Random Monday Thoughts

Random thoughts on this Monday while I await for some records to add to the Crystal River Saga. That is turning out to be a bit interesting.

1) Betz Farm - Still no response from the BOCC regarding Betz Farm. As mentioned previously, I may have found a way to cancel the Betz Farm sales contract. It appears that the developer (Dix) failed to submit the application for their development project by the deadline in the contract.

I had asked the BOCC to review this and cancel the contract so that it will go back into the public's hands. I saw a Facebook post by the County talking about conservation lands and 31% of Citrus County being dedicated "Conservation". The problem with that is the majority is owned/controlled by the state. We have ZERO say in what happens with state lands.

Betz Farm could be saved for conservation or something like a park, as it was originally intended when Tamposi donated it to the county.

2) COPS Grant - Sheriff Vincent will be at the meeting Tuesday asking the BOCC to accept the COPS grant for 20 sheriffs deputies. Under the previous sheriff, there would often be fireworks regarding this conversation... so much so, that the BOCC refused to accept an award for 43 deputies.

I do not expect fireworks this time and I expect the BOCC to approve the grant. The total grant is $2.5 million. The county's portion will be $2,972,640. This does not include outfitting the deputies, vehicles, etc. From my understanding, it is the money for the salaries, benefits, etc for the deputies, not the equipment and all of that. The county looks like it will pull money from reserve funds and police impact fees to pay the costs.

3) Sales Tax - If you have no already done so, please do this survey. I will bring it to the BOCC, for what that is worth. There appears to be an effort starting to get people to show up to the meeting to protest the sales tax being added to the ballot in November 2026. I have seen several social media posts. We will see if they start to come to the meeting tomorrow of if they wait for the meeting in two weeks, which is where the projected vote will take place.

I will not be surprised to see some type of discussion on this tomorrow. It is on the consent agenda, so we will see if anyone brings it up for a discussion. It appears to me that there is a behind the scenes effort to get this pushed through. Certainly does not help for the transparency and citizen led process they all wanted.

4) Animal Shelter Update - As you know, this is now out to bid. There was an in person pre-bid conference on October 22nd.. I presume this is to review the site, ask questions, etc. I believe they could have joined via Teams as well. 54 people signed into the sheet for that meeting, so it has A LOT of interest (as would any large government construction contract I would imagine).

I will also share my findings on the shelter survey in a few days. You can take that one as well if you have not already done so.

5) The Paradise Meadows RV resort is on the agenda for a 5pm hearing. This was denied 7-0 by the PDC, but apparently the owners have changed the project quite a bit since the PDC hearing. I have not had a chance to review everything, but this follows a similar trend with LKQ from last meeting. They too made several changes between the PDC and the BOCC hearing. The PDC rejected that project, but the BOCC voted 5-0 to support it.

Honestly, I have given up trying to guess where this board goes on any given issue. We have two commissioners that tend to want to tap the brakes on growth and related projects... let the owners keep the zoning they purchased for the most part. We have the other three that tend to approve most everything they hear.

This one though faces an uphill battle I think...

1) It is next to the Withlacoochee River. That didn't stop the BOCC from approving the Ozello Campground, but I think some who were there for that may regret that vote today.

2) It is ANOTHER RV park. These things are in as much favor as storage units, gas stations and apparently dispensaries.

3) Did I mention it is right on the Withlacoochee River?

However, the PDC did comment on how well this project was designed and how it appears to be a great project, just wrong location.

I expect a 5-0 vote to deny, but like I said, who knows with this group. Each day is a new adventure.