Connecting Communities

The connector road between downtown on the south side of the old rail bed in Port St. Joe and the north side, as city commissioners recently agreed, is a fine idea in concept.

The road would connect Williams Avenue and Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and most of the design elements and potential costs have been outlined, with Preble-Rish Engineering and Gulf Asphalt agreeing to discounted costs on the project.

The city's official stance on the road comes at a time when a group of citizens in the neighborhood north of the rail bed actively seek to have their community no longer divided, linguistically and symbolically, from the rest of Port St. Joe by slapping a directional adjective in front of the city's name.

Of all the many infrastructure projects the city is now undertaking or considering, this is one most worthy of fast-tracking.

That will mean the quick and tidy approval and necessary paperwork from The St. Joe Company, which will have the final plan shortly and must sign off for the road, an idea the company itself floated six or seven years ago.

But connecting the two communities by way of asphalt and road striping are just steps.

As part of the construction of the connector road, several other steps should be taken.

One, the county and city should cease all the talk about an abatement of their statutory debt and just pay the redevelopment agency's bill each year.

The coming years will be tough on the budget - though what taxpayer outrage could not do property values just might when it comes to the county - but this is chump change compared to the overall pie.

Not to mention that the payments figure to fall with property values for at least the two years the county has asked for an abatement of its bill.

And to address the argument that since neither paid their annual increments of property tax revenue for nearly 10 years, what is two years going to hurt?

Not having paid for nearly a decade indicates one of two things at the time the redevelopment agency was established:

Elected officials either didn't pay attention when the ordinances were approved - which would hardly be the first or last time for that option - or they counted on don't-ask-don't-pay as one of the abiding mission statements when it came to the dynamics with the agency.

That the county supported, however reluctantly, the expansion of the boundaries to include nearly all of Port St. Joe was a positive step and one the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency should heed as it moves forward.

For in exchange for the end of the abatement on the due debts discussions, the agency should concentrate those dollars for the next several years north of the old rail bed.

It is true that revenue is not likely to be generated out of the neighborhood in the foreseeable future as property values drop everywhere else in the county and a base year must be established before tax increment financing - a percentage of the rise in property tax revenue - even kicks in with dollars.

But what better infrastructure focus - the redevelopment agency's central charge with the tax funds it receives - than education.

And what better beginning than the legacy left behind by Dr. David Langston.

The Langston Education Center on Avenue A received an influx of nearly $200,000 from the federal government recently and that will get it off the ground.

The redevelopment agency, county and city are perfectly positioned with the CRA in place and the boundaries to be expanded to see that center thrives once the bricks and mortar are standing.

Maybe, given the reality that the county and city have come to the realization that a recreational complex will have to wait despite the expenditure of taxpayer dollars in survey and land-clearing, there is also a role for North Florida Child Development and its Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

Certainly, any decisions are up to however and whoever picks up the mantle of Dr. Langston's work, but isn't infrastructure something beyond roads and storefront banners and sidewalks and parks?

For instance providing a leg up for children who all too often start the race of life behind the starting line?

The outline is in place. It will take a community to fill in the spaces.

What can emerge is a true community, one united that will not break no matter what is thrown her way.