Full-time water agency eyed

The question is whether taxpayers will accept another local government layer during tight times.

By Barbara Behrendt, Times Staff Writer
Published February 22, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT "We keep approving more growth and more development but we have no plan on where you're getting your water," said County Commissioner Diane Rowden. "There have to be other water sources."

BROOKSVILLE - The authority that has overseen water resources for Hernando and surrounding counties for decades may soon grow into a full-time agency to tackle the challenges of providing the precious resource to thirsty communities.

Jack Sullivan, who has served as a contract director of the Withlacoochee Regional Water Supply Authority for 25 years, on Wednesday asked the authority's board to set up a local office and a permanent staff.

By creating such a formal structure, he said, the authority can coordinate efforts to identify, plan and build regional water supply facilities. It also could lead to more money from the water management district and the state, Sullivan said.

County Commissioner Diane Rowden, who attended the meeting Wednesday night, agreed on the importance of staying ahead on water issues. "We keep approving more growth and more development but we have no plan on where you're getting your water. There have to be other water sources."

But she also said that, at a time when government spending and bureaucracy is under fire from citizens seeking tax relief, "it's adding another layer of government."

Will the cost of formalizing the authority, she asked, be offset by what projects and dollars the authority will be able to bring into the region?

Sullivan said Thursday he knows that adding to government in the current climate could be a challenge, but he said now is the time for this region to advocate for money for future water supplies. So many state dollars are being siphoned off to Tampa Bay, he said, that this region must work to get its due.

The authority, Sullivan explained, first would seek $2-million in startup costs over the next five years from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, commonly known as Swiftmud.

The agency also would change the way it gets funds through Swiftmud and the authority's governmental bodies: Hernando, Citrus and Sumter counties, the cities within those counties as well as the city of Ocala.

Sullivan proposed setting an office in the new Inverness City Hall and to complete the transition by Oct. 1.

The government representatives on the authority board are expected to take Sullivan's plan back to their commissions and councils to discuss the idea before the next water authority meeting March 19, when a vote to move forward could take place.

Sullivan recently retired from the Tallahassee law firm where he had worked for more than a decade. He told the authority members he was willing to take on the full-time director job now that water resources have become such a hot-button issue.

The water authority in the past had a focus on keeping central Florida's water resources from being tapped by growing areas to the south. The sense has always been that the water here would be needed here down the road and now that time has arrived, he said.

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.

[Last modified February 21, 2008, 21:43:14]