SHALIMAR — The Okaloosa County Commission will discuss litigation strategy relating to allocation of costs to the Department of Juvenile Justice and secure juvenile detention during a March 1 executive session. 

The session, closed to the public, is estimated to begin at approximately 9 a.m. in the  Okaloosa County Administrative Building. It will last approximately 30 minutes.

Discussions will focus on settlement negotiations or strategy sessions related to litigation expenditures as to these litigation matters.

After the closed session, the board will reconvene in open session in the county commission meeting room to take action on this matter, if necessary.

County officials have been fighting the DJJ for reimbursement of the overcharges for housing youthful offenders from 2009 to 2013.

Commissioners plan to keep fighting for reimbursement of $3.1 million in overcharges.

The Okaloosa County Administrative Building is located at 1250 N. Eglin Parkway, Shalimar.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa commissioners to discuss litigation strategy in closed session (UPDATED)

Demolishing the Okaloosa County Courthouse and constructing a new one are just two parts of the project. Before work begins, multiple county offices must be temporarily relocated — and that's just one reason why the project's price will increase.

CRESTVIEW — The current, $21 million or less estimate to raze the 1950s Oklaoosa County Courthouse and build a new one on the same site excludes shuffling offices around, Clerk of Court J.D. Peacock said.

As courthouse occupants prepare to move into temporary digs for the next two years, Public Works crews are preparing county-owned facilities to receive them.

“It’s going to be a big challenge,” county Facilities and Maintenance director James Puckett said. “We’ve made several plans about just who’s going where and then we keep changing them. I told everybody, ‘Don’t write anything in pen anymore.’”

It will cost more than $100,000 to move Peacock’s department into the former Okaloosa Memorial Hospital across the street. The office’s temporary home for the next two years needs fiber optic cables relocated, and IT equipment moved, set up and networked.

The location’s previous occupants — the county personnel, purchasing and risk management departments — had to move to former county extension offices on Old Bethel Road.

 “The judges are going to move, except for one who’ll be in the new courthouse,” county public information officer Kathy Newby said. “The rest are going to be on the fourth floor of Water and Sewer (the county's Fort Walton Beach building). Those that require security are going to have to go to the south-end courthouse.”

“Effectively, court operations will stop at the Crestview courthouse the last week of March,” Peacock said.

“Hazardous material remediation, salvaging efforts and utility disconnections will commence immediately,” Newby said.

Shuffling all these departments around, along with designing and constructing the new courthouse, could push the project's cost to $24 or $25 million, Peacock said.

“The last presentation to the (board of county commissioners) had hard costs estimated under $21 million,” Newby said, citing Public Works data. “There is a substantial amount of design effort remaining that will bring clarity to that value, and the final cost is still yet to be precisely determined."

Once the current building is vacated, reusable materials, such as wall marble, are salvaged, and utilities are disconnected, the estimated demolition-reconstruction timeline is 15 to 18 months, Newby said.

 “Then we’ll turn around (two years later) and move everybody back,” Puckett said with a chuckle.

WHO’S GOING WHERE?

While demolishing the 1950s courthouse and building its replacement, multiple county services will temporarily relocate. Here’s who’s going where:

Board of County Commissioners: North Okaloosa County meetings will move to Crestview City Hall

Clerk of Court: Services will move across U.S. Highway 90 to the former county hospital building

Human Resources, Purchasing, Risk Management: Moved from the former hospital to the former county extension office on Old Bethel Road

Judges and courts: One judge will move to the Fort Walton Beach courthouse. The other three will be in the Water and Sewer building

Contracts and grants: Moves to the Brackin Building on Wilson Street

Information Technology: Moves from the Brackin Building to the former county hospital

WHAT WILL IT COST?

$100,000: The cost to move Clerk of Court J.D. Peacock's department from the current courthouse to temporary offices in the former county hospital, Peacock said. A major expense is adding three-phase power to the small brick IT building beside the former hospital to run the clerk of court’s computer systems.

$400,000 to $450,000: Estimated costs to renovate the hospital space, former county extension offices on Old Bethel Road, the south county courthouse third floor and the Water and Sewer building's fourth floor in Fort Walton Beach, and to move various departments around, county Buildings and Facilities Director James Puckett said. “Once it’s there, it’s still going be utilized, so it’s not throwing money out the window,” Puckett said. “What we’re doing now is going to be permanent for other purposes and other departments.”

MOVING COSTS

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: New Crestview courthouse may cost $25 million

CRESTVIEW — Rail fans aren’t celebrating the return of Gulf Coast passenger train service quite yet, but with this week’s running of an Amtrak “inspection train” between New Orleans and Jacksonville, they’re cautiously hopeful.

Friday morning, the first passenger train in more than a decade rolled into Crestview, making a 10-minute whistle stop in a city founded in the late 19^th century as a railroad halt.

Riding the train from Pensacola, Crestview Mayor David Cadle said restoring passenger rail to the city has far broader implications than just bringing folks to and from the Hub City.

“It will benefit the whole region,” he said. “I was talking with folks in Fort Walton Beach. If we get this service and enough people take it, it would benefit our citizens as well as folks down at the south end.”

Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce Chairwoman Tammy McGaughy was among about 200 residents and officials welcoming the inspection train to Crestview.

“It’s a unique opportunity to bring and attract folks to our area on the Gulf Coast,” she said. “The train is just a unique way to attract people. It’s just so much different than arriving by plane. Bringing back the train aspect to the area is awesome.”

Among people waving signs as the train pulled into Crestview at 9:17 a.m. were Suzanne Lynn and Pam Meyers. Seeing the bright shiny coaches glistening in the sun brought back childhood memories.

“We used to have a field trip on the train to DeFuniak,” Lynn said. “It was a big thing when you’re in second grade at Bob Sikes (Elementary School).”

“It was like the greatest thing ever,” Meyers said. “This is so great to see a train stopping here again.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Passenger rail returns to Crestview — even if it's just a test

CRESTVIEW — Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites are open in Crestview to assist area residents who earned less than $52,000 in 2014.

You can use services to E-file by appointment or during walk-in hours as follows:

● For Okaloosa County help from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, call 689-5850 to make an appointment and have your taxes e-filed. You will be connected with off-site volunteers via Skype to have your return prepared. The address is 3098 Airport Road, Crestview.

You may also visit myfreetaxes.com/IFAS.

Other VITA Sites in Crestview are as follows:

●3-5 p.m. Feb. 27, March 13 and 27, and April 10 at First Presbyterian Church, 492 Ferdon Blvd. N., Crestview.

●10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 14 at First Presbyterian Church, Crestview.

See http://www.united-way.org for a list of documents to bring.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Volunteer Income Tax Assistance available in Crestview

CRESTVIEW — The City Council will meet 6 p.m. Feb. 22 at city hall, 198 Wilson St., N.

Here is the meeting's agenda.

1. Call to order

2. Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance: Pastor Alvin Smith, Sonlight Covenant Church

3. Open policy making and legislative session

4. Service awards presentations with Mayor David Cadle: Rodney Lancaster, 20 years with fire department; and Daniel Haun, 5 years with the police department.

5. Approval of minutes from the Jan. 11 and 25 regular council meetings, and the Jan. 25 workshop.

6. Public hearings.

7. Public opportunity on council propositions

8. Consent agenda:

a. Approval of Dogwood Garden Club assistance request

b. Approval of CRA meeting for 5 p.m. March 14

c. Approval of site construction plans for Hampton Inn, at 112 John King Road. Trident Hospitality Group, LLC, Property Owner; Agent: Central Design Group, Jerry Campbell – Growth Management Department

d. Approval of Invoice from Ard, Shirley and Rudolph, PA for BOA hearing correspondence.

9. Resolutions

10. Committee reports

11. Scheduled presentations from the public: Families First Network, request for fee exemption

12. Project reports and comments from mayor and council

13. Staff reports and recommendations

a. Old business

1) Water/Sewer rate increase and Stormwater (request for workshop on 3/28 or alternate date)

b. Growth Management request for approval for temporary, part-time employee

14. Audience comments

15. Adjournment

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Here's what the Crestview City Council will meet about Feb. 22

FORT WALTON BEACH — Karen Moore, founder and CEO of Moore Communications Group, is guest speaker for the next meeting of the Republican Women of Okaloosa Federated. Her topic is "Let Our Voices Be Heard — How to Communicate with Our Elected Officials."

In addition to running her award-winning company, Moore has published numerous articles and has facilitated strategic marketing/planning, advocacy and media training sessions for Fortune 500 companies and the British Olympic Team.

As an acknowledged leader in media relations, public relations, crisis communications and the public affairs arena, Henry Kissinger once referred to her as "one tough lady."

The meeting starts with socializing at 11:30 a.m. March 2 at the Wyndam Garden Hotel, 573 Santa Rosa Blvd., Fort Walton Beach.

Lunch cost is $16 for members and $18 for guests. To make a reservation, contact Donna Pattison at 651-5416 or donnapattison@cox.net by noon Saturday, Feb. 27. Cost of the lunch is $16 for members and $18 for guests. For more information about RWOF, visit http://www.rwof.org.

Attendees are encouraged to bring donations of bottled water and empty print cartridges, which are turned in for money for supplies at the USO.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa Republican women's meeting features communications group founder

CRESTVIEW — There’s good news in the gully for residents who live off Oak Hill Road.

Okaloosa County has at last received Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to fix a washout that has severed access between Old Bethel Road and the Lake Silver area since April 2014.

Advertising for bids to mitigate the washout through totally redesigning the structure over Davis Mill Creek began Monday, Okaloosa County Public Works Director Jason Autrey said.

“It’s not just repairing the road,” he said. “It’s putting in a mitigation effort that will minimize the chance of anything like that happening in the future.”

The FEMA disaster relief award was considerably larger than what the federal agency originally offered, Autrey said.

“Initially, FEMA wanted to give us $60,000,” Autrey said. “We kinda dug our heels in and now we have $572,000 to do the project right. We saved our taxpayers a half a million dollars. I think that’s worth it.”

Autrey said the county shares residents’ frustration with the federal agency’s slow pace.

“I don’t like that it took that long,” he said. “It moved at the pace of FEMA, but at the end of the day, we got what it needed to have.”

The county is expecting to receive contractors’ bids by March 9. Finalizing construction contracts will take between a month and a month and a half after that, Autrey said.

“You should see workers out there pretty quickly,” he said. “Nobody wants that road opened more than I do, other than the people that live there.

"This is one project I’ll be glad to see become a memory.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: FEMA awards major reconstruction funding for Oak Hill Road

FORT WALTON BEACH — Business collection agents from the Okaloosa County Tax Collector’s Office are collecting delinquent Business Tax Receipts.

Formally known as an occupational licenses, BTRs are required to conduct business in Okaloosa County.

Tax Collector Ben Anderson said, “Business collection agents will call on those businesses that are delinquent and identify themselves and their department.” He continues, “Furthermore, they will only call during business hours Monday through Friday.”

Local BTRs are for businesses that provide merchandise, entertainment, or services to the public, even if it’s only a one-person company or home-based business. Payment is due by Sept. 30 every year.

Companies with expired BTRs need to renew them as soon as possible to avoid additional penalties.

Payments can be made at www.okaloosatax.com, at OCTC offices (302 Wilson St. N., Suite 101, Crestview), or by phone at 651-7300.

For details, email Joshua Allen, Director of Business Collections, JAllen@okaloosatax.com.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa Tax Collector's Office collecting delinquent business receipts

FORT WALTON BEACH — The new Crestview courthouse's price is around $22 million, so Okaloosa County leaders plan to generate new revenue. Raising property taxes seems to be off the table, so commissioners are focusing on the county’s own assets — particularly its long-held leases.

Commission Chairman Kelly Windes' plan is to review the county’s major leases of land and structures — such as The Boardwalk, Okaloosa Island Fishing Pier and James Lee Park — and increase some of those rates to market value. County Administrator John Hofstad said the additional revenue could also be applied to the county jail's expansion.

Many of the leases have been held — and regularly renewed — for decades. Some of the agreements have included minimal price increases through the years; many still remain below market value.

See examples from the Northwest Florida Daily News>>

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 1 suggestion to help pay for Crestview's $22M courthouse

CRESTVIEW — The registration book for the Presidential Preference Primary Election closes Tuesday, Feb. 16.  

Florida Voter Registration Application forms are available at all Supervisor of Elections’ offices, city halls, county libraries and social service agencies, and may be downloaded from www.GoVote-Okaloosa.com.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa voters: Presidential Preference Primary books close tomorrow