BCC budget hearing

[Danny Glidewell]

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.

 

[Mike Jones]

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.

 

[Danny Glidewell]

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.

 

[Dawn]

Commissioner Bill Chapmand questioned the increase for the TDC. TDC Director Jim Bagby said they reviewed staffing levels over the last five years and their workload has grown 87% with only a 30% growth in employees. Bagby explained the needs and how they were bringing some of the positions back in house.

Commissioner Sara Comander said people are getting angry and not coming back and suggested they need to fix problems and clean house before inviting more to come. She said this appears to some that Bagby is trying to create a kingdom.

She said they can not continue to ask people to come when the infrastructure needs fixing.

She said, “Just because the TDC has money does not mean they need to spend it.” She also suggested they should look at decreasing the bedtax. Comander said they need money, they have to fix things like the landfill. Later, Bagby explained they have doubled visitors in the shoulder seasons. He said they are trying to grow tourism in the seasons other than summer.

 

[Bob Hudson]

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.

 

[Jdarg]

Geez Bob! Quit being rational!

 

[Danny Glidewell]

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.

 

[seal]

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.

 

[surfdog]

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?

 

[surfdog]

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