Escambia taps into 'mystery' road fund
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

Tension sparked between Escambia County and Santa Rosa County officials

at a recent Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) meeting when Escambia County announced plans for funds that were not slated for their project.

The Escambia County officials made a motion to approve the funding for an interchange between Beulah Road and I-10 with funds that state transportation officials maintained had been available for three years and had not been claimed by any entity. Two Santa Rosa Commissioners, John Broxson and Robert 'Bob' Cole, contested that Santa Rosa transportation planners weren't given a fair shot at the funding, and others were concerned the money in question was allocated for a feasibility study, not a project.

"How did this sit here for three years and the TPO wasn't made aware of it? How did Escambia County all of a sudden find out about it?" asked Santa Rosa County Commissioner Robert "Bob" Cole at the April 17 TPO meeting. The Florida/Alabama TPO is a government body made up of county and city level elected officials from Lillian, Ala., Santa Rosa and Escambia counties. The Escambia County project could be the first completed segment of a proposed two-county expressway.

Local Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) official Jim DeVries explained that the $249,000 Escambia County officials would like to use for an interchange feasibility study in the area of I-10 and Beulah Road was fair game to several local governments.

"[This funding] has been sitting on our books for the last three years waiting for somebody to claim it. Escambia County saw that the money was there and put the proposal together," DeVries said. DeVries also said the funding had been apart of a federal earmark specifically for connecting I-10 to I-65 and could be used in either Escambia, Santa Rosa or Okaloosa Counties.

"We've been trying to track down where this earmark came from, if there was some specific corridor [they] were looking at. No one's been trying to hide this earmark," DeVries explained.

Santa Rosa Commissioners weren't the only ones left out of the loop concerning the missing earmark. Local transportation planner Nancy Model also said she wasn't sure where the money came from and why it hadn't been made available to other governments.

"My only request is that when the DOT has districtwide funds like this that they do put it somewhere in the work program where all the counties can see it. We actually didn't know it was there," Model said, adding she'd kept track of the funding several years ago when it had been listed somewhere else. Model said about three years ago it disappeared and she hadn't seen it again until the April 17 meeting's agenda.

Broxson urged TPO members to be more open and cooperative in the development of the proposed two county beltway.

"I think it's very important that this beltway be a joint project between Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties," Broxson said. "It's critical to us that we be apart of decision making process. I would like to make that very clear."

Santa Rosa's acting Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, Tom Stewart, felt he was being dealt a fair hand by his counterparts from the western side of the Escambia River.

"I feel no immediate threat that Escambia County's doing something behind our backs," Stewart said.

Freshman Escambia Commissioner Grover Robinson IV said he felt the move was the first of many in a very long process.

"This is the first step in a very normal process of what is going to be a very regional road within this two county area. It's going to be very important on both sides of Escambia River," robinson said. "I'm drawn a little aback by the resistance I'm receiving here. I believe this is a good step for all of us. I'm excited about this and I hope we would look at this as a two county issue that will help kick this bypass off."