Franklin County oppose state plans to shift hurricane cleanup costs to counties

Franklin County Commissioners are very concerned about a change in policy at the Florida Department of Transportation which could shift a large part of the cleanup costs after a hurricane from the state to the county.

County Restore coordinator Alan Pierce said DOT is changing its policy of cleaning up debris on the state highway system so that it will only make one pass after a storm and only pick up debris that fell within the state right of way.

That means debris that might be moved to the right of way by homeowners like seaweed or destroyed dock material will not be removed by the state and will instead fall to the county to clean up.

Pierce pointed out that Highway 98 runs for almost 60 miles through Franklin county, and there are hundreds, if not thousands of houses which deposit storm debris on the Highway right of way.

That could add millions of dollars to the county's cleanup costs, and even though the county would be reimbursed by the federal government, it can take months and sometimes years to get the reimbursement.

Basically the county would have to find the cleanup money or find a company that is willing to work with the promise of being paid in the distant future.

Alan said This is a vivid example of the state shifting the responsibility and cost of hurricane recovery to local government.

County commissioners say they are very concerned by the plan and will challenge it.

At this time they have agreed to contact other small coastal counties like Gulf, Wakulla and Dixie counties to see how they plan to respond so that all of the counties can express their concerns to the state in a similar fashion.

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