Why I Won't Be at the ECAT Town Hall Meeting Tonight....

I fully support everyone's right to discuss mass transportation in Escambia County, and I fully support the ATU's right to hold a public "town-hall" meeting this evening at PSC to gin up support for ECAT.

 I think the meeting will be well attended and the press will certainly cover it.

I don't know if this meeting was advertised--- so I'm not sure we can attend this meeting and speak, even if we wanted to.

I have heard that at least two of my peers on the BCC will be attending this meeting, and this is 100% up to them to make this decision.

For my part, I won't be coming only because we have all received legal guidance from our attorney and the attorneys we engage for labor negotiations not to attend this meeting.

Add to this the fact that we are currently in discussions with ATU to bring the drivers in-house in order to save about $1 Million dollars or so in insurance costs.

In addition to this, all 5 of the county commissioners are being sued by ATU in our official capacities as County Commissioners, and Doug Underhill is being sued in his personal capacity as well.

The basis of this litigation is the allegation that the BCC violated the free-speech right of the union.

So for these and no other reasons, I will not be in attendance tonight--as I do not see any positive outcome to be achieved by my being there, but there is a significant downside that I fully understand.

Attendance Boundary for New Beulah Middle School goes East past HWY 29...

Today the Escambia County School Board held a meeting where they discussed the new attendance zone boundaries for Beulah Middle School.  I took a screen shot from the video, that is why this picture is of poor quality.  I was proud of the fact that our newly elected school board member from district 1, Kevin Adams, took issue with the extent of the boundaries and how they extend so far to the East.  I share his concern, and I believe the way this is drawn it will exacerbate existing traffic issues in Beulah.  We will see how this is eventually voted, but this concerns me.

More importantly, it concerns me because I am well aware of the tremendous growth Beulah is experiencing right now, and I knew this several years ago when I voted AGAINST this middle school...I knew then what I know to be true today--our middle school enrollment when compared to our capacity illustrated that we had sufficient capacity at that time to simply re-zone the boundaries and work within our existing facilities.  Our district is experiencing declining enrollment--so why build this brand new giant middle school was my question.  I strongly felt we needed another ELEMENTARY school in Beulah--and I know I was right because even after we finish Kingsfield Elementary and we start taking half of Beulah's students up there---we will still need portables at Beulah elementary and we will be building a stand alone cafeteria there (at the expense of additional PE facilities)

So, in my opinion, we went with the wrong plan, and now the zoning is going to complicate traffic.  This new zoning just makes it much more urgent for us to get our new off-ramp from the I-10 in Beulah ASAP!

We Already Have 100' of Right of Way (ROW) on Beulah Road--We need 104.5

I have asked staff for the map and they have provided it.  We need 104.5 feet total to upgrade Beulah Road from a two-lane road to a four-lane connector that will eventually tie into I-10.  The segment of  this roadway that will be constructed south of I-10 and north of 9-mile road will require just 104.5 feet---and we have 100 feet already!  We will not be swallowing subdivisions or homes to build this.

Here is the map and overlay (not precisely to scale, but much more so than the DOT/Atkins renderings) that shows the county already possesses nearly enough ROW to do the project.

What is the Truth About the ROW Needed in Beulah between I-10 and 9 Mile Road?

Many residents were enraged the other night for a number of good reasons as it pertained to the Beulah Beltway project.  Many were upset about the crowd size, the small venue, the AC that didn't work, and many other legitimate reasons.

One reason several were upset was that mixed messages were being given, by staff and others at the meeting,  regarding just how much ROW will be needed to construct the southbound portion of the interchange from I-10 to 9-Mile Road.

Therefore, I have asked staff to go on record so that we are speaking with one voice as it pertains to this aspect of the project.  We need 104.5 feet.  We have 100 feet already.  These are the facts as it pertains to the southbound section of this project....See the County Attorney's Email below....

On WCOA this Morning....

A wide variety of relevant topics to be discussed including the jail, ECAT, Budget, etc.

Podcast part 1 is here

Podcast part 2 is here

On AM1620 Discussing the Beulah Beltway Town Hall.....

I was asked to be on AM1620 this morning to discuss the meeting at Plainview Baptist Church Monday night.

Podcast is here.

We Have to Be Smart With our Jail Spending....

I am a Republican.

I am a fiscal Conservative.

I want violent offenders locked up and kept incarcerated!

........But we are spending way too much money on our Jail and this is killing our ability to fund needed infrastructure repairs and public safety.

We need to work together on this problem, we need to work collaboratively (as County Commissioners that own the Jail) with Judges, Prosecutors, Law Enforcement, Public Defenders, and our Jail staff.  Can we lower the jail population safely and save our taxpayers $ Millions?  I think we need to.....

                                      This video is a well produced, 4 minute video that captures
                                       the essence of this issue...