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Budget crimps county projects

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published March 3, 2007

INVERNESS - A tighter budget this year may place several planned county projects on the chopping block, county commissioners said Friday.

At a workshop that lasted more than three hours, commissioners debated a list of $14.2-million in capital improvements on the county's docket. They will rank each item before their annual goal-setting meeting next week.

But which projects get a green light won't be clear until much later.

"You might rank it as a strong project," Commissioner Gary Bartell said, "but at the end of the day, until you get the final revenue numbers, you won't know."

Even though no decisions were made Friday, the meeting provided a rare glimpse of commissioners' top - and bottom - priorities.

As they batted around ideas, recent contentious impact fee and millage rate meetings were clearly on their minds. All five commissioners stressed the importance of tightening the county's financial belt.

All of them agreed about the importance of water quality projects. And all of them questioned the importance of a roughly $100,000 upgrade for the pool at the Citrus County Resource Center.

Commissioner John Thrumston said swimming pools should be the responsibility of the YMCA. Commissioner Gary Bartell said he agreed.

"Under the present economic conditions this is considered a luxury as far as I'm concerned," he said.

Commissioners Vicki Phillips and Joyce Valentino saved their strongest criticism for discussion of the county's airports.

"I'm really truly disappointed and sorry I ever supported the Inverness Airport. ... These airports need to pay for themselves," Valentino said. "They've got to find ways of generating funds."

Phillips described the Inverness facility as a "really big waste of tax dollars."

But Thrumston said airport upgrades are an important part of bringing business and money into Citrus. And Commission Chairman Dennis Damato stressed the potential for corporate opportunities at the Crystal River Airport.

The county's office space needs were also a hot topic. Assistant County Administrator Tom Dick said staffers had pinpointed a piece of property - between State Road 44 and Meadowcrest on the north side of County Road 486 - that could serve as the site for a new office building in west Citrus.

Next year's budget could have $600,000 to help fund it, he said.

He said the 4.5-acre site would have room for a three story, 30,000-square-foot building. And concretable construction could be an option, he said.

"I think that is the wave of the future and I think there is some great potential there," Bartell said.

But several commissioners said they planned to question the county's constitutional officers more to find out how much space they really need.

"We can't just be building a building every five years because they're bursting at the seams," Phillips said.

Valentino said if the county expands its office space in west Citrus, she would prefer not to build more space in downtown Inverness.

"The more space you create, the more stuff you find to put in that space," she said.

Commissioners will rank every item on the list on a scale from one to five. Then the projects with the highest total ranking will move to the top of the list.

The County Commission will hold its annual goal setting meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Historic Courthouse, second floor courtroom, 1 Courthouse Square, Inverness.

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified March 2, 2007, 23:46:03]