of two years and a fine of $5000.

Tax certificate sale returns millions to county budgets

Tax collector James Harris said last week’s tax certificate sale was very successful and he managed to sell almost all of the unpaid tax certificates this year. The county was looking at a record number of tax certificates up for sale this year; there were over 2400 tax certificates for sale this year, totaling almost 2.9 million in unpaid taxes. Almost all of the certificates were purchased, allowing local taxing authorities to recoup nearly all of the tax revenue. The Franklin County commission alone recouped nearly 1.2 million dollars in unpaid taxes, the school district will receive about the same. The city of Carrabelle will get nearly 256 thousand because of the sale and the city of Apalachicola nearly 150 thousand. Harris said the county decision to advertise the tax certificate sale in nearby cities led to the sale’s success. He said the newspaper ads brought in 30 new investors who helped buy up the certificates. There are about 30 thousand dollars in unsold tax certificates still available; people interested in learning more about them should contact the tax collectors office.

Local firefighters seek increase in MSBU funding

Local volunteer fire departments met with county commissioners Tuesday in a public workshop to discuss raising the MSBU assessments paid by local home and business owners. MSBU stands for Municipal Service Benefits Unit. It’s an annual fee paid by every homeowner in the county to help fund volunteer fire departments and medical rescue units. The fees were last increased in 2002 – that was the first increase since the fees were created in 1987. Firefighters say the assessment has to be increased to help cover the increasing costs of running a fire department. Their costs on everything from fire trucks to equipment to training goes up almost every year, yet the amount local property owners pay for fire service does not reflect that. Just outfitting one fireman costs almost 7000 dollars. Not only that, but volunteer firefighters are performing more services, ranging from first responder care to water rescue and that increases their costs. The St. George Island fire department, which has 26 firefighters, says its budget is now 155 thousand dollars a year, but MSBU only covers 75 thousand of that which requires a lot of grant writing and fund raisers to make up the difference. And as firefighters pointed out, homeowners save much more in fire insurance than they pay out in MSBU by having fully functioning fire departments in their areas. Homeowners currently pay 42 dollars per home; firefighters are seeking to increase that to 57 dollars. Commercial establishments pay 75 dollars per building with a maximum annual payment of 300 dollars – they would like to see that increased to 100 dollars per building with a 500 dollar maximum. Motels and hotels pay 7 dollars a unit with a maximum annual assessment of 300 dollars, firefighters would like to see that increased to 10 dollars a unit with a maximum payment of 750 dollars a year. Possibly the most controversial request is for the county to establish a 30 dollar annual fee for vacant lots – those currently pay nothing for fire protection though fire fighters say the vast majority of the calls they respond to are on vacant lots. County commissioners seem willing to give the firefighters an increase, though commissioners seem skeptical about assessing undeveloped lots. They said they would consider all of the requests at a public hearing which they will likely schedule sometime in July.

Franklin County High School FCAT Scores 2009

High School FCAT Reading and Math scores were released last week as were science scores for 11th graders. 36 percent of local ninth graders scored at grade level or above this year in reading, the statewide average was 47 percent. 49 percent of 9th grade students passed the math section of the FCAT this year, Statewide there was a 68 percent passing rate. 10th grade scores shook out like this: 26 percent of 10th graders passed in reading; the Statewide passing rate was 37 percent. In math there was a 54 percent passing rate in Franklin County; the state average was 69 percent. 11th graders took the science section of the FCAT this year, 15 percent of local 11thgraders scored at or above grade level ; statewide there was a 37 percent passing rate. All of the 2009 FCAT scores are available on-line for anyone who wants to see them. Check out all of the 2009 FCAT scores HERE.