CRESTVIEW — The Okaloosa County Courthouse in Crestview’s closure is slated for today, April 1.

Here’s how it affects the clerk of court’s operations:

●All court-related operations located in the Crestview Courthouse will move into county facilities across Highway 90 to 601B N. Pearl St.

●The Clerk’s Office walk-in customer services will be closed in Crestview Monday, April 4 as its customer service team moves.

●You can conduct business as usual in offices at the Fort Walton Beach Courthouse, 1940 Lewis Turner Blvd. (at the Fairgrounds).

Call 651-7200 or 689-5000 for more information. Additionally, many services are available at OkaloosaClerk.com.

The Crestview Court Operations Center will be open for routine business starting Tuesday, April 5 at 601B N. Pearl St. Crestview. Office hours will be 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. weekdays.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Must-know clerk of court changes following Crestview courthouse closure

CRESTVIEW — Given the City Council’s consensus, City Clerk Betsy Roy and Fire Chief Joe Traylor are continuing to explore possibly acquiring land in the Old Bethel Road vicinity for a new fire station.

That section of northwest Crestview is widely considered the city’s next growth area, but residents and businesses are under-served by fire protection services, Traylor has said.

Under Homeland Security and national fire prevention standards, fire departments should be able to respond to a fire call within four minutes. Much of the Old Bethel area is outside that response time.

If a sufficient percentage of the city’s population ends up living in the Old Bethel Area, not having a manned firehouse in the area could increase all city residents’ fire insurance costs under national Insurance Services Office standards, Traylor said.

“You’re looking at 6,000 people not unrealistically,” Traylor said, which could be up to a quarter of Crestview’s population. “It would have an overall negative effect on the city’s ISO rating.”

Traylor and Public Works Director Wayne Steele said while a fire station could be squeezed into a 1-acre lot, 2 acres is more realistic and would include sufficient space to maneuver fire trucks in and out of the station, and could also accommodate stormwater retention and adequate parking.

Traylor said a location right on Old Bethel Road would be ideal to provide faster response times.

Council President Shannon Hayes said it is prudent to research land acquisition now, not when the expected build-up is underway and the need becomes urgent.

“We’ve got to start looking now,” Hayes said. “If we wait until we need one, the citizens who live there are going to be up here jumping on the council.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview officials seek Old Bethel firehouse land

CRESTVIEW — Judge Michael Flowers presided over the last court session at the Okaloosa County Crestview courthouse before its demolition and subsequent rebuilding. 

Brian Hughes captured this video of the historic final session on March 31. 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: VIDEO: Okaloosa County Courthouse's final court session

CRESTVIEW — Okaloosa County's plan to replace the Crestview Courthouse at 101 James Lee Boulevard East in Crestview will cause permanent closure of the building effective April l.

Many of current court functions will be moved to the Okaloosa County Courthouse Annex Extension in Fort Walton Beach. Proceedings will also be held at the Brackin Building in Crestview and the Fort Walton Beach Water & Sewer Building.

The following location changes apply to matters previously held at the Crestview Courthouse and become effective April 1.

To ensure attendance at a specific proceeding or event, citizens and attorneys are encouraged to phone the applicable judicial office or court personnel to confirm the exact location. For contact information and updated information, visit www.FirstJudicialCircuit.org.

The Clerk of Court will continue to provide full service at the Court Operations Center in Crestview, 601-A Pearl St. N., Crestview.

 For information regarding Okaloosa County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller, visit www.OkaloosaClerk.com or call 689-5000.

Moved to the Brackin Building, BOCC Conference Room, Room 305, 302 Wilson St. N., Crestview:

 ●Judge Flowers

-all criminal proceedings

-all dissolution of marriage hearings

-all family law proceedings

-all domestic violence injunction hearings

●Judge Terrance Ketchel

-civil jury trials

-dependency hearings

-delinquency hearings

●Judge Jim Ward

-Various proceedings

Moved to the Fort Walton Beach Water & Sewer Building, 1804 Lewis Turner Blvd., Suite 400, Fort Walton Beach:

●Judge Ketchel

– Civil hearings

– mortgage foreclosure hearings

●Magistrate Thomas Nixon

-mortgage foreclosure hearings

●Judge Ward

-small claim pre-trials with attorneys of record

-infraction hearings

-claims of exemption

-landlord-tenant hearings

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview courthouse closure affects legal proceedings starting April 1

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