Golf Cart, Garbage Schedule Occupy County Commission

At a very sparsely attended county commission meeting on May 12, commissioners unanimously passed an ordinance making selected county roads legally accessible to golf carts.

According to the ordinance, golf carts can be operated on or cross county roads that have a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour and are not designated as truck routes. These roads will have signs on them indicating that the road is a golf cart route.

But golf carts can only be legally operated on designated roads between sun-up and sundown, and cannot be legally driven by anyone under the age of 14.

Additionally, according to the ordinance, any golf cart used on the street must have, at minimum, "efficient brakes, reliable steering apparatus, safe tires, a rearview mirror, and red reflectorized warning devices in both the front and rear."

County administrator Don Butler announced there would be a new schedule for garbage pickup days countywide due to the county's new garbage contract and the change would be permanent.

Notices about the schedule change are to be posted on each garbage can and notices will also run in both The Star and the Panama City News Herald, according to Butler.

In other business conducted at the meeting:

- Commissioners refused to grant the city of Port St. Joe's request for $1.5 million reimbursement on expenses from the Beaches sewer project.

Although Becky Norris, the county clerk, told the board that the reimbursement had been authorized by the county's auditor, Commissioner Bill Williams expressed concern that the city had already been reimbursed by the county for that work, and if it was paid again, the county would have no way to insure the work was completed properly.

Williams said the confusion was an accounting problem and wanted city officials to come to the county commission and present their request like other groups did. He also wanted a timeline detailing when the work would be completed.

Commission chair Nathan Peters passed the chair to Commissioner Carmen McLemore and made a motion to approve the payment to the city. The motion died for lack of a second.

- The board unanimously passed the only application received by the impact fee committee for community-wide projects using impact fees.  The project was to construct a disabled beach access at the Stump Hole. County attorney Tim McFarland told the board to keep the impact fee committee active as long as money remained in the impact fee account.

Approximately $23,000 is still available.

- Cathey Construction, of Mexico Beach, was selected unanimously to build the new South Gulf Fire Department station at Rish Park. The board will go out for another bid to design and build the new fire station at Howard Creek.

- Commissioner Warren Yeager told the board he had had so many inquiries about the county enterprise zone that he was calling for a workshop. The time and date will be announced soon.

- The board moved 5-0 to proceed with preliminary steps toward consolidation of county departments, as outlined in a concept plan Williams presented to the board last week.

- Peters told the board the county must fund a new, overall county Information Technology (IT) position "regardless of whether the county must raise the millage rate to do so."

Currently, each constitutional officer contacts his or her own IT representative because each office utilizes a different system. Butler said he was currently interviewing people for the position.