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Stormwater utility tax coming in 2019

By Wesley LeBlanc
Posted 11/14/18

ORANGE PARK – The Orange Park stormwater utility tax passed the final council hurdle so residents can expect to see the tax on their utility bills early next year.

Earlier this year, Orange Park …

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Stormwater utility tax coming in 2019


Posted

ORANGE PARK – The Orange Park stormwater utility tax passed the final council hurdle so residents can expect to see the tax on their utility bills early next year.

Earlier this year, Orange Park Town Council was presented with a number of ways to raise funds to pay for the stormwater repair and management costs the city faces. The council chose to implement a stormwater utility fund and now, more than five months later, the council has passed the second reading of the ordinance that establishes the fund. While it’s not enough to cover the millions of repair and management costs the town faces in the coming years, it’s a step in the right direction.

“We’re finally being proactive,” said Council Member Roland Mastandrea at the council’s Nov. 7 meeting.

Residents can expect to pay less than $10 a month, with the average Orange Park property owner paying roughly $7 each month.

“For the average home, which I believe is 3,700 square feet of impervious area, you would be $7 a month [per monthly utility bill],” Town Manager Sarah Campbell said during a previous meeting.

While residents can expect to see their utility bill rise slightly because of this utility tax, the council set the fiscal year 2018-19 millage to the rolled back rate of 5.9212, rather than raising it, in an effort to offset the utility tax costs, keeping a promise they made months ago.

“The reason I am glad for it is that we promised the people that when we did the utility tax, that if there was any way that we could possibly in the future make a reduction...we would do it,” Mayor Gary Meeks said.

In other business, the Orange Park Town Council voted to send back a Florida Department of Transportation concept plan because it did not include a northbound left-hand turn from U.S. Highway 17 in to 4 Rivers Smokehouse and the forthcoming Wawa gas station.

This agenda item, pulled from the Consent Agenda, asked for the council’s support of the concept plan by an official motion. FDOT would not be able to move forward with the project until officials receive support from the town council.

Council Member Alan Watt asked for the item to be pulled from the Consent Agenda for discussion because he said it was missing the left-hand turn that he said the council asked to be engineered into the interchange upgrade that has been planned for five years.

“They would not concede on a left turn lane into Wawa and 4 Rivers and in their statement, [the left hand turn] was a deal breaker in the [traffic light] signal timing,” Campbell said. “Now, we can go back to them and say, ‘we want to see your justification and we really want you to consider this before we endorse them’ and that would put the ball back into their court.”

Town Council passed a motion on a 4-0 vote to ask FDOT its justification and clarification in not including the left-hand turn. Council member Ron Raymond was not present for the meeting.