Debris Removal Report 9-27-2020

 Our debris removal consultant, Thompson Consulting Services, provided board members the below report this morning on our debris hauling to date for our three debris removal contractors.

Interesting information that citizens will want to see.  The recovery is underway!

Debris Removal from Private Gated Subdivisions and Private Roads? It May Take 30+ Days for Authorization

Debris Removal Underway in 
Beulah on September 25, 2020

Escambia County has multiple private, gated communities with private roads and private infrastructure.  As the county begins the process of storm recovery and debris removal--the  issue of debris removal from private subdivisions with private roads becomes important.

I have asked if the roads in gated subdivisions like Nature Trail in District 1 can be cleared like the rest of the roads in the county are being cleared.  Currently, the answer seems to be no.  

But the folks that live in private, gated neighborhoods and on private roads are taxpayers, too.  I believe they should be entitled to debris removal after storms just as the rest of us are.  It's funded by taxpayers--and they are taxpayers, too.

County Administrator Janice Gilley has sent the below request on behalf of the citizens who live on private roads and in gated neighborhoods.  We will see what comes of it.  Meanwhile, I have communicated with residents in Nature Trail who are currently paying for the removal of debris from that neighborhood's common areas.  It is my understanding that members of the HOA board of Nature Trail have also reached out to county staff to seek assistance.  I have been contacted via email by residents of Innerarity Island about this same issue.

Vegetative Debris Drop off Sites Identified for Residents

The County has opened up multiple locations (Indicated above) for citizens to drop off vegetative debris from Hurricane Sally.

Blue Tarps to be Distributed This Morning at the Equestrian Center

This morning 4 Pallets of Blue Tarps are being deployed to District 1 at the Equestrian Center.

Staff will be handing out the tarps at 8:00 this morning, one per car, on a first come, first serve basis.

These are 20X26 heavy duty tarps, provided by the state of Florida through FEMA.

Please let neighbors that may not have power or access to information know.

Why are we Seeing So Many Traffic-Blocking Life Flight Trips from One Small Stand-Alone ER?

I received the following complaint from a constituent, mirroring what I have heard from many others recently--so I'm in the process of looking into this: 

"I live on Blue Angel and almost every morning and evening I get stuck in the long line of traffic being blocked by ECSO and ECFR because of the helicopter landing at the ER. This is almost every day, several times a day and takes at least 30 minutes if not longer each time. Why doesn't the hospital put a landing pad on there property so the helicopter doesn't have to land on Blue Angel and block traffic? Would you look into this PLEASE!! It's been getting more and more frequent. Thank you"

So I have been asking questions of the public safety department about it.

According to the data I now have, we have had 140 life-flight helicopter pick ups/transfers from the newly constructed West Florida Hospital/Perdido Bay Emergency Room Facility at Hwy 98 and Blue Angel Parkway since January 1st.

Normally this would not be an issue--were it not for two details.  

#1--there is no helicopter landing facility at this stand-alone ER facility---so when the choppers come and go, the county must send a fire-truck and the ECSO must send a Deputy Sheriff to block traffic on HWY 98.  

#2--And for this---the frequent rolling of our firetrucks from Myrtle Grove 3 miles away-- the county is not being compensated.

In addition to all the air transfers via helicopter, the county's ambulances have transferred 900 patients from this facility since the first of the year--for which the county issues bills to the patient and is compensated.

I'm not sure why so many flights are coming into this facility as typically a life-flight situation is uncommon and deals with a major, time-sensitive life-threatening trauma case.  Are there really this many life-threatening trauma cases requiring helicopter transfers out of this one small stand alone ER facility in this area of Escambia County?---I'm going to ask what the acuity requirements for air transport vice standard ambulance---are all of these transports for critical patients?   and most importantly:  Who is paying for this?  The patients?  Their insurance?  This WEAR story from July 7th intimates that many of the local life flight transfers are COVID-19 patients--so I wonder if there is some monetary incentive being paid by the government for all these flights?  That would make sense as this practice apparently has ramped-up significantly since the Pandemic.

I'll be looking into this to figure out what we need to do going forward to ensure this practice does not shut down traffic and pull our firetrucks out of the stations on this frequent of a basis--I've never heard anything like this before.  Stay tuned, more to come on this.

See the total number of ambulance transfers from this location here.  See the helicopter flights that have shut down traffic since the first of the year and required the dispatch of one of our firetrucks here, below.

What are the Reasons Given for the Delay in Completion of the 9-Mile Road 4-Lane Project?

The segment of the 9-mile road project in Beulah between exit 5 and Beulah Road is more than 24 months behind schedule and $6.5 Million over budget.  Apparently, I'm not supposed to be upset about this though---even as I see bright sunny 3-day weekends go by where no work is being done on the site....

Yesterday morning at the Florida Alabama Transportation Planning Organization Meeting I was able to ask representatives of the Florida Department of Transportation about the agonizingly slow progress on completing the 4-lane upgrade of 9-Mile Road in Beulah.

Folks out here that I represent are angry.  And that is putting it politely.

Citizens subjected to this agonizingly slow project and road intersections that are so out of level it is damaging vehicles are fed up.  They are coming to me with angry complaints--but I'm hearing now that I am "coming on too strong" by blogging about this and putting FDOT on the defensive.

My constituents don't care though.  They want answers!

They want to know what I want to know:  Why is this project so badly behind schedule and over budget?

I asked, and here are the initial answers given by FDOT representatives at the TPO in Gulf Breeze yesterday.  These FDOT folks were present and knew my questions would be coming due to media coverage of my blog post from Monday on this topic.

Bryant Paulk, of FDOT, described four major issues/changes that the contractor has been awarded on this segment of the project which have led to the completion deadline slipping.  I have requested, through the executive director of the TPO Austin Mount, to meet with the new FDOT District 3 Director as soon as possible to discuss these issues and get more specific details, and that meeting will take place sometime within the next few weeks I am told.

So here's what's going on according to FDOT yesterday---four major contract change orders, over 1000 additional contract days, have been awarded by FDOT to their contractor on this job:

1.) Change order one was for more and larger noise walls along the side of the project adjacent to Nature Trail Subdivision, at an additional cost of $400K via an addition of 110 contract completion days.

2.) Due to the increase in traffic on the corridor--the contractor was awarded a $2.3 Million Dollar change order and an additional 325 days for completion

3.) To speed up just the first portion of this segment to have the 4-lanes complete between exit 5 and NFCU way--an acceleration award to the contractor was made in the amount of $1.4 Million

4.)  Cistern Leaching over a section of the segment resulted in additional contract completion days and a $1.1 Million dollar addition to the contract.

According to Mr. Paulk--a total of 1,089 additional contract completion days have been added to the contract since it was commenced in 2016.  During the discussion, Mr. Paulk indicated that the initial completion was slated for late 2018---before the addition of the additional contract days for weather and holidays.  He stated that the project is now expected to be completed by May of 2021 and as of right now it is $6.5 Million over budget.

So in my meeting that will be scheduled soon, I will request much more information on these delays and the specifics of the change orders, and I will post what I learn here.

Look--I get it. FDOT is not happy this is over budget and behind schedule.  They want it done ASAP just as we do--just as I do.

The difference is--they are comfortably distanced away from this project unlike me and my constituents who have to navigate this nightmare multiple times daily.  And they also seem quite happy to defend the reasons why this is so badly behind and even seamlessly double-down on how these delays and cost-overages are "normal" and just "part of doing business."  

That's where our agreement ends. This project is an absolute, unmitigated disaster.  

So  I'll be asking for the information and rationale for why they feel this project and these cost overruns and delays are acceptable--because I think it is unacceptable and most of my constituents do as well.

A Windfall Arrives.....

We heard about it last week, and today it arrived.  

The Windfall arrives!

The Board of County Commissioners received this check, above, today via courier.

It is an incredible sight to behold, a check that big.  Massive!

So many good things are going to be constructed and put into place for the citizens with this money--as according to our discussions last night it is "unrestricted" funding--meaning it can be used for any legitimate public purpose.

Split up 5 ways for each commissioner in his district--this equates to nearly $1.7 Million per commission district.

Boom!  What a windfall.

It makes me think of a catchy tune from the 80's band "Krokus" I saw performed live at the Pensacola Civic Center in 1985 as this obscure band opened for Kiss.

The song was purportedly about Dynamite Sticks exploding.... I think....supposedly........ The song was titled "Tonight, Long Stick Goes Boom!"  anyway--it was a catchy song unofficially known as the greatest AC/DC song AC/DC didn't record!

Bringing it into 2020 in Escambia County I'd say lets call today's version-----"Today, Big Check Goes Boom!" 

You can be sure there will be more to come on this cash, how it will be split, where it is going, and how it is going to be spent!!