Analysis – By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                The Florida Department of Transportation hosted a public meeting at the College of Central Florida Tuesday to gather public input on a U.S. 19 project aimed at promoting the free flow of traffic on the four-lane highway, but attendance was low.

            At the midway point of the meeting, there appeared to be more DOT staff present to answer questions than residents of Levy County to ask them. DOT staff members were standing around talking to no one or talking to each other. But there were enough conversations going on to create a dull roar in the room.

            Retiring Levy County Commissioner Lilly Rooks was talking to Ryan Asmus, project engineer for the U.S. 19 traffic flow project when a reporter commented to Rooks on the apparent lack of public interest in the meeting and the low attendance.

            Rooks, who has served for 24 total years as a commissioner and has a sense of why people don’t show up for meetings, said she thinks there was a reason for the light attendance.

            “The people keep hearing this and hearing this and pretty soon they don’t pay attention,” she said.

            The purpose of the meeting was to give residents a chance to comment on plans by DOT to connect the Suncoast Parkway toll road in Citrus County to U.S. 19 at Red Level. The state wants to re-design U.S. 19 to promote better traffic flow. Bypasses around cities like Chiefland are a possibility to accommodate heavier toll road traffic.

            One Chiefland woman who was listening to DOT staff try to explain a map showing where the toll road would connect to U.S. 19 at Red Level said she would need more information. She smiled pleasantly and looked a bit puzzled at what DOT officials were trying to explain.

            Representatives of an organization opposed to building a new toll road through Levy County were present for the event. They were handing out fliers to the few residents in attendance.

            The state has confused people about what’s going on regarding toll roads in Levy County.

            Last year, the state ended its widely promoted M-CORES program, which was aimed at building several new toll roads, including a toll road through Levy County without really explaining why the program ended. Many residents thought the idea of building a new toll road through Levy County was dead. Or at least they hoped it was dead.

            It wasn’t.

            The Florida Legislature replaced M-Cores with a new toll road program largely aimed at building a new toll road through Levy County. Residents became frustrated again when a new set of public meetings were held and maps began appearing showing various potential routes for the new toll road in Levy County. Levy County residents saw their homes being run over by the new toll road. They became angry all over again.

            But the public meeting on Monday wasn’t about building a new toll road through Levy County, mind you. The state was trotting out yet a new proposal to connect the Suncoast Parkway, which currently ends at State Road 44 in Citrus County, to U.S. 19 at Red Level below Inglis. Making such a connection would send toll road traffic north on U.S. 19.

            This hybrid proposal marries the state’s interest in running toll road traffic through Levy County and converting U.S. 19 to a sort of high-speed superhighway. U.S. 19 would remain a free highway under the proposal but it would be redesigned to avoid conflict points like traffic lights in cities. Bypasses might be built around cities to avoid traffic lights. That’s not a popular concept, either.

            Levy County residents are both confused and angry about all the proposals floating around. Many feel they have been betrayed more than once by DOT and they are becoming wary about all these new proposals emerging from an agency they never have trusted, and trust even less now.

            The burnout over new toll roads is beginning to show. Most people are probably waiting for the hearing where the state will unveil the design for its new U.S. 19 free traffic flow study. At that point, they may vent their frustrations on state officials for betraying them again. And state officials will look puzzled about all the anger.  

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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt February 15, 2022; Posted February 16, 2022