LAUREL HILL — Most residents who crowded First Baptist Church of Laurel Hill’s fellowship hall Tuesday night said this north county community should dissolve its city status.

The City Council wanted residents’ input on whether it should place a dissolution option on an upcoming ballot. Resident Harold Jones’ comments on poor road conditions during a Nov. 15 council meeting spurred the town hall.

Residents mainly discussed the main roads’ disrepair and expressed concerns about how their tax dollars were spent. Most favored dissolution.

"My position is that we are in the county and we all need to make (the city of) Laurel Hill go away," Harold Jones said.

"I'm for it," Deborah Adams, a Laurel Hill School teacher, said. "If Laurel Hill is no longer a city, that does not mean that they are going to erase those letters off the map."

A few residents favored Laurel Hill remaining a city.

Despite the city’s high debt and low reserves, the likelihood of Okaloosa County taking the task, post-dissolution, would be a “pipe dream,” Mike Blizzard said.

"We’re not going to be in any better shape than we are now," he said, adding the sole difference would be the area’s municipality loss.

The city has $380,000 in reserves; just $272,000 is available at the city’s discretion. This could cover infrastructure, paying down debt or equipment purchases. However, about 14 miles of roadway need repairs; about 55 percent of them need asphalt resurfacing, which would cost about $60,000 per mile, Okaloosa County Public Works Director John Hofstad said. The remainder would require reconstruction, which would cost two to three times as much.

Florida Rep. Doug Broxson, Okaloosa County Commissioner Nathan Boyles and Hofstad offered moral support, but did not express stances on the dissolution issue.

However, Hofstad gave the issue perspective.

"We just want to be very clear that if your goal is to dissolve the city and become unincorporated in Okaloosa County, it’s not like we show up the next day and start repaving roads," Hofstad said after the meeting. "We have a process we go through."

The county commission must approve funding for road repairs, and that’s just part of the lengthy process, he said. Nevertheless, “we certainly want to help out Laurel Hill where we can … and we certainly will in the future.”

During the meeting, an audience member asked the council to give input.

Council Chair Larry Hendren and Co-chair Robby Adams said they favored dissolution. Councilman Clifton Hall said he wants Laurel Hill to remain a city. Council members Betty Williamson, Willie Mae Toles and Mayor Joan Smith expressed no preference.

While addressing the issue, Toles shared her dissatisfaction with the current mayor.

"Laurel Hill was all right until she got here," she said.

The audience applauded the statement.

Hendren encouraged residents to call city hall with questions on the matter and do research before deciding on the issue.

Resident Scott Moneypenny agreed.

"The citizens of Laurel Hill need all the information that is possibly available before making a decision to dissolve a city," he said. "Because once you lose the infrastructure, there is going to be problems that people cannot foresee."

The next council meeting is 6 p.m. Jan. 8. at city hall.

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Matthew Brown at 850-682-6524 or matthewb@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbMatthew.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Laurel Hill residents show support for city dissolution

CRESTVIEW — Their votes didn’t officially count, but that didn’t stop 8,114 of 9,076 voters from opining about a proposed city charter that would alter the city’s governance. Of those, 4,319, or 53 percent, voted against implementing the proposed charter. Almost nine of 10 voters in the last election voted on the charter ballot question, an analysis of official election results shows.

Speaking before the city council at its Monday meeting, several residents advised city leaders to take the results seriously — even if they’re nonbinding due to an administrative error. City leaders expect to revisit the issue with another referendum in March 2013, which drew criticism from some opponents.

“Are you going to bring it up every time there’s an election? It appears we’re flogging a dead horse now,” resident Dan Taggett said.

“This is like changing horses in the middle of the stream,” resident Landrum Edwards said. “We’re doing a do-over. This is like kickball when we were kids; you get to do do-overs. That’s what this council is doing right now.”

Holding the election again was a matter of fairness because some voters, she and her husband among them, didn’t vote on the charter referendum when they learned it was no longer a valid ballot issue, Councilwoman Robyn Helt said.

“The council’s not getting a do-over on this item,” Helt said. “We have an obligation to put it on the agenda so the citizens get a chance to say. The citizens deserve to have the opportunity to vote in a valid format.”

Elections Supervisor Paul Lux’s official results show 960 of the 9,076 Crestview voters who cast ballots on Nov. 6 skipped the charter question.

More than 8,000 who did vote on it should have been enough to convey citizens’ opinion, Taggett and Edwards said.

“You’ve got an opportunity (now) that the people have spoke,” Edwards said. “Everybody had an opinion on it. If you didn’t vote, that is your own fault.”

“It was voted on and 500 people said no,” Taggett said, referring to the 524 more voters who voted against the charter than for it. “Yes, some people elected not to vote on it. If you don’t vote on it, don’t complain about it.”

Cal Zethmayr, of WAAZ/WJSB radio, referencing data from previous Crestview charter referenda, contended that based on his research, the 8,114 people who voted on the issue were likely the highest turnout they could expect.

“I think they sent you a message,” Zethmayr said. “In Crestview, 90 percent who got a ballot went all the way to the back of the ballot and they chose to send you their opinion. 524 more said no than said yes. Do you think you’re going to get 8,000 voters to turn out in March? I’ll buy a steak dinner for any of you who thinks they will.”

Zethmayr said his research showed 72 percent of registered voters voted on the charter referendum — the highest percentage of any of the previous five Crestview charter referenda from the past 20 years.

“We had 8,100 people vote,” Edwards said. “You add that up and the majority did not want the city charter to change. I don’t care if it was irregular or not counted or whatever.”

“This council doesn’t do the citizens of Crestview any service if we don’t move forward and put it to a legitimate vote,” Helt said. “I think for this council to now say, ‘Well, we just won’t go forward with it just because some people are in opposition to it,’ we would be doing the citizens a disservice if we didn’t put it to a vote … The citizens have the say. I respect their say. If the citizens don’t wish to have a charter revision, that is fine.”

Weeks before the Nov. 6 election, City Clerk Betsy Roy discovered a clerical error. A city council meeting to consider placing the charter on the ballot had been advertised for March 26, 2012, but was actually held April 9, she found. Rather than subject the charter to a potential legal challenge if it had passed, the council reluctantly agreed to rescind the ordinance that placed the issue on the ballot.

However, the action was too late to remove the referendum from ballots, which had been printed.

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Charter vote was nonbinding, but 90 percent voted anyway

SHALIMAR — A new task force is set to begin the process of freeing Okaloosa County government from its dependence on landlords.

“Our goal by 2014 is to be out of the rental business,” County Commission Chairman Don Amunds said.

Amunds is one of nine people who will serve on the Shalimar Annex Renovation Project Task Force, which meets for the first time Friday. All the county’s constitutional officers will be represented, along with the state attorney’s office and court administration.

The panel’s name is slightly deceiving.

While deciding how best to renovate the 58,900-square-foot Shalimar annex — while maintaining 15,000 square feet for some type of judicial function — will be a big part of its job, there are other renovations to be discussed, Amunds said.

“It’s a big picture concept,” he said. “Where all do we have space and where can we renovate?”

By moving all its offices into county-owned buildings, Okaloosa can save $1 million a year, Amunds said. He favors putting the anticipated savings into the renovations.

Amunds said the first target for renovation could well be the old Fort Walton Beach Hospital building the county owns on Hospital Drive. The old Garnier’s wastewater treatment plant on Essex Road in Ocean City also will also be reviewed.

Amunds said he hopes the sheriff’s office Investigative Division will go along with a plan to move to the old hospital or another county-owned location so the $125,000 to $130,000 rent for its offices in Shalimar can be eliminated.

The biggest rental cost the county pays is about $400,000 to lease the tax collector and property appraiser offices at Uptown Station in Fort Walton Beach.

Those leases run out in November 2014. Amunds said the two offices definitely will be relocated.

One problem the task force faces is that the county still is technically entangled in litigation over the Shalimar annex property.

The annex was almost completely vacated following construction of the new courthouse annex extension at the C.H. “Bull” Rigdon Fairgrounds and Recreation Complex on Lewis Turner Boulevard.

The Meigs family trust, which deeded the Shalimar annex land to the county decades ago, sued. The Meigs trust claimed that by moving, the county triggered a reverter clause that states if court functions were abandoned in Shalimar, the property would be returned to the family.

A judge ruled in February that by agreeing to maintain a judicial presence at the annex, the county had not triggered the reverter clause. The Meigs’ family has appealed the ruling and a decision is expected in February or March.

With the appeal pending, the county’s judiciary is weighing what its presence will be at the Shalimar annex, said Clerk of Court Don Howard, another task force member.

Until that decision is made, full-blown renovation plans for the annex remain on hold, Howard said. Both the clerk’s presence and the sheriff’s presence at the annex will be predicated upon the extent of court functions there.

“What the judiciary does will directly impact my office,” Howard said. “Like any other construction-type project, you have to first decide what it is you’re going to achieve at that location.”

Tax Collector Ben Anderson, who is on the task force, said he’s already studying plans to determine how his office can best use space at the annex.

“We’ll do our part to make it a good place for the citizens to do business,” he said.

Anderson said the “overriding focus” is to continue to provide the efficiency and convenience residents get at his office at Uptown Station.

He said he fears some difficulties in doing that at a 40-year-old building with low ceilings.

Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa panel to review how to eliminate rental costs

FORT WALTON BEACH — Nov. 30 is the final day to receive a 4 percent discount on property taxes.

"We anticipate collecting 65 percent of the tax revenue, or approximately $120 million, by the end of this month,” Okaloosa County Tax Collector Ben Anderson said. "We will have staff staged in the lobbies of our offices the last three days of the month to accept drop-off payments by check. Customers can then get in and out of our office without having to wait in line with those conducting other transactions.”

Payment options available include express payment online, where electronic checking is free.

Call 651-7300 for details.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Property discount deadline is Nov. 30

CRESTVIEW — After an Oct. 8 resolution by the city council proclaiming Crestview a Purple Heart City, the appellation became official during the council’s Monday meeting when Mayor David Cadle presented a plaque from the Military Order of the Purple Heart to Council President Ben Iannucci III.

“It’s a recognition the city has taken upon itself to honor all the fallen veterans of all the wars and all the military personnel who are on active duty and are Purple Heart recipients,” Military Order of the Purple Heart Region 4 Commander Bill Everett of Baker said. “It’s quite an honor; quite an honor indeed.”

The Military Order of the Purple Heart now lists the city and Okaloosa County on its website map of nationwide Purple Heart Cities and Counties. Okaloosa County was the state’s Purple Heart County and Crestview is the county’s first Purple Heart City.

Florida has only a handful of Purple Heart Cities, “and less than 25 (exist) throughout the United States,” said Everett, whose region encompasses eight southern states. The closest communities to share the honor are Leon County and Tallahassee, and Pike County and Troy, Ala., according the order’s website.

“How fitting it was for Crestview to come on board, because there’s an awful lot of retired military and active duty personnel in the Crestview area,” Everett said. “Crestview has given up a lot of personnel in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East.”

The ornate plaque — bearing color graphics of an American bald eagle, the U.S. Constitution and the Purple Heart medal — will hang in City Hall.

“It’s an honorary designation for a city that recognizes the commitment and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform for the defense of our liberties in our country,” Mayor David Cadle said. “It’s a way of honoring the Purple Heart recipients not just in Crestview, but throughout the nation.”

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview now a Purple Heart City

  Crest

CRESTVIEW — The Adminsitrative Services Department released the following agenda for the CRA Buildings Improvement Grant Review board meeting, to be held at 6 p.m. Nov. 29 at Crestview City Hall.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * ** * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

NOVEMBER 29, 2012 THURSDAY, 6:00 P.M.

AGENDA

1 . CONVENE MEETING

2.    REVIEW A BUILDING IMPROVEMENT REIMBURSEMENT GRANT. APPLICATION SUBMITTED ON BEHALF OF CCKD, LLC, (CLIPPERS HAIR DESIGN, BUILDING LOCATED AT 470 NORTH MAIN STREET,) AND DETERMINE AN INITIAL RECOMMENDATION TO BE FORWARDED TO THE COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY (CRA) BOARD.

3.    REVIEW A BUILDING IMPROVEMENT REIMBURSEMENT GRANT. APPLICATION SUBMITTED ON BEHALF OF CRESTVIEW PROPERTY SERVICES, LLC, (FORMERLY PMI BUILDING LOCATED AT 468 NORTH MAIN STREET) AND DETERMINE AN INITIAL RECOMMENDATION TO BE FORWARDED TO THE COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY (CRA) BOARD.

4.    CONSIDER OLD BUSINESS.

5.    ADJOURN MEETING

ALL BOARD MEETINGS ARE OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview Buildings Improvement's Nov. 29 meeting agenda released

CRESTVIEW — It will come as little surprise to motorists slogging through northbound State Road 85 rush hour traffic to learn the city’s traffic consultant said that the major north-south artery is a major impediment to the community’s growth. During a Nov. 26 presentation to the Crestview City Council, the consultant reported a key is not expanding the state highway, but removing more local traffic from it.

Whit Blanton, vice president and principal of the Renaissance Planning Group, told council members that with the city’s projected growth — the population is expected to double to more than 40,000 residents within 25 years — but little federal or state highway funding, it’s up to the city to find creative ways to alleviate traffic on S.R. 85’s problem stretch between P.J. Adams Parkway and downtown.

“The wait won’t be growing shorter, it will be growing longer,” Blanton said.

“The big issue in looking at how to evaluate the different transportation connections is how to alleviate the traffic on 85,” Blanton said. “There’s not much you can do about 85 but there is something you can do about trips beginning or ending in Crestview. About 60 percent of the traffic that is on 85 has a beginning or end in the city of Crestview.”

A partial solution to alleviating some of that traffic is to make it easier to access destinations in town with a network of east-west and north-south connections that make it easier for local traffic to access businesses and residential areas without having to travel on S.R. 85, the Renaissance study stated. The group’s study showed local traffic on S.R. 85 could be reduced by as much as 35 percent using a local road network.

“Economic development is not going to happen if you don’t have good connectivity,” Blanton said.

Using roads such as the Brookmeade Drive extension has already alleviated some of the S.R. 85 congestion by routing local traffic north from Wal-Mart behind the North Okaloosa Medical Center, Blanton observed. Motorists taking “the back way,” using Brookmeade to Redstone Avenue and Okaloosa Lane to U.S. Highway 90, bypass S.R. 85 entirely.

“The plan recommends developing a city network to make those connections,” Blanton said. “You can do a lot on your own to make traffic better in the city and then work over time to develop that bypass.”

While an optimum solution is the long-discussed P.J. Adams Parkway/Antioch Road bypass around the southwest part of the city, Renaissance’s report faces the economic reality that there is no funding for the project. Some of the study’s recommendations include:

• A bike and pedestrian network that mirrors recommendations for local street networks.

• Improve bus service, increasing it from the current one bus every 70 minutes, “which is pretty lousy,” to 20 or 30 minutes. Also revisit plans for a commuter bus service to Eglin Air Force Base from park-and-ride lots in Crestview.

• Revisiting the S.R. access management plan “that didn’t go over so well” a few years ago, but this time, work with business and property owners to lay a foundation for them to “buy in with an access management strategy.”

• Incorporate the Renaissance study into the city’s comprehensive plan. “Once you codify this in your comp plan it gives you more leverage when you work with developers,” Blanton said.

• Prioritize local network projects and incorporate them into the city’s capital improvement plan as funds allow.

• Work in coordination with private development to realize some of the plan’s components.

“(S.R.) 85 is still going to be congested unless you choose to widen it, which is not economically feasible or desirable,” Blanton said.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Local roads can alleviate S.R. 85 traffic, consultant says

CRESTVIEW — Pot-bellied pigs might soon be allowed to live lawfully with their human companions within the Crestview city limits thanks to a concerned resident’s petition to the city council. Currently city ordinance, which dates from the 1980s, prohibits the Vietnamese-originated pets.

“I didn’t realize pot-bellied pigs aren’t allowed in city limits until I wanted to adopt one from PAWS, but I can’t adopt her because I live in Crestview,” Brenda Montgomery said. “They are loving. They are hypoallergenic. They are smart.”

Montgomery pointed out that Fort Walton Beach once had similar restrictions, but as pot-bellied pigs gained popularity as pets, the neighbor city revised its animal control ordinance to permit them within city limits.

“They’re not destructive. They’re not feral pigs,” Montgomery said. “Health-wise, they’re pretty hardy animals if they get their vaccinations. They don’t stink.”

Saying she was “not opposed” to revising Crestview’s ordinance, Councilwoman Robyn Helt recommended city staff consult local veterinarians to determine if there are any health issues connected with the pigs. She also advised checking with counterparts in Fort Walton Beach to learn what procedures they used to revise their city’s pet ordinance.

Councilman Tim Grandberry agreed with Helt that prohibiting the pets seemed foolish and said many people in the city, unaware of the ordinance, already have pet pot-bellied pigs.

Councilman Charles Baugh Jr. advised consulting with PAWS (the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society, which handles Okaloosa County animal control services) when revising the city’s ordinance. Baugh also cautioned that pot-bellied pigs turned loose when they grew too big for their owners’ comfort have bred with wild pigs and gone feral.

“There are many wild pot-bellied pigs running around north Okaloosa County because irresponsible pet owners, who don’t realize they’re going to grow into 150-pound pets, brought them up here and turned them loose,” Baugh said.

“I can concur with what Mr. Baugh stated, but I could apply the same standards to cats or dogs,” Helt said. “I believe we should have limited regulation in matters that effect peoples’ day-to-day life. I don’t want to be Big Brother. We have a specific ordinance that prohibits it (having pet pot-bellied pigs). The less amount of prohibitive ordinances that we have in our city, the better.”

The council then voted unanimously to direct city staff to research revising Crestview’s pet ordinance to include pot-bellied pigs.

In other matters, the council:

• Received a request from resident Mae R. Coleman, who encouraged her fellow citizens to support the Okaloosa County Transit bus routes that serve Crestview. “I don’t care where you go, think about your little town,” Coleman implored. Information on using the local bus routes will be mailed with water bills, City Clerk Betsy Roy said.

• Unanimously approved closing city offices from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 13 so all city employees can share a Christmas luncheon together.

• Received a report from Roy on the progress of issuing a social media policy. When Mayor David Cadle said that the police department was working on a similar policy for its new manual, Helt suggested the two be combined. “Why should we have two separate standards for different employees?” she asked.

• Unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding between the First United Methodist Church and the Crestview Fire Department, which will use a building vacated by the church for rescue and extraction training before the building is torn down.

• Unanimously approved the fire department hosting a regional hazardous materials handling training program at the Community Center in January.

• Unanimously directed staff members to research how city council meetings could be streamed, saved and retrieved by citizens on the city’s website.

• Received a report from Kay Rasmussen of the Economic Development Council, who said she has been appointed interim president of the council upon the recent resignation of Larry Sassano. Rasmussen said she is also be a candidate to fill the position permanently.

• Voted 4-1 against lending up to 100 traffic cones to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) for its Jingle Bell Jog footrace in Fort Walton Beach, citing city policy that prohibits the loan of city equipment outside the city limits.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Pet pigs, bus service and fire training discussed at council meeting

CRESTVIEW — When the proposed city charter comes back before voters in the March 2013 elections, they may get to pick and choose which parts of it they wish to have implemented. Concerned that voters may reject the entire document because they disagree with only one or two of its provisions, the Crestview City Council agreed to consider breaking the charter into several ballot measures.

Click here to see the proposed charter.

The idea of offering a “menu” of charter provisions was broached by Councilman Tom Gordon at the council’s Monday night meeting. Gordon said he has spoken with several residents after the Nov. 6 elections and assessed their feelings about the proposed charter.

“If they had something they didn’t like, people voted against the whole thing,” Gordon said.

Though the vote was non-binding because of a clerical error, nearly 72 percent of the city’s registered voters voted on the measure anyway, defeating the proposed charter 4,319 to 3,795.

Several council members said they recognize the most contentious components of the proposed charter are the provision for a fulltime, council-appointed city administrator and a council-appointed city clerk. Currently the city’s voters elect the clerk. After consulting with Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux, Council President Ben Iannucci III suggested offering the charter on the ballot in three parts: the city administrator, the city clerk, “and all the rest.”

“My only concern would be, if you take out one piece, it has a domino effect of affecting other parts of the charter,” Councilwoman Robyn Helt said. “It would be very difficult to do that.”

“If it is a big piece like this, I don’t think it’ll pass,” Gordon said.

“Then the citizens might be content with having a city physician and other things we haven’t needed since the plague,” Helt replied, referring to a provision in the current 1960s city charter that, among others she described as “archaic,” calls for a city physician.

Prior to her election to the council, Helt had served on the citizen Charter Review Committee that evaluated the current document and made recommendations to the council for the composition of the proposed charter. She and Councilman Charles Baugh Jr. have been two of the proposed charter’s strongest proponents on the council.

“I would not like to give three choices,” Baugh said. “We either present one animal or we don’t present it at all.”

“It’s not giving them (the voters) three choices, but giving them a yes or no on three different categories,” Iannucci replied.

After consideration during the discussion, Helt said offering the charter in three components would allow the council more opportunity to more thoroughly describe the charter’s provisions. Because ballot measure descriptions are limited by law to 75 words, offering the charter in three components would triple the descriptive text the council could place on the ballot in March.

Iannucci also welcomed the opportunity to more thoroughly explain the role of the city administrator, a position he described as “vital to the success of the city.”

“We need that kind of control in the city,” Iannucci said of the administrator’s day-to-day oversight of city operations. “That one piece alone is vital. If I could pull that one piece out and put it before the people, I would be happy with the rest. It is vital in this city moving forward.”

The council defeated a motion by Baugh 2-3 — with Baugh and Councilman Tim Grandberry voting yay — to approve on the first reading placing the charter on the March ballot. The council then unanimously agreed to hold a public workshop on Dec. 4 to discuss offering the charter as several ballot measures.

“This is too important for the city, no matter how you slice the pie,” Baugh said.

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Voters may get to choose Crestview charter provisions (document)

FORT WALTON BEACH — A new task force is set to begin the process of freeing Okaloosa County government from its dependence on landlords.

“Our goal by 2014 is to be out of the rental business,” County Commission Chairman Don Amunds said.

Amunds is one of nine people who will serve on the Shalimar Annex Renovation Project Task Force, which meets for the first time Friday. All the county’s constitutional officers will be represented, along with the state attorney’s office and court administration.

The panel’s name is slightly deceiving.

While deciding how best to renovate the 58,900-square-foot Shalimar annex — while maintaining 15,000 square feet for some type of judicial function — will be a big part of its job, there are other renovations to be discussed, Amunds said.

“It’s a big picture concept,” he said. “Where all do we have space and where can we renovate?”

By moving all its offices into county-owned buildings, Okaloosa can save $1 million a year, Amunds said. He favors putting the anticipated savings into the renovations.

Amunds said the first target for renovation could well be old Fort Walton Beach Hospital building the county owns on Hospital Drive. The old Garnier’s wastewater treatment plant on Essex Road in Ocean City also will also be reviewed.

Amunds said he hopes the Sheriff’s Office’s Investigative Division will go along with a plan to move to the old hospital or another county-owned location so the $125,000 to $130,000 rent for its offices in Shalimar can be eliminated.

The biggest rental cost the county pays is about $400,000 to lease the tax collector and property appraiser offices at Uptown Station in Fort Walton Beach.

Those leases run out in November 2014. Amunds said the two offices definitely will be relocated.

One problem the task force faces is that the county still is technically entangled in litigation over the Shalimar annex property.

The annex was almost completely vacated following construction of the new courthouse annex extension at the C.H. “Bull” Rigdon Fairgrounds and Recreation Complex on Lewis Turner Boulevard.

The Meigs family trust, which deeded the Shalimar annex land to the county decades ago, sued. The Meigs trust claimed that by moving, the county triggered a reverter clause that states if court functions were abandoned in Shalimar, the property would be returned to the family.

A judge ruled in February that by agreeing to maintain a judicial presence at the annex, the county had not triggered the reverter clause. The Meigs’ family has appealed the ruling and a decision is expected in February or March.

With the appeal pending, the county’s judiciary is weighing what its presence will be at the Shalimar annex, said Clerk of Court Don Howard, another task force member.

Until that decision is made, full-blown renovation plans for the annex remain on hold, Howard said. Both the clerk’s presence and the sheriff’s presence at the annex will be predicated upon the extent of court functions there.

“What the judiciary does will directly impact my office,” Howard said. “Like any other construction-type project, you have to first decide what it is you’re going to achieve at that location.”

Tax Collector Ben Anderson, who is on the task force, said he’s already studying plans to determine how his office can best use space at the annex.

“We’ll do our part to make it a good place for the citizens to do business,” he said.

Anderson said the “overriding focus” is to continue to provide the efficiency and convenience residents get at his office at Uptown Station.

He said he fears some difficulties in doing that at a 40-year-old building with low ceilings.

Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa panel to review how to eliminate rental costs