Open House Visitors Fear Toll Road Could Ruin Levy County

Chiefland resident Renate Cannon talks to County Commissioner Mike Joyner about the toll road as her husband Barney listens. Loud background noise from the crowd made it difficult to hear.

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Many residents commented Tuesday night at a Florida Department of Transportation open house near Chiefland that they were opposed to the state extending a toll road through Levy County, although a few said they didn’t have enough information to form an opinion.

Florida Department of Transportation officials were in full force at the open house at the College of Central Florida conference room. They were ready to answer any questions from residents browsing through informational displays, but declined to answer questions from the news media.

**Brenda Bailey discusses an exhibit with another woman.**

This artist's rendering of an overpass in the Wekiva Parkway was used to illustrate what similar facilities would look like when the Suncoast Corridor is built. The drawing was part of a slide presentation. — This artist’s rendering of an overpass in the Wekiva Parkway was used to illustrate what similar facilities would look like when the Suncoast Corridor is built. The drawing was part of a slide presentation.

Officials told Spotlight the news media would find all the answers to their questions in a media packet handed to reporters at the event, or in a digital slide presentation in a side room, but they said the only person who could answer questions from the media was the director of communications and she wasn’t present.

Two friendly Florida Highway Patrol officers circulated in the crowd apparently to tamp down trouble, but there were no rowdy visitors.

A couple of DOT officials took exception when a reporter suggested the state looked disorganized in the way it was introducing the toll road projects to the public. They said DOT was actually ahead of schedule with its planning for the proposed toll roads.

Intersecting in Levy?

DOT is proposing to extend the Suncoast Corridor toll road from Citrus County to Jefferson County and the Northern Turnpike Corridor from Wildwood to the Suncoast Corridor. The two toll road projects are shown overlapping on a map of Levy County, but DOT officials won’t say whether either project will actually pass through the county or if the toll roads could intersect in the county. They say that decision is months away from being discussed with the public.

The state has labeled the proposed toll roads as Multi-Use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance or M-CORES. The open house was billed as an M-CORES gathering to let members of the public browse through displays and ask questions of M-CORES employees stationed at displays. Each wore their little M-CORES identification tags.

Residents and public officials were willing to talk to Spotlight. One M-CORES official noted that the news media was being “allowed” to interview residents, but she corrected herself and said the news media was free to wander through the exhibits and talk to people.

Losing Paradise

Marie Wise, who lives near Goethe Forest, said she wasn’t happy about the idea of the state extending a high speed toll road into Levy County and ruining her little piece of paradise.

**Resident Maria Wise fills out a comment form at the open house.**

“I was so happy with my little horse property near Goethe State Forest and with my little town and shopping at Hitchcock’s. Now I’m going to be ‘a Wildwood’,” she said. “You know, how many great jobs are there at the gas station in Wildwood.”

Wise said she moved to Levy County from South Florida because there were no major roads through the county, but she fears the state may invade the county with a new toll road, or at least “that’s what it smells like.”

“Cheap land; big road; let’s put in another big retirement community,” she said.

Build Toll Road in East Florida

Renate and Barney Cannon, longtime Chiefland area residents, said they are opposed to a toll road passing through Levy County.

“It’s on the wrong side of the state,” Barney Cannon said. “It should be on the east side, that’s where all the Yankees are. Let me tell you something else; let’s get a show of raised hands as to how many people here are from South Florida that came here to get away from that mess down there.”

Away from Wildwood

Brenda and Jim Bailey didn’t know Cannon, but their views were in tune with his. They made their living in ranching and forestry in the Wildwood and the Villages area before development changed the landscape forever.

“We moved from the Wildwood-Villages area to get away from that and to come here. This area reminds us of how our home looked years ago and when all that changed,” Brenda Bailey said. “So I don’t like seeing this coming through taking the last little vestige of Florida. I don’t like seeing the last little strip taken away. I don’t like it at all. It’s sad.”

The Baileys, native Floridians, live in the Trenton area.

Coming for Years

Chiefland City Commissioner Rollin Hudson wasn’t convinced a toll road would be constructed through the city or around it.

“I’ve heard of other roads coming in the past and they never materialized. We’ll see how it goes,” he said. “The Turnpike’s been headed our way for years. That’s what I was told. They were going to leave Wildwood and come over to 19 and do some bypasses around Chiefland and other towns but that’s been 30 years.”

Hudson added, “It’s kind of a drastic measure to have this thing this fast, this many miles of highway this fast. It’s kind of drastic, really fast. I like change really slow.”

Where’s the Road Going?

Fanning Springs Mayor Trip Lancaster said he doesn’t have enough information to form an opinion on the toll road.

“I don’t have a comment to make other than the $30 question; where’s it going to go?” he said. “I don’t have any opinion enough to know where they’re going to go, what they’re going to do; it’s too wide open. I don’t want to ruin a good area,” Lancaster said.

Losing the Beauty

Levy County Commissioner Mike Joyner said he is an agricultural person and he doesn’t want the toll road to affect the beauty of the land.

“I certainly don’t want it to affect the citizens of this county and it’s going to affect both,” he said. “One of my problems is we’re going to have to have more ambulances to respond to accidents and problems on the interstate; you’re going to have to have more deputies responding to accidents and trouble on the interstate; how are we going to come up with all this money to hire more deputies and buy equipment.”

Seeing Both Sides

Sheriff Bobby McCallum said he could see both sides of the toll road issue.

“I see good and bad with it,” he said.

Keeping Open Mind

School Board member Brad Etheridge said he had just arrived at the open house and didn’t have an opinion yet.

“I came over in opposition. I have an open mind, but I’m going to look at everything. I’ve got to look at it all,” he said.