The video above is the Youtube link for HTV coverage of the opening ceremony of the New Center For Development Services. This Newsbreak segment started airing today on HTV and was posted online as well. Featured speakers included:
Commissioner Sandra Murman
Commissioner Kevin Beckner
County Administrator Mike Merrill
Deputy County Administrator Lucia Garsys
Director Peggy Hamric Smith
MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune
Published: August 31, 2011
http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2011/aug/31/menewso3-hillsborough-approves-ar-254213/
Just days after Irene ravaged the East Coast, Hillsborough County administrators used the proposition of a hurricane hitting the Tampa Bay area to sell county commissioners on the need for a $31.4 million public safety complex.
Commissioners voted 6-0 to build the complex, which will house emergency operations, fire-rescue headquarters and training, code enforcement and the county’s main computer servers, all in a hurricane-hardened building.
The county will borrow most of the money for the complex through a bond issue with annual debt payments of $1.78 million. Payments will be made with receipts from the communications services tax.
County Administrator Mike Merrill had made the complex a priority in his fiscal 2012 budget. He ran into resistance, however, from commissioners who questioned making such a large expenditure during a time of economic hardship.
So Merrill decided to make his case by squeezing commissioners and about 130 county employees into the present emergency operations center for a mock hurricane drill.
Emergency Management Director Preston Cook ran a video that, in faux documentary fashion, showed the impact of a Category 5 hurricane coming ashore in Tampa Bay.
“I didn’t want to dramatize it,” Merrill said, “but I wanted to make it as real as I can because I think it’s important enough.”
The sobering images of destruction in the video and the claustrophobic conditions in the 20-year-old emergency operations center seemed to wilt whatever concerns commissioners still had about the project.
“We’re here to protect and inform the people of Hillsborough County what’s going to happen if a hurricane happens,” said Commissioner Les Miller, who made the motion to build the complex. “The No. 1 thing we need to look at is the 1.2 million people we represent.”
The complex will be on county-owned land on Columbus Drive near Falkenburg Road.
A core building housing the operations center and computer system will be between 74,000 and 90,000 square feet and cover more than 20 acres. An auxiliary building will be more than 18,000 square feet.
The new buildings will be able to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, a storm with sustained winds greater than 155 mph. The current, 16,000-square-foot emergency operations center is built to withstand a category 2 hurricane with winds up to 110 mph.
Commissioner Sandy Murman asked Merrill to look at having a private business build the complex and lease it to the county.
Merrill agreed to look at a public-private partnership, but said the county can borrow money for construction at a much lower interest rate than businesses.
County officials want to have the complex finished when the 2013 hurricane season begins. Cook, the emergency management director, said the commission’s quick action confirmed his reasons for taking the job in June.
“This county understands preparedness,” Cook said. “This confirms that I came to the right place.”
Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tribune article on transportation and budget:
Hillsborough commissioners want plan for roads
By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune
Published: June 10, 2011
TAMPA —
Despite limited money, Hillsborough County commissioners want more transportation projects underway to create jobs and show constituents the county is working to clear jammed roads.
Commissioners voted Thursday to have county administrators contact planners at other agencies in order to draw up a coordinated plan to expedite transportation projects.
“We need to look at this as a strategic objective that we plan for,” said Commissioner Sandy Murman.
Murman started the conversation at a budget workshop where administrators were explaining how they prioritize transportation projects when revenues are plummeting. The county is deferring $76 million in scheduled road work until 2014 because of the continuing decline in the Community Investment Tax, a half-cent sales tax.
Despite the shortfall, County Administrator Mike Merrill has recommended budgeting $32.8 million for road projects in fiscal 2012 and about $56 million in fiscal 2013.
How that money is spent, and how quickly projects can get underway is crucial to the local economy and to residents stuck in traffic jams, Murman said. She said the issue is so important, the county should assign one person to deal only with transportation. No such position now exists.
“The county staff needs to be involved in this at the get-go in some kind of leadership roll,” Murman said. “We’ve got the dollars and the public works department.”
The suggestion spurred a conversation on the importance of transportation and the need to coordinate efforts now fragmented among numerous agencies, most of which do not answer directly to the commission.
Commissioner Mark Sharpe suggested resurrecting a list of road projects recommended by the county’s Transportation Task Force, a group that studied transportation needs from 2006-09. The task force recommended a 1 cent sales tax increase to pay for the road projects as well as a light-rail system. Voters rejected the sales tax last November.
Commissioners finally decided to have county administrators talk initially with directors of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and the City-County Planning Commission about coordinating a plan to identify the most crucial road projects. Other agencies could be brought in later, Sharpe said.
msalinero@tampatrib.com (813) 259-8303