CRESTVIEW — An unexpected increase in tipping fees at Waste Pro’s Santa Rosa County landfill will be passed on to city garbage customers.

The $7 per ton increase takes effect April 1 but the earliest the city can implement the approved increase is the second week of April, City Clerk Betsy Roy said.

The increase will be 5 percent for residential customers and 4 percent for commercial customers. Residential customers will see about $.72 a month more on their bills.

In addition, a Santa Rosa County recycling plant’s closure and construction of a new one will see a $39 per ton tipping fee implemented, whereas before Waste Pro was not charged to drop off recyclables.

Residential customers will see a monthly increase of about $.18 per month for recycling.

About 30 percent of Waste Pro’s Crestview customers recycle, with recycling doubling to about 2 tons a day since the company implemented recycling incentives. Roy said under state law, by 2020, recycling will be obligatory throughout the county for all garbage customers.

City Council President Shannon Hayes agreed with Waste Pro’s incentive program, which rewards recycling residents with prizes such as gift cards. “We have to look out for our world,” he said. “We've only got one. If we keep destroying it now, there won't be anything for our great grandkids.”

Councilman J.B. Whitten — who, with all other council members approved Waste Pro’s rate increase request March 28 — said sometimes the unforeseeable happens. “You just can't anticipate something like this,” he said.

Waste Pro regional vice president Ralph Mills said it is the first time the company has been faced with a tipping fee increase in its eight years in Crestview.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview garbage fees increase

CRESTVIEW — When the City Council is seated for its regular April 11 meeting, there will be some switching of name plates on the dais.

Toward the end of its March 28 meeting, the council voted in new leadership for the 2016-17 term, which by the city charter begins April 1.

By a 4-1 vote, current vice president Joe Blocker was elected council president, with Councilman Bill Cox casting the lone nay vote. By unanimous vote, Councilman JB Whitten was selected to be vice president.

Outgoing Council President Shannon Hayes offered words of advice to his successors.

“Read ‘Robert's Rules of Order,’” he said. “It's quite extensive but we follow it.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview City Council selects new leadership

CRESTVIEW — The City Council is closer than its ever been to acting on a consultant's 5-year-old recommendation to increase city customers' water rates from 1990s levels.

Since Tetratech consultants reviewed the city's water system and made its recommendations in 2011, multiple improvements have been made:

• Nearly 8,000 water meters, many of which weren't working, have been replaced at a cost of $500,000

• A new well was dug and water storage tank erected, anticipating Old Bethel Road-area growth

• The wastewater treatment plant was been expanded and upgraded.

But Tetratech's biggest substantial recommendation has yet to be acted on: Raising water rates.

DWINDLING RESERVES

With a former $3 million reserve whittled down to about $500,000, the council agreed Monday evening to consider a proposal by City Clerk Betsy Roy and Public Works Director Wayne Steele to raise rates 2 percent, possibly as early as June.

Over the next five years, Steele's capital improvement plan calls for $7.5 million in upgrades and equipment replacement, including more than $1 million each in 2017 and 2018.

"The numbers aren't adding up," Steele said of water department revenue versus needed improvement costs. "If we had started back then like we should have, we wouldn't be behind. We've got to do something."

Monthly increases would have averaged about 30 cents for residential customers had the city implemented the plan when Tetratech recommended it, Steele said.

"Because we didn't take any action, now we're being reactive," Steele said. "Two percent would be a good place to start."

$1 MILLION PER YEAR

Steele said the city faces multiple improvements of more than $1 million a year in planned system upgrades and maintenance, including a second well and water storage tank off Arena Road to serve the Fox Valley and Antioch III subdivisions.

"It concerns me south of the interstate with one elevated storage tank," Steele said at a Monday evening workshop. "If something goes wrong, how can we assure we'll have enough water without the wells running 24 hours a day? We'd exceed our pump capacity."

The councilmen were generally supportive of the proposed 2 percent increase, but requested the ordinance implementing it include a requirement that rates be reviewed every year so a future council can roll them back if needs are met.

"I think that would be fair to our citizens and to future councils so they're not locked into this," Council President Shannon Hayes said.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview City Council may raise water rates

CRESTVIEW — The Okaloosa County Courthouse is bustling these days, but judges, bailiffs, defendants and attorneys are no longer the focus of activity.

While Judge Terry Ketchel heard some routine cases Wednesday morning, the main action was in the hallways and offices below his courtroom, where movers temporarily relocated Clerk of Circuit Court workers and moved their furniture across U.S. Highway 90 to the former Okaloosa Memorial Hospital.

“Everybody has to play musical chairs so we can move the furniture across the street,” Clerk of Court J.D. Peacock said, pausing to look through the window of his old office, which, for the next week, houses child support and domestic relations services.

The two-year relocation has forced Peacock and his team to rethink how their services are provided, affording an opportunity to create efficiencies in day-to-day operations.

“Actually, it’s not a choice; it’s a have-to,” Peacock said. "The way we do business is going from a paper-based world to a digital world. As the workload shifts, it forces us to look at process efficiencies.”

Toward that goal, a large portion of the new office space is dedicated to receiving, processing and storing digital files.

“Attorneys file most of their documents through an electronic portal so they don’t actually have to come down here, so it’s an efficiency gain,” Peacock said.

One benefit the move brings is it unites most of Peacock’s functions in one area, he said. Until the move, his department’s many services have been scattered throughout the courthouse, the result of piecemeal expansions over decades.

“We’re able to gain efficiencies just by being together,” Peacock said.

After the first week of April, the 1950s landmark will be a ghost building. Peacock’s staff and the few remaining court denizens will be gone.

Court Operations Director Susan Cassady said case initiation and e-docketing staff have been working at the new location since last week, while the IT and clerk finance office are operating from the former county purchasing space across the street.

“They’re not ones that deal with the public,” she said.

Peacock praised Okaloosa County Public Works facilities staff, who prepared temporary office space for his department and renovated facilities for other services in a countywide relocation.

One constituency has been silent during preparations for demolition and building a new courthouse, Peacock said.

“Whenever we talk about tearing a building down, there’s always a group that says, ‘Oh no, you can’t tear this down. It’s historic,’” Peacock said. “There’s not a soul that’s said that here.”

—

COURTHOUSE COUNTDOWN

In less than two weeks, the 1950s Okaloosa County courthouse will be unoccupied, and the countdown to its demolition will begin.

March 28-April 1: Clerk of Court equipment and furniture move across U.S. Highway 90 to former Okaloosa Memorial Hospital

April 1: Most of Clerk of Circuit Court staff relocate to former hospital

April 4-8: Transition of remaining services to new location

April 5, 6 or 7: All Clerk of Court functions operational in former hospital

n less than two weeks, the 1950s Okaloosa County courthouse will be unoccupied, and the countdown to its demolition will begin.

March 28-April 1: Clerk of Court equipment and furniture move across U.S. Highway 90 to former Okaloosa Memorial Hospital

April 1: Most of Clerk of Circuit Court staff relocate to former hospital

April 4-8: Transition of remaining services to new location

April 5, 6 or 7: All Clerk of Court functions operational in former hospital

COURTHOUSE COUNTDOWN

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa Clerk of Court: Relocating office increases efficiency

CRESTVIEW — City Councilman JB Whitten, the Main Street Crestview Association and Community Redevelopment Agency will host a town hall meeting.

The event is 6-8 p.m. March 31 at Hideaway Pizza, 326 Main St. N., Crestview.

Learn more about what MSCA and CRA do in the community, including how CRA money is used and accrued; façade grants; and more.

Whitten, CRA Director Brenda Smith, and MSCA President Paul Lowrey will discuss and get attendees' ideas on downtown development, the Crestview Junction, Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Twin Hills Park and more.

If you're not able to attend but would like to participate, email your ideas to jbwhitten@cityofcrestview.org.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Town hall meeting set for Crestview groups

The Wayne Harris campaign office has the endorsement of Pete Smith, who has served as Okaloosa County property appraiser since 1992.

Harris, R-Crestview, seeks the District 4 seat in the Florida House of Representatives.

“As Okaloosa County property appraiser, I have had the pleasure of working with Commissioner Wayne Harris for a number of years,” Smith stated in a media release. “He has been a strong community leader, not only as a commissioner, but as a chamber (of commerce) director. I have admired and appreciated his unwavering conservative convictions, and I have no doubt that he will continue that stellar record of strong leadership in the Florida House. He’s exactly the person we need representing us in Tallahassee.”

—

Editor's Note: This article is corrected to include the intended story. 

A computer glitch resulted in the initial post displaying a Catholic Charities report. 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: CAMPAIGN TRAIL: Okaloosa County property appraiser endorses Harris for House seat

CRESTVIEW — With an election year’s first round of voting completed, Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux and his staff are focusing on the next balloting.

The News Bulletin chatted with Lux to see how the March 15 presidential primary went, and what voters face next.

How did last week’s voting go?

The primary we just had was the presidential primary. We had a 44 percent turnout. We had some polls where they still had people in line to vote by 7 (p.m.), so that was encouraging.

Were there any issues during the recent primary?

We had well over 270 people cast provisional ballots, and the vast majority of those were people who disagreed with their party’s candidates, and unfortunately, most of those we had to discard. As many people discovered, we are still a closed primary state. For people who don’t spend a lot of time in elections, some of the subtle nuances can sometimes be lost on people, especially given the mobility of our population and that many are coming here from other states that have open primaries.

How did the machines perform?

We had all new equipment, both for checking in voters and for tabulating the votes, and with just five months for getting it all in place and getting the poll workers trained, our poll workers did an absolutely exemplary performance. We didn’t have any machines fail, but we had a couple issues of poll worker errors issuing the ballot wrong, but that was quickly corrected.

Did the machines simplify voting or tabulating?

The difference for the average voter is kind of lost because it does function the same way as what they’ve been used to seeing. But on election night, when we were closing the polls down, the poll workers could close each polling place by hitting a single button, and it was a very quick time to transmit (results to Lux’s office). The new technology has cellular modems inside. There’s no more waiting for people to drive machinery in to produce the results. We had like 36 or 39 of the 43 polling locations reported by 7:20.

What are the new machines’ features?

With the old equipment, they had analogue modems in them, which we used to use regularly when we first got them. But then we had to stop using them to transmit the results. If you try to put an analogue modem on a digital phone line, it burns out the modem. In the south end of the county, they had to drive the equipment to a transmit center where they had an analogue phone line. I told all of the groups we trained with the equipment, this is a work in progress. I told them what we’re doing is laying the groundwork for tweaking the training so that, by the time the November election gets here, we’ll all be pros with it.

What’s next this election season?

The next thing coming is the actual August primary. We still have qualifying for the five constitutional officer seats, three county commission seats, two school board seats, and all the fire district seats. All those people file the week of June 20-24. Then we’ll have an identified slate of candidates.

Aug. 1: Registration books close for August primary election

Aug. 20-27: Early voting

Aug. 30: Primary election

Oct. 11: Registration books close for November general election

Nov. 8: General Election

WHAT'S NEXT?

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Q&A with Okaloosa's elections supervisor: How the primaries went, and what's next

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Four new cases of the Zika virus were reported in Florida yesterday: three in Alachua and one in Brevard. To help curb the spread of the virus, late last night the Senate approved a measure to speed up the development of vaccines and treatments for the disease.

 The legislation, introduced by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and others, would add the Zika virus to the Food and Drug Administration’s Tropical Disease Priority Review Voucher Program.

When a company develops an FDA-approved treatment for one of the diseases on the priority list, it receives a voucher to fast-track the approval process for another drug of its choice. 

Adding the Zika virus to FDA’s priority list creates an incentive for drug makers to accelerate their search for a cure.

Once awarded, a fast-track voucher can either be used to cut the time it takes the FDA to approve another drug that the company has developed from 10 months to 6, or be sold to another drug maker. In 2014, a fast-track voucher reportedly sold for $

The legislation passed late yesterday in the Senate now heads to the House for consideration.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Senate approves bill to speed up search for Zika virus cure

SHALIMAR — The Okaloosa County Tax Collectors Office deadline for paying real estate and tangible personal property taxes is approaching.

In a media release, Tax Collector Ben Anderson stated the deadline is March 31 for 2015. Taxes are delinquent if not paid by the deadline, and become subject to interest and advertising fees.

An installment payment plan is available through April 30.

Payment options include:

●Using an Echeck at www.OkaloosaTax.com

●Visiting 302 N. Wilson St. Suite 101 Crestview. Call 651-7300 for hours. 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa tax payments due — or face delinquency

CRESTVIEW — When city leaders look to the future, their eyes land on Old Bethel Road.

Following the city’s growth spurt south of Interstate 10 beginning in the early 2000s, city planners and consultants believe northwest Crestview will be the next area of growth.

And the Crestview Fire Department wants to be ready.

“We know we're going to have growth on the north end of town,” Fire Chief Joe Traylor told the City Council at its March 14 meeting. “It's prime real estate for development.”

With the economy recovered from the late 2000s downturn, real estate agents are seeing new interest in Old Bethel Road.

“It is a popular area,” Re/Max Realtor Dino Sinopoli said. “There’s new homes being built in Liberty Oaks, and right across from them is a new subdivision Adams Homes is finishing off now.”

That’s good for the real estate industry and the city’s tax coffers, but it worries Traylor.

NEW TRUCKS, NEW STATION

To keep residents’ fire insurance rates low, Crestview Fire Department responders must arrive at a structure fire within five minutes of the call. The current average response is four minutes, Traylor said.

But with the closest firehouse being the Woodruff Avenue main station, the Old Bethel area is outside that critical window.

“One minute can make the difference between saving a house and losing a house,” Almarante Fire District commissioner Mack Wilkins said March 10.

To bring future Old Bethel development into the four- to five-minute response window, Traylor has called for a new fire station in north Crestview and fire trucks to equip it.

With passage of the fire department’s 2015-16 budget, the city took the first steps toward meeting that goal by creating what Traylor called a “trust fund” that, like North Okaloosa Fire District’s similar arrangement, lets the agency set money aside for cash equipment purchases.

Meanwhile, the fire department must replace some equipment. Its oldest truck is a 1985 model, “that costs more to fix than run,” City Clerk Betsy Roy said.

LEASE VS. BUY

Roy and Traylor have brainstormed alternatives to purchasing new fire engines, which each can cost a quarter of a million dollars. Financing the equipment can add tens of thousands of dollars to the taxpayers’ bill.

For example, the department’s two newest trucks, purchased in 2007, would have cost $450,000 if the city paid cash. With finance charges, they cost $575,000, Traylor stated in a March 8 memo to the City Council.

Plus, the city pays annual maintenance costs on the vehicles, which, as they age, will continue to rise. The department recently had to replace one truck’s motor, for example, Traylor said.

Traylor and Deputy Chief Tony Holland, who researched leasing and lease-purchase options, learned that two new trucks could be leased for seven years for $767,120, including maintenance costs.

COUNCIL APPROVAL

“At end of lease, we have the option to pay $135,000 and the title is transferred to us, or we tell them, ‘Come get these two trucks and bring us two new ones,’ so we don't end up in the situation where we’re operating 30-year-old pieces of equipment,” Traylor said.

“With the cost benefit of leasing compared to direct purchase, we would save $135,000,” Traylor said. “Over the seven-year period, we would save in the finance charges.”

The city is at least two years away from buying new fire trucks, but wants to lay the groundwork for a purchase when it becomes necessary, Roy said.

Roy and Traylor now have the council’s approval to continue researching leasing and purchase options.

“I believe we will be able to fund these two vehicles and still be able to put money in a trust fund for the construction of a fourth fire station,” Traylor said.

And that’s good, because, as Sinopoli said, “North Crestview has the most amount of land to develop in the county.”

—

LEASE VS. FINANCE

With the City Council’s unanimous approval March 14, the Crestview Fire Department will research acquisition of two new fire trucks.

Two Pierce Custom Saber Pumpers:

Cash purchase: $902,880 (excludes finance charges and maintenance costs)

Seven-year lease: $109,590 per year, $767,120 total (includes maintenance costs)

Savings: $135,760 (plus cost of purchase finance charges)

Purchase option at end of lease: $135,000

—

PRESENT EQUIPMENT

The Crestview Fire Department currently has:

Fire stations: three

Fire engines: four (including one back-up), 75-foot ladder with pump

Command/rescue vehicle: one

Source: Crestview Fire Dept.

LEASE VS. FINANCE

With the City Council’s unanimous approval March 14, the Crestview Fire Department will research acquisition of two new fire trucks.

Two Pierce Custom Saber Pumpers:

Cash purchase: $902,880 (excludes finance charges and maintenance costs)

Seven-year lease: $109,590 per year, $767,120 total (includes maintenance costs)

Savings: $135,760 (plus cost of purchase finance charges)

Purchase option at end of lease: $135,000

—

PRESENT EQUIPMENT

The Crestview Fire Department currently has:

Fire stations: three

Fire engines: four (including one back-up), 75-foot ladder with pump

Command/rescue vehicle: one

Source: Crestview Fire Dept.

LEASE VS. FINANCE; PRESENT EQUIPMENT

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview fire department eyes new station, engines to meet demand