County Money Being Paid to City Of Defuniak

[Bob Hudson]

That's the $644,000 over the last 10 years question

 

[Danny Glidewell]

As reported in the DFS Herald-Breeze, the BCC will consider an inter-local agreement at the next BCC meeting to approve allocations from the Road and Bridge fund to the City of DFS covering a time period from 1915-2015. Sort of like closing the barn door after the horse ran out.

 

[Misty]

As reported in the DFS Herald-Breeze, the BCC will consider an inter-local agreement at the next BCC meeting to approve allocations from the Road and Bridge fund to the City of DFS covering a time period from 1915-2015. Sort of like closing the barn door after the horse ran out.

The legal ramifications of that are what?

 

[Misty]

I'm going to ask the question one more time too...what roads and bridges are we talking about here? The 2 main roads in and out of Defuniak Springs are 331 N/S and Hwy 90 E/W which are both State maintained highways! We have NO BRIDGES in Defuniak.

WTH are we paying for??

 

[Bob Hudson]

Based on this email from William Pennington to Bill Imfeld and Mark Davis they were aware of this issue earlier than I had known.

When I asked "who knew about this" only Commissioner Comander responded she had heard about it.

 

[John G]

So, based on the Email in the post above, it looks like we now have LIARS among us... No surprise there.

 

[Misty]

Bob Hudson,

I've asked a couple times what roads/bridges the money was actually paying to "upkeep" but never got an answer. I still don't understand what the money was/is actually being used for so I asked a couple questions.

1,) What roads/bridges (we don't have any bridges inside Defuniak City limits) does this money maintain?
2.) What "county roads" which are inside the City of Defuniak is the County paying the City to maintain?

Short answer is, there are none!

The longer more convoluted explanation is that the City does provide services along "State" roadways which include; mowing of slopes, litter removal (inmate and/or probationary labor) edging (also inmate labor) and sweeping of parts of County roads including; Hwy 83, County Hwy 331, parts of Hwy 90, State Rd 8 (Mossey Head) and State Road 10 (also Mossey Head).

Fair nuff..I now understand what the money is actually being used for, or so I thought until I also discovered that the City of Defuniak Springs has a Memorandum of Agreement with the FDOT. The FDOT agreed to pay $47,909.72 from Oct. 2013 to Sept. 2014 and $28,657.04 for said services from Oct. 2014 to Sept. 2016 for a grand total of $76,566.76.

Now, I have more questions than answers!

How the hell could it cost $47,909.72 for 1 year and $28,657.04 for the following 2 years to cover the same territory?

If the FDOT is paying for these services why is the County also paying for them?

 

[Bob Hudson]

It appears there are 4 County Roads within the City Limits.

Co Road 280
Bruce Avenue
2nd Street
Walton Road

I will confirm with Public Works on Monday

 

[Misty]

It appears there are 4 County Roads within the City Limits.

Co Road 280
Bruce Avenue
2nd Street
Walton Road

I will confirm with Public Works on Monday

Thanks.

 

[John G]

May also want to follow up with Sheriff Mike. If those are County roads, it may explain why WCSO officers often conduct traffic stops and other police activity there. They (WCSO) would have jurisdiction on those roads and thus, no push back from the local PD on their increased activity in town over the past few years.

It would also imply that others may have had knowledge of this money, using the referenced roads as the excuse to obtain it.

Perhaps we need another Grand Jury...?