Indian Pass Boat Ramp will Become Staging Site

A special meeting of the Gulf County Board of County Commissioners Monday resulted in a schedule of work to take place at the Indian Pass boat ramp.

The work centers on construction materials and debris from structures on St. Vincent Island being sent to and from the island via the popular boat ramp.

Three construction and repair projects will require periodic use of the boat ramp until October, especially during the next two to three months, according to Mark Kornmaier, operation manager for Asset Group, Inc., the company handling the projects.

The first project will be placing an oyster shell base on Road B on the island.

Road B extends from the barge landing to just beyond the cabin, approximately five miles.

The road is a very rutted sandy base road with sporadic vegetation. The project calls for between 2,000 and 6,000 tons of oyster shell or shell mix to be trucked in and spread along the road.

The second project will be the demolition and reconstruction of most of the barge shed and ramp.

The third project will be the repair to the historic cabin on the island, which will take the most time, according to Christopher Hotaling, facilities operations specialist for construction, Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). FWS is in charge of the projects.

Kornmaier addressed the county commission Monday, explaining his company's proposal for: delivering several hundred dump truck loads of oyster shells to the island; transporting construction materials to the island to rebuild the barge shed and ramp on the north side of the island (facing Indian Pass); ferrying construction materials across Indian Pass to the island to renovate the historic house near the southern side of the island; and removal of all the construction debris from both projects, which will also have to come through the Indian Pass boat ramp.

According to Kornmaier, four trucks per day, two at a time, will travel down Indian Pass Road to the ramp, where they will dump their loads onto a barge that will moor at the boat ramp for that purpose.

Kornmaier assured commissioners that it will only take 15 to 20 minutes for each truck to empty its load and depart.

At commissioners' questioning, he assured them that workers will "cater to the public" and whenever necessary will move the barge to allow boaters to launch from the ramp.

He also assured commissioners that his company will repair any damage it may cause to the boat ramp when the project is completed.

The work is scheduled for Mondays through Fridays, no weekends and no holidays, for approximately two months, Kornmaier said.

He initially said the project would require about 400 loads of oyster shells, but later said the total required for this project would only be about 180 truck loads.

Commissioner Bill Williams discussed the safety issue of pedestrians and children in the area where the trucks will be unloading and backing up, and he was assured that spotters would be on hand whenever the trucks were present.

Kornmaier said he had talked extensively with Kelly McQueen, owner and manager of Indian Pass Campground, about the impact the work will have on her business.

McQueen, who told commissioners at the meeting she supports the project, did express concerns about liability issues where her property line and county lands run together, particularly as construction and debris materials are stacked around the campgrounds on county property.

In other business conducted at the meeting:

- Commission chair Billy Traylor told the board that he had county administrator Don Butler insert an unspecified amount of money into the upcoming preliminary budget for a paid lobbyist position.

The money, Traylor said, could be removed if voted out by the board in future budget discussions.

Traylor said attorney William Harrison, of Panama City, had been lobbying for Gulf County for the past two years without pay, but he could not continue to do so.

The board briefly discussed the importance of having a full-time lobbyist for Gulf County in Tallahassee.

In addition to lobbying for the county, Harrison is familiar to commissioners as the lawyer who represented the Ashwood development company at a commission meeting at the end of February, petitioning the board to change the zoning for the company's Ovation development on St. Joseph Peninsula.

Harrison argued for the company that the board should change its comprehensive plan and allow the developer to nearly double the permitted density by splitting each lot and building duplexes instead of the single family homes originally permitted.

- Traylor asked that the regular May 13 commission meeting be held at the old courthouse in Wewahitchka so the Wewahitchka High School government class could attend.

The meeting will be at 9 a.m. CDT, May 13. The board will address the class prior to the meeting, Traylor said.