BCC budget hearing

A couple of thoughts on the county budget hearing this morning:
1. I was pleased that the county employees are going to get a decent raise this year from the excess funds the county is receiving. During the lean years the employees were promised that they would be taken care of when times got better and I am glad that the promise is being kept.
2. We are continuing in large part to kick problems down the road. There are critical infrastructure needs in every part of the county and little provision is being made for most of them. It does look like stormwater will finally be addressed and the transfer station at the landfill replaced.
3. I was very pleased with the stand Sara Commander and Bill Chapman took regarding the TDC. The TDC is necessary and has done a fine job in the past bringing tourists to the county. However, the current infrastructure cannot support additional visitors and our residents are being forced from the beaches due to overcrowding. Instead of spending more and more money on advertising we could spend those millions on purchasing land for accesses and parking so locals can once again go to the beach. A reduction in bed tax rates and extending the bed tax countywide were also discussed.
The Budget will be discussed again at 2pm Tuesday in South Walton.

I think Seaside, Sandestin, St Joe, etc have long wanted to spend their own marketing dollars their own way. Maybe it's time to try to preserve a bit of the real South Walton and scale back marketing. The big rental towns, resorts, and agencies - and a couple of private media brands are bringing in more than enough visitors without the TDC. Cut back the bed tax and let the TDC provide services like cleanup and walkovers - not marketing!

This site and VRBO is enough to keep beds full.

As was mentioned at the meeting, you cannot continue to bring 100,000 people to a 50,000 seat stadium. While much attention, rightfully so, is currently being placed on stormwater issues, the transportation and beach access infrastructure shortcomings are just as critical for the long-term health of Walton County and the "South Walton Beaches" brand.

I believe they supported 2 new code officers and 6 new beach cleaners - it was all the admin staff he wanted hire that was questioned by 4 commissioners.

They should reduce the "advertising" portion until they resolve the infrastructure needs (roads, bridges, and storm water.

The proposed .5 cent reduction creates more revenue than last year due to the double digit growth in visitors.

Adding 1 million more visitors regardless of time of year is absurd until you provide basic supporting systems.

Geez Bob! Quit being rational!

What is bad is that the conditions on 30-A have been ignored for many years until we have reached a point where any solution is going to be painful and expensive to the extreme. And the reality is that for now 30-A is a 2-lane road that is over capacity and that cannot be changed easily. We really cannot afford to continue kicking this down the road for someone else to figure out.

More beach cleaners? About 2 weeks ago, around 3pm, a friend and I (seperate trucks) went all the way to the end of Vicki Street, behind Local Catch. There were three of the beach cleaner guys back there in woods on parked on their four-wheelers. Looked like they were hiding out; we laughed about it because they looked spooked because someone found them. A minor item might be for TDC to put inexpensive GPS trackers on their vehicles.

Regarding marketing and advertising, is it not obvious that all advertising needs to stop? We have been discovered, now lets work on making it enjoyable for guests.

More beach cleaners? About 2 weeks ago, around 3pm, a friend and I (seperate trucks) went all the way to the end of Vicki Street, behind Local Catch. There were three of the beach cleaner guys back there in woods on parked on their four-wheelers. Looked like they were hiding out; we laughed about it because they looked spooked because someone found them. A minor item might be for TDC to put inexpensive GPS trackers on their vehicles.

Regarding marketing and advertising, is it not obvious that all advertising needs to stop? We have been discovered, now lets work on making it enjoyable for guests.

hmmm interesting,.. would you care to share with the listening audience a description of the alleged four wheelers?

More beach cleaners? About 2 weeks ago, around 3pm, a friend and I (seperate trucks) went all the way to the end of Vicki Street, behind Local Catch. There were three of the beach cleaner guys back there in woods on parked on their four-wheelers. Looked like they were hiding out; we laughed about it because they looked spooked because someone found them. A minor item might be for TDC to put inexpensive GPS trackers on their vehicles.

Regarding marketing and advertising, is it not obvious that all advertising needs to stop? We have been discovered, now lets work on making it enjoyable for guests.

still waiting

still waiting

where they red, were they blue.?? maybe camo with stickers? dyin to know

Its a pretty important accusation happy camper, so think hard, jobs, livelyhoods and families could be on the line,- never been much of a t.v. guy but i saw a show once as a kid,they took the victim back to the scene of the crime, and his memory came back,... lets try that, so you and a friend went back to the woods on vicky street at 3p,m and you saw what? btw as a veteran broadcaster its only fair that i let you know libel and slander isnt just for breakfast anymore, its all over brunch, lunch and dinner table social media these days,.. whoedathuck huh?

I'm not sure what is so wrong with what was posted by Happy Camper. And it almost certainly doesn't reach the standard of libel or slander, since no one was actually identified. Further, Happy Camper doesn't even know if they were cleaners.

Did it strike close to home?

What has happened to all the parking signs due up (or removed) along 30A? I've seen new gravel parking spaces at Ed Walline. But signs on 98 at
Hwy 83 saying Public Beach access where to be removed and new parking and no parking signs on 83 south of 30A in BMB have not shown up all summer. To busy hunting bears behind Local Catch??

Its a pretty important accusation happy camper, so think hard, jobs, livelyhoods and families could be on the line,- never been much of a t.v. guy but i saw a show once as a kid,they took the victim back to the scene of the crime, and his memory came back,... lets try that, so you and a friend went back to the woods on vicky street at 3p,m and you saw what? btw as a veteran broadcaster its only fair that i let you know libel and slander isnt just for breakfast anymore, its all over brunch, lunch and dinner table social media these days,.. whoedathuck huh?

Says one person calling out another person behind a screen name.

The guys were probably on a break. I am sure they have been told to get out of sight while taking one. And the law says that workers must get breaks during the day.