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What's in a name for a sewer project?
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
© St. Petersburg Times, INVERNESS -- The debate has intensified over what to call the Chassahowitzka sewer project, with one citizens group threatening to lobby against future funding for the Homosassa sewer system if the two projects' names are not kept separate. The Chassahowitzka River Restoration Committee thinks that legislators will be confused next year to see the Chassahowitzka project renamed as Phase IV of the Homosassa Regional Wastewater Collection System. Committee president Bryan Stafford wrote a letter to the county this week saying the name change will cause the Chassahowitzka project's identity to be "lost." If it comes down to Homosassa Phase IV competing against other phases of the Homosassa project for state funding, the committee will lobby to ensure that the dollars go to Phase IV, the part of the system that will serve Chassahowitzka, Stafford wrote. "Let there be no doubt that with two Homosassa line items back to back . . . that a situation would arise whereby it may be necessary for the (Chassahowitzka River Restoration Committee) to lobby to kill the Homosassa Phase III project," Stafford's letter states. "This is of no benefit to either project, however it is unlikely the legislature will fund two Homosassas." But County Commissioner Gary Bartell said the county will apply for state funding for just one phase of the Homosassa project at a time. Next year, the funding request will be for Phase IV, the Chassahowitzka leg of the Homosassa system, he said. Although the county still needs to raise money for Homosassa Phase III, which will connect the homes along Halls River Road to the force main along U.S. 19, Bartell said the county will seek those dollars through grants from the federal government and the Southwest Florida Water Management District. "Water quality to me is a countywide issue," Bartell said. "I don't have the liberty to pick and choose one project over another." As for the identity of the Chassahowitzka project, Bartell said the legislators and other officials he works with already understand the reason for changing the name to Homosassa Phase IV. The county changed the name last fall when it decided to hook the Chassahowitzka line to the Homosassa system, not to the private system in Sugarmill Woods as originally planned. Not only is the new name more accurate, Bartell said, but the project has a better chance for funding when it is semantically linked to the Homosassa system, a continuing project with a successful track record. "To be able to use the track record of the Homosassa project gives an advantage, so when the Legislature looks at it, it's not a start-up project," Bartell said. The governor has said he would approve funding only for continuing water quality projects, not new ones. As part of the Homosassa system, the Chassahowitzka line could also pick up some of the leftover grant dollars from the earlier Homosassa phases, Bartell said. Staffers are looking into the possibility of using the small surplus from the first phase of the Homosassa project to help extend the force main down U.S. 19 to Chassahowitzka, Bartell said. "It might only pay for a quarter-mile of pipe, but at least it's something," he said. Despite Bartell's reasoning, members of the Chassahowitzka committee believe it was their own lobbying efforts, not the county's ability to link Chassahowitzka to the Homosassa project, that secured $1-million for the project in this year's budget. The budget awaits Gov. Jeb Bush's signature. "We cannot understand why Citrus County is so adamant about a change that is merely semantic to the county but puts millions of dollars in jeopardy before the Legislature, and certainly increases the difficulty for the (committee) to effectively lobby the issue," Stafford wrote.
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