By Linda Dean Cooper

At the March 5, BoCC meeting an attempt by Vice-Chairman John Meeks with the help of his cousin Commissioner Rock Meeks and Bronson Mayor Robert Partin, in a second attempt by the Waccasassa Water & Wastewater Cooperative led by Partin to rope in some big money from the county taxpayers. The problem is only a select few will benefit from this project but ALL county taxpayers will pay for it in the end. The purpose of this agenda item was to set the stage for John Meeks to become a board member.

As I said in a previous post the devil is in the details.  The only supporting document for the request was a copy of the WWWC minutes.  The minutes of the January 17 meeting clearly state they want Commissioner John Meeks as a board member.  It was in the paragraph heading in the minutes as follows: Expanding the Board to include Levy County BoCC & Levy County School Board.  It goes on to say “Levy County is ready to jump back into the cooperative. As such, Mayor Partin will be reaching out to Commissioner John Meeks of Bronson to represent Levy County and Tammy Boyle of Cedar Key to represent the School Board. Each of these individuals has more clout in Tallahassee.”

Bronson should not be giving away its water to Otter Creek and Cedar Key. If Otter Creek and Cedar Key cannot sustain their water and wastewater services perhaps, they should suspend all building permits until they have a solution.  Levy certainly does not need any more RV parks. Those municipalities should seek their grants and help themselves with viable solutions. Why should all county taxpayers pay for someone else’s lifestyle such as beautiful waterfront property in Cedar Key?  The residents that live there are mostly transplants because the high cost of living has pushed out most of the locals. 

Bronson is one of the poorest municipalities and struggles with their own high water and wastewater costs and limitations with rising costs.  Citizens in Williston are crying foul with the rise in their utility bills.

WWWC’s next stop on the money train is the Levy County School Board according to their January 17, minutes.  They will be lobbying for Tammy Boyle to become a board member.

Truth be known, it will be more of an authority than a cooperative with a move toward a centralized government authority that could have complete control over our water distribution and wastewater disposal.

It makes sense to have decentralized water and wastewater treatment facilities instead of inefficient, miles of water/wastewater lines as proposed by WWWC. The water and wastewater lines will run approximately 37 miles.  

Decentralized systems would be smart for municipalities to build considering new systems or modifying, replacing, or expanding existing water and wastewater treatment systems on a smaller scale avoiding large capital costs and reducing operation and maintenance costs.

County attorney Shalley reminded the BoCC that the only backup information for joining the cooperative was the January minutes. Shalley went on to say she had obtained the interlocal agreement for the cooperative and to be a director on the board you have to become a member.  She reminded the board that it was late 2022 when they last discussed this same topic, county staff provided them with a memorandum that outlined a decision tree and the important considerations.  She explained to the board that they should think about it before they become a member of the cooperative because if number 1, you only become a member of the cooperative and you have some interest in providing a utility service. Number 2, many obligations come along with that, including, if the cooperative were to be dissolved down the road, the members are responsible for the obligations of that entity.

If you become a member of the INTERLOCAL agreement, it provides this entity with the authority to undertake a lot of debt bonds, and financial obligations, sounds like they haven’t done that thus far. But if you study water and wastewater cooperatives throughout the state, there generally is not enough grant money to fully fund everything, and so these entities do wind up taking on certain debt. Again, that will be a decision for the Board of Directors. But if you become a member of the entity, take on debts and ultimately dissolve or anything happens, then the county would be responsible for its share.

The BoCC should not get into the utility business.  University Oaks and Manatee Springs water systems consistently lose approximately $100,000 annually that all county taxpayers have to subsidize. The BoCC was mandated over a decade ago to take over those two water systems because the then-private owners walked away from the utility.  Since the county has been operating it they have been unable to break even on a simple water system much less a 37-mile water and wastewater utility from Bronson to Cedar Key due to not grasping how to run a utility   This WWWC will be another Meeks and Partin tax and spend project with no return for a majority of the county residents.

Remember this is the second time the two county commissioners John and Rock Meeks and Bronson Mayor Partin have tried to slip this through hoping it would go forward without anyone being wiser.  If you would like to hear the entire exchange between the BoCC and the attorney click on the Clerk’s website link: https://levyclerk.com/bocc1/ and click on March 5, 2024 audio starting at the 011:10 time stamp of the recording. It’s quite enlightening.

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Posted March 14, 2024