This past Saturday afternoon, a community "meet and greet" was held at Rossi Way and Dowdy Drive in West Pensacola.
The area, and the surrounding communities, have had several years of flooding and they reached out to State Representative Alex Andrade, who in turn invited me, to attend the meeting. I accepted the invitation and attended the meeting.
This area is currently in District 1, right on the border with the current D2. However-- after the redistricting takes place--the entire area will be in D2. For this reason I personally invited all currently-announced D2 Commissioner Candidates to attend as well. Only candidate Kevin Brown unltimately came out to meet the folks though. (in fairness to the others, it was a short-notice invitation). In addition to the candidates for D2, I also put a call in to the D2 office secretary, Jonathan Owens, alerting him to the meeting and inviting him to participate. He neither answered the phone, responded, nor showed up at the meet and greet.
Once at the meeting, I met several of the residents who had personally been inundated with flood waters, in their homes, twice in the last 7 years.
"I have lived here since 1989 and never had a problem," said Steve Hoxie, one of the organizers of the event. "But ever since 2014 the situation has changed and become worse and worse." he continued.
He and co-organizer Mike Arbrouet pulled together about 30 residents to discuss the issue and request assistance from both the county and the state to what is growing into an increasing problem for the area.
At one point in the meeting, one attendee spoke up with some interesting input. "We worked with the county for many years on the issues with Chris Curb--but nothing ever happened, he always had some excuse for why nothing could be done, always some explanation for why the issues weren't getting fixed." she stated. And this individual (a long-term resident of the area), it just so happens, works for FEMA as a floodplain specialist in her day job. So yeah, I'd venture a guess that she knows what she's talking about. Upon hearing the name Chris Curb--I had to ask her "Wait, you mean the guy who used to work in stormwater for the county for like 25 years wasn't able to help you back then? But now he comes to our meetings wearing a red shirt and tells us what we need to be doing?" I asked rhetorically (and somewhat sarcastically). She smiled and nodded. I want to work with Flood Defenders--I actually sat down and met with their founder Jai Faison. But it is somewhat galling to hear criticism from the former guy at the county that ran this department for decades----------- when he comes to us now telling us all the things we should have been doing for the last several decades......
Be that as it may, I am going to work with Flood Defenders to address issues in my district where they can be helpful. Heck, I'm having Chris Curb and Flood Defenders on my January Coffee with the Commissioner. I'll work with any and everyone to address this issue--as it is real and acute county-wide.
But this particular meeting was not just a gripe session--in fact it wasn't that at all. These folks just want help for a long-running concern that appears to be getting worse.
And the concern over a lack of maintenance of ditches and storm ponds is a real issue. I took the time at this meeting to describe the issues the county is experiencing currently with a lack of manpower and a lack of an able workforce in a number of county departments. I think most of the folks realized this is a real issue with which the county is contending currently.... and not just us. Most businesses and all governments at all levels are contending with labor shortages in key areas.
The residents passed out an informational flyer (and gave me a copy as well) with all the longstanding issues chronicled, one by one, on the page. This paper also had specific residential addresses, names, and contact information so that staff can reach out to explore possible solutions with these residents directly.
Although this area will no longer be a part of D1 after the recent redistricting vote takes effect (right after the new year) I will still be following up with these residents to push for a solution. That won't change just becuase the lines have changed.
I have subsequently forwarded the one page flyer and contact information from this meeting to the county engineer, the county administrator, and the county's stormwater engineer. And I sent additional specific information as well that I heard at this meeting. I have requested a meeting be organized with these staff members and these residents after the first of the year so these issues can be fleshed out in person and potential solutions worked.
This meeting will happen in January.
And yes, once organized I will once again invite all D2 candidates and the D2 office to participate as well----if they so choose.
So when exactly does the redistricting change take effect? I mean legally. I heard it was effective when the new commissioners take office in November 2022. Perhaps you can clarify and explain how it works. Friends in Beulah say that they are not very keen on playing second fiddle to Perdido Key. At the dentist office I recently rumblings of some asking the new commission to redistrict again in 2023 to move Beulah into District 5. Everyone likes Barry who is steady not manic. If so, would you yield to Commissioner Barry in 2024 or run against him? District 3 Commissioner May has reportedly recruited someone to run for the District 4 seat in 2022 and the person has said that they will make their announcement in early 2022.
ReplyDeleteIt just requires funding to fix. Missed the meeting due to late meeting notice. I can still add some historical insight into why flooding is getting worse, as well as mitigation solutions to consider. My Hope is ESC can beef up Engineering Dept and associated staff to secure available grant funds and manage design/construction. INVEST in making flooding a priority And solve the part of the historically root cause of flooding. Perhaps this upcoming budget season is a good place to start improving.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for providing a summary, Commissioner Bergosh, and for the last-minute invite. I really wish I had known about it earlier and been able to attend. I'm glad that Kevin Brown was able to get there, as he's got a very steep learning curve with understanding anything about our district and our neighborhood needs, having bought a house here for the sole purpose of running shortly before he filed. We were happy to be tied up with an honest, solid contractor who is going to help us move forward on some much-needed renovations on our residence in Navy Point, where we have lived since we moved to Pensacola. Due in large part to the DEREGATHON that our delegation (and, I would imagine, with the administrative support of Kevin Brown when he was Senator Broxson's aide) pushed through the legislature for Governor DeSantis. As a result of their horrible policy making, many, many people in our community are suffering from shady contractors whose scams have been made so much easier to perpetrate on unknowing victims, who are left nearly powerless and helpless to fight it with so many of the laws that protected them against such activity having been stripped away.
And the same goes for what the builders get away with in Escambia County *legally*, with the BOCC acting as if they can't do anything about the feeble policies that they preside over. Kudos to you, Commissioner Bergosh, for bringing the topic of infrastructure fees to the COW--where it ground to a halt for months on end now. While Chris Curb and I do not see eye to eye on some key issues, it is not fair to blame any current or previous staff member of the County for the fact that the BOCC (1) won't fix their land development code to stop these egregious flood issues; and (2) won't allocate the funding necessary to implement a County wide, integrated storm water plan. Until the builders are held legally responsible for code that will put a stop to the overdevelopment that couples with the maintenance challenges, the flood problems will only be resolved piecemeal, insufficiently, and here and there. The 1M dollars of discretionary capitol expenditure dollars each commissioner gets a year will not solve this issue, especially when you've got people like Doug in charge who gifts his discretionary to himself for jet ski and golf cart paths and sand for the condo owners. MAJOR spends need to start happening, and the commission has got to put funding together for a whole hog workable plan that can be implemented instead of sitting on paper for years because there's no money.
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ReplyDeleteThe reason that particular area continues to experience the horrible flooding is because the project to divert water coming from the north was effectively scuttled with the disinformation that it was impossible to do it per EPA standards of diverting from one basin to another. No, it's not. These things can be worked out, with engaged leadership. And this is the same reason that the Lake Charlene project will be a failure for having any great impact on the flooding that is area wide there, because it was designed to be a holding pond for MORE WATER coming from the north. ALL of those neighborhoods would be positively impacted by that project. Instead, Doug put a pittance FEMA grant in front of the real solution, because it was cheaper, and so Lake Charlene could receive more water into it from parts north.
Except--woops!--as some of us mentioned about 50 times during the never ending meetings on Lake Charlene, those big pipes are still going to drain into the same system. And the entire area will continue to be impacted, as the project is insufficient and will hit the same clogs it does currently.
Nonetheless, it's a huge positive that these residents finally have people's ears. A big stretch of neighborhoods around them flood, also, and will continue to flood until the BOCC decides to get serious about flooding in general. And that solution is two part: stop allowing development on a scale that will cause these massive issues in low lying and wetland areas, and start allocating a lot of money to fix it. Those are the only two things that will ever yield any real results. Oh, and an independent grant writing department at the County would be helpful, as well.
To 6 11 PM https://myescambia.com/news/news-article/2021/12/07/new-escambia-county-district-lines-effective-dec.-7-2021
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