A pair of Florida lawmakers is pushing to give the state control of two rural water and sewer systems following a months-long emergency that left Apalachicola residents with stinking, unusable water.
City officials say the foul water was partly due to the hot weather coming on. Another factor was the impact of Hurricane Helene’s 65 mile-per-hour winds last year on the ancient water system.
In any case, the city’s representatives in Tallahassee were not pleased. When Sen. Corey Simon and Rep. Jason Shoaf led a recent delegation meeting in Apalachicola, they proposed expanding the boundaries of the Eastpoint Water and Sewer District to include the utilities on both St. George Island and the city of Apalachicola.
Simon says the state’s taxpayers have been footing part of the bill for the city’s water crisis.
“Over the last several years, the state has given the city of Apalach millions of dollars to provide for infrastructure, to make sure the folks that live in Apalach have reliable drinking water, cooking water, and they never paid the money back – or they haven’t paid all of that money back," he said. "It was a loan from the state, but the state has continued to invest.”
Simon says he thinks the city officials haven’t been using those funds correctly.
“They’ve been using those utility dollars and transferring those dollars that should have been going to the infrastructure of their water to transfer into to their general revenue," said Simon. "And they’ve been using it as a tax base. Instead of being truthful with the taxpayer on what their taxes should actually be, they’re hiding it by transferring dollars from their utilities to their general revenue.”
He says the problems stretch well back beyond the current city officials.
“I’m not putting the blame on the current administration, the current folks that are serving now," he said. "I think it’s just been a mismanagement of funds over the years and not doing what’s right for the city of Apalach.”
However, Apalachicola City Commissioner Adriane Elliott isn’t sure the city’s residents would want to give up their utility system.
“There’s a lot of questions from my constituents already," she said. "People are concerned about the concept of a utility being taken away and losing their voice in how their utilities are run – even if we have had problems.”
Elliott is also worried about the city’s tax base.
“But I am cautious about having the utilities completely taken over because the crux of the issue here is that we don’t have the tax base to sustain our utilities." she said. "So, if it becomes state-owned, then who’s to say down the road the state decides that it’s not worth taxpayer money to fund that system anymore and sells it off? It could drastically change people’s lives around here.”
Meanwhile, Simon and Shoaf also say they’re looking to install sewers on St. George Island to reduce the risk of sewage polluting the Apalachicola Bay. Shoaf says he has confidence in the Eastpoint Water and Sewer District to manage utilities on the island and in Apalach.
“And we believe overwhelmingly that the people are wanting this type of steady, proven entity to come in and take over and provide these services,” Shoaf said.
Simon and Shoaf emphasize that nothing is a done deal at this point. But when they asked for a vote on their proposal at the delegation meeting, no one objected.
