What’s the matter with East Milton?

What’s the matter with East Milton?

By Deborah Nelson
February 12, 2008

“They keep finding excuses why it shouldn’t be in East Milton.”

That’s Pam Williams’ take on the question of where to build a proposed new county Judicial Center.

Williams, who lives in East Milton, says she’d like to see the facility placed on one of two proposed sites in her community.

The County owns one, adjacent to the jail. The other is being offered, free, by realtor Cotton Byrom on the condition the County start building within three years.

Neither site would cost taxpayers for the land, although both would entail infrastructure improvement expenses.

Estimated costs for the most recent sites in the running are:

Santa Rosa Industrial Park/Jail (21.23 acres): Free, plus $1.4 million in improvements.
Byrom land (15 acres): Free, plus $545,634 in improvements.
Towne Square Partners (17.3 acres): $1.4 million plus $5 million in improvements.
Mpirical Site (19.38 acres): $1.7 million for a new road, plus $3.8 million in improvements.
Mitchell Homes (18.46 acres): $1.65 million plus $910,696 in improvements.
Stirling Fibers: unknown (added after initial analysis).
Brown/Avalon Blvd.: unknown (added after initial analysis).

The two East Milton sites are still in the running as potential courthouse sites despite recent opposition -- including one call by Commissioner Tom Stewart to take them out of consideration entirely.

At a public meeting last month, Commissioner Bob Cole, whose district includes East Milton, was the only Board member to endorse the two locations.

Opponents predict traffic between Milton and East Milton will strain existing bridges and traffic through Downtown Milton; and that a new courthouse could encourage encroachment on Eglin Air Force Base missions.

The East Milton sites lie ½ mile and 2.2 miles from the jail. Proximity to prisoners will have a sizeable impact on future transportation costs, Cole predicts.

He estimates the East Milton sites would cost $20,000 to $30,000 less per year on fuel and vehicle maintenance than the current downtown Milton site.

The other locations would cost $23,000 to $42,000 more per year than is currently being spent; based, says Cole, on Sheriff’s Department data.

Per those figures, estimated yearly jail-to-courthouse transportation costs; including fuel (at $3 per gallon), maintenance and detention officer salary time; total:

$3,300 Industrial Park – East Milton (1/2 mile from jail)
$14,520 Byrom Property – East Milton (2.2 miles)
$33,171 Current Site – Downtown Milton (4.7 miles)
$54,780 Towne Square Partners – Off Hwy. 90/Hamilton Bridge (8.3 miles)
$60,060 Mitchell Co. – Off Avalon Blvd. (9.1 miles)
$71,280 MPirical Development – Across from Target, Pace (10.8 miles)

The Board discussed other considerations, as well.

“I’m just as concerned about the fact that citizens, including all of Mary Johnson’s [Clerk of Court] staff and all the attorneys and all the judges and all the citizens who have to utilize the courthouse also have to pay $3 a gallon for fuel,” Commissioner John Broxson remarked of Cole’s numbers, during a January 15 hearing.

“I could reverse that traffic flow and probably show it would cost more for hundreds of citizens to sit idle in traffic trying to cross the two-lane bridge to get to East Milton,” Commissioner Don Salter added.

Sheriff Wendell Hall says he doesn’t support or oppose Cole’s numbers.

“Common sense will tell all of us, the farther we have to move those inmates, the more it’s going to cost,” Hall noted in response to Cole’s presentation.

“However, is it about us, is it about the inmates?” he added.

“…As a taxpayer and a citizen of Santa Rosa County, myself, to me it’s more about me and more about the taxpayer than it is whether or not we have to transport them five miles as opposed to seven or eight miles. Because once we load them, the labor cost is there. The only other cost and the savings pretty much is gas and wear and tear on the vehicle.

“Now, can we make that trip faster, and get back and maybe use less vehicles if it’s closer? Absolutely, there’s no doubt about that.”

The City of Milton has officially notified the BOCC that they prefer East Milton, City Planning Director Randy Jorgenson said at the January 15 hearing.

“The City’s formal position is in support of the Byrom property in East Milton,” Jorgenson noted.

A variety of factors entered into that decision making process, he said, including fiscal considerations, proximity, and economic stimulus for that part of the greater Santa Rosa Community.

“We are certainly cognizant of the issues with Hwy. 90,” Jorgenson told the BOCC.

But, he noted, the City of Milton is currently undertaking a survey that identifies six alternatives to Hwy. 90’s current configuration.

Regarding future Hwy. 90 upgrades through Milton, he pointed out that Commissioners, themselves, wield some level of influence over which roads and bridges will get future state and Federal funding.

Jorgenson said the Towne Square property, located off of Hwy. 90 near Pensacola Junior College, is a viable alternative if the Byrom land is not selected.

The courthouse site could potentially boost the economy, wherever it goes.

Some East Milton residents say it’s time for their neighborhoods to see commercial growth.

“Bring in some business,” Pam Williams remarks. “Boost the economy on this side, where it’s not crowded – it’s untapped potential.”

She also likes that it would save money in prisoner transport.

“It’s safer out here,” she notes. “It’s more economical.”

Santa Rosa attorney John Bordelon, at the January 15 hearing, said East Milton’s his least favorite site option.

Bordelon predicts prisoner transport savings won’t compare to the traffic the facility would generate.

“It far outweighs the limited number of prisoners that are transported by van to the judicial center,” he remarked.

Some East Milton residents take issue with the contention traffic is too congested into the area.

“I don’t understand, what firm did they hire to do that?” Pam Williams remarks. “There is no traffic in East Milton. The industrial park is practically empty. There is no congestion.”

Hwy. 90’s not the only route into East Milton, residents point out.

“We’re right off [Interstate] 10,” Williams notes. “It’s not that difficult to get to. You don’t want to travel through East Milton, get on 10.”

“They’re better off using the I-10 bridge if they don’t want to come across those two little bridges,” adds Mary Dulaney. “They can hop on the freeway and get off at [Hwy.] 87 at the Industrial Park and there they are.”

Dulaney dismisses the argument Blackwater River bridges won’t stand up to judicial center traffic. In 30 to 60 years time, she predicts, they’ll have to be maintained or replaced, anyway.

“They have to be fixed,” she remarks. “It’s a major evacuation route. They won’t last 30 years.

“They act like it’s too much for all those people in Pace to come this way,” Dulaney adds. “I’ve been in Pace – there’s too much congestion down there…and the traffic coming up Avalon is, like, beaucoup bad.”

Commissioners recently began to express concern about the possibility East Milton growth could encroach on Eglin AFB’s mission.

Dulaney predicts judicial center lights and traffic can coexist with Eglin.

“There’s still a lot of East Milton that’s not encroaching on it,” she notes. “There’s a big glow over there from the prison already and that’s acceptable to the Air Force. Plus, they’re not going to be holding night court, are they?”

For Nat Williams, the possibility of a new sewer treatment plant or C&D landfill in East Milton is a bigger concern.

“We don’t have sewer over here, so there’s no benefit for us,” he notes.

The area was zoned for Agriculture when the family moved in, Williams recounts. Later, rezonings set in – including a request, tabled last year, to build a new landfill. Williams blames poor planning for allowing the possibility of a dump near residential areas.

He fears such projects will lower property values for East Milton residents, and negatively impact the Industrial Park.

“Who’s going to want to come here if they’ve got a 200-acre dump?” he remarks. “Nobody thinks about the future. They’re just thinking about what’s immediate.”

On the other hand, Williams predicts, a judicial center complex could spur positive commercial development.

“I would prefer to see it come in over on this side,” he says, “because if it does, I guarantee you won’t see that dump go up – judges and lawyers aren’t going to want that in their backyard.”

But securing land is just a first step towards a new facility. Officials must also find the money to build it.

That could entail a special referendum vote to issue bonds or earmark a sales tax.

Funding will be easier, Dulaney predicts, if plans include free land.

“I think the people will give them money to build the courthouse if they don’t have to pay for the land,” she remarks. “They’re not gonna go for that.”

Pam Williams questions buying land when free sites are available, especially as officials face Tax Amendment cutbacks.

“This is just wasting taxpayers’ money,” she remarks. “Be like you own a house and you’re on a fixed income. You have to budget.”

At a recent BOCC meeting, Cole remarked that East Milton sometimes “gets treated like the red-headed stepchild.”

Pam Williams concurs.

“East Milton is like the stepchild,” she remarks. “They take our tax dollars and they put everything bad in East Milton [referring to the C&D landfill request]. They don’t think about East Milton being part of the town of Milton -- we’re taxpayers like everybody else.

Commissioners have said they’ll take accessibility for north and south end residents and future traffic needs into the final decision. But Williams fears political considerations could end up playing a role in the ultimate choice on where to divert public dollars for the expensive project.

“I’m sorry the people of East Milton don’t have all that money to lay out for greasing all those palms,” she remarks.

Santa Rosa’s Board of Commissioners are scheduled to review an updated sites cost comparison at the February 25 Commission meeting. Officials could make a final decision by March 22.

Santa Rosa County BOCC Prisoner Transportation Costs from Jail to proposed sites