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The Commission meets on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 5:30 PM in the Judicial Annex Building, 218 Parshley Street south west.
By JAMIE WACHTER on Tuesday, October 24, 2023Subhead
County to make offer on church property on U.S. 129 north.
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LIVE OAK — A new location — and building – for a new fire station in Suwannee County may have been located.
During a special meeting Monday morning to extend the county’s local state of emergency from Hurricane Idalia and to approve change orders and payments for road projects, the Suwannee County Commission unanimously authorized County Administrator Greg Scott negotiating with the land owner of a 5-acre parcel in northern Suwannee County along U.S. Highway 129. District 1 Commissioner Don Hale was not present, but Scott told the other commissioners that Hale was in favor of the site and property.
According to information provided by Suwannee County Fire Chief Eddie Hand, the current property owner — Live Oak Sanctuary LLC — has an asking price of $695,000 for the five acres, the 4,733-square-feet block church building — the former Jehovah’s Witness North Kingdom Hall — and an outbuilding.
Hand and Scott said in their discussions with the county’s Development Services Director Ron Meeks and Economic Development Director Jimmy Norris determined a fair offer would be $450,000.
The board authorized Scott to negotiate up to $500,000 on the property with a 60-day feasibility study as well as acquisition of an appraisal and a survey conducted.
The board seeks the survey due to the driveway to the property appearing on a map from the Suwannee County Property Appraiser’s site to go onto another property.
“I do not want our fire station sharing a driveway if at all possible,” Commissioner Travis Land said, noting he didn’t want firefighters trying to get to an emergency get caught in a “traffic jam” in the driveway.
Hand, Scott and Norris all told the commissioners that the building, which was constructed in 1999, appears to be in good shape.
According to Hand, it would cost approximately $2 million to construct a new fire station in addition to the purchase of property. Estimates he has received on renovating the church building for crew quarters, redoing the bathrooms to add showers and to add on a kitchen as well as replacing the air conditioning and adding a generator would cost approximately $250,000. An additional $500,000 would be needed for the Red Iron apparatus bays to house the firetrucks.
Combined with the proposed $450,000 offer on the property and the county’s cost would be around $1.2 million.
“It would be considerably less expensive going this route,” Scott said.
In June, the commission decided to look for a new site to build a new fire station, moving on from land it purchased in 2019 off U.S. 129 just north of the Interstate 10 interchange. The county received a $750,000 state appropriation in 2020 to build a fire station at that site.
However, in June, the commission discussed a desire to move the new station further west to provide additional coverage for the county’s Catalyst Site industrial park.
Land said Monday that would still be his top choice.
“But for this to fall in our lap with a brick building, right on the highway and a far superior location than the other parcel that we anticipated potentially building a station on, with this landing in our lap how do you not explore this,” he said.IN June, Hale expressed a desire to keep the new station in the same general area as the previous property.
But based off coverage maps provided by Hand at a June workshop preceding that meeting, the previous location for the fire station would have led to a lot of overlap with the current Station 1 on the western edge of Live Oak and the City of Live Oak’s station since the two have a mutual-aid agreement to assist in and near the city limits.
By JAMIE WACHTER on Friday, June 23, 2023Subhead
Commission eyeing Falmouth location to cover Catalyst Site.
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LIVE OAK — Suwannee County’s next fire station is moving to a new location.
The Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved looking for a new location for Station 6 at Tuesday’s meeting.
During a lengthy workshop that preceded the meeting, the commissioners and Fire Chief Eddie Hand discussed, along with the county fire assessment, whether the location on U.S. Highway 129 north of the Interstate 10 interchange was the right spot.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Hand said of utilizing the current site for the station, noting the turn east U.S. 129 makes as it heads north out of the county would shift coverage far to the east.
Hand, as well as the majority of the commissioners, said a priority needs to be making sure the new station can provide coverage for the county’s Catalyst Site, which has received significant state funding the past two years to help spur industrial and economic growth there, west of Live Oak.
Commissioner Travis Land said he believed the Catalyst Site had to be covered. He added another option would be moving the station further north in the county to help prevent too much overlap with the current Station 1 on the western edge of Live Oak and the City of Live Oak’s station. The county and city have a mutual-aid agreement to assist each other in and near the city limits.
“That circle needs to 1000% pick up the Catalyst Site,” Land said, adding the “game has changed” in regards to where the need was with state funding rolling in for the Catalyst Site.
Maurice Perkins, the District 2 commissioner, said he’d prefer a new station cover both Pilgrim’s Pride on the western edge of the county along U.S. 90 and the Catalyst Site.
“It makes no sense to put that station where we agreed to put it,” Chairman Franklin White said.
However, District 1 Commissioner Don Hale said he didn’t care about using that particular spot, which was purchased in 2019. But he felt it was important to keep the station needed to be close to that area to provide coverage for the county’s residents, adding state legislators and previous commissioners worked hard to get state funding — a $750,000 appropriation in the 2020 budget — for that site.
The board eventually agreed to look into the existing volunteer station site in Falmouth as the new station site. If that site, which would need construction of a new station, and possibly additional property, doesn’t work, they would begin looking elsewhere.
Prior to the discussion on a new fire station location, Hand told the commissioners that the county fire assessment, which is included on property owners’ property tax bill, needs to increase at least $25 from its current $120 rate.
Hand said that increase is necessary to cover the current budget shortfall that his department has on the fire service side.
“We’ve got to get the fire assessment to where it needs to be,” he said. “We have to do something.”
Other increase options were also provided that would help cover the staffing cost as well as future staffing additions, including for Station 6, and equipment replacements.
GETTING RID OF PACE
The commission also unanimously voted at Tuesday’s meeting to terminate the county’s existing agreements with PACE loan providers.
County Attorney Adam Morrison, during the workshop, told the commission that currently there are 26 PACE loan agreements in place in the county, dating back to when the board first authorized Florida PACE Funding Agency to begin offering the loans for improvements or repairs to property related to renewable energy or energy conservation or efficiency in 2015.
However, Morrison explained that there are complaints surfacing around the state, including in Columbia County, about consumer protection concerns with the companies. Morrison advised that the county could terminate its agreements based on those concerns for consumer protection.
Property Appraiser Ricky Gamble said both he and Tax Collector Sharon Jordan would support the board’s action to stop PACE funding in Suwannee County.
Gamble, formerly a county commissioner, said the loans were originally sold as a way to help people make necessary improvements if they didn’t have other funding available. However, he said that comes with a consequence.
“It puts them behind the 8-ball,” he said. “They could lose their home over an air conditioner.”
Jordan urged the board to take action soon, as another company had recently sent notice of a pending agreement coming.
“The quicker you move, the better,” Jordan said. “It’s really not good.”
Another concern with the PACE funding, Morrison told the board, was the Florida PACE Funding Agency is now operating under a Leon County court order to operate in every county in the state without local agreements, which he said “doesn’t make a lick of sense.”
However, Morrison said by already having agreements with PACE funding companies, Suwannee County is in a stronger position than those counties that have not because the termination clause mandates the companies stop selling the loans locally.
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