Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Budget may boost water cleanup projects

The state's proposed budget includes money for projects affecting the Homosassa River, Kings Bay and Crystal River.

The state's proposed $58-billion budget includes $620,000 for water cleanup projects in Citrus County. But the biggest legislative boon for Citrus and other counties might be yet to come.

Included in the budget under review by state lawmakers is $500,000 for the county to buy property near the headwaters of the Homosassa River, and $120,000 for a Southwest Florida Water Management District plan to clean lyngbya algae from Kings Bay.

Meanwhile, Citrus and other counties in Florida are poised to avert a $90-million bill they feared they would be forced to pay to fund the Department of Juvenile Justice. For Citrus alone, those costs would have totaled $922,000.

The state Senate voted 39-1 on Wednesday to shift those costs to the counties but also to send the counties $100-million, more than enough money to cover the juvenile justice funding. The Florida Association of Counties, backed by a number of counties, including Citrus, had attacked the plan to pass the costs of juvenile justice on to the counties. The association hopes the Senate-backed bill will clear the legislative process before the 2004 session ends Friday.

"It will make us revenue-neutral this year," county Commissioner Gary Bartell said. "But we're going to continue to negotiate with the state because of the policy of shifting."

The conference committee report on the budget was released Tuesday night, and the budget could be passed as soon as Friday evening. State law requires a 72-hour "cooling off period" after the budget is distributed to provide time to review it.

The county's Homosassa project, called the Homosassa Southfork Water Quality Improvement project, will help the county create a wetland treatment facility to treat stormwater runoff before it is discharged into surface waters. Ken Cheek, director of the county's engineering division, could not be reached Wednesday to describe specifically how the land will be used.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District's project will remove lyngbya algae from Crystal River and Kings Bay. Swiftmud is kicking in an additional $80,000 for that project. .

Money for both projects would come out of the state's general fund.

More funding would come Citrus County's way in the form of $375,000 for land next to the Citrus branch of Central Florida Community College. The campus is on County Road 491 at Grover Cleveland Boulevard.

CFCC president Charles Dassance said Wednesday that the money would be used to reimburse the college foundation, which purchased a 10-acre site adjacent to the Citrus campus on the college's behalf several years ago.

"That land became available, and it was zoned industrial, so we were worried about what might be there," Dassance said.

Since the process of getting state funding for making a purchase of that sort can take years, the decision was made to allow the foundation to buy the land with the promise of reimbursement later.

While there is no immediate plan to use the additional acreage, Dassance said that a good campus size is about 100 acres, and with this acquisition, the Citrus campus will be about 98 acres.

The foundation is leasing the land, which is directly north of the existing campus on CR 491, to a heavy equipment operating school. Dassance said it will probably be years before the campus needs to use the land.

Dassance said he sees growth potential in that area.

"I think that's going to turn out to have been a very good decision," he said.

- Amy Wimmer Schwarb can be reached at 860-7305 or wimmer@sptimes.com Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com