Road paving process not so smooth

You’d think coming out of vacation I’d have a full set of blogs ready to go.

Deep, detailed dives into the perils of our community. That’s what one should expect from your favorite blogger after an overnight Keys experience.

It was headed that way until a friend came by for a chat Tuesday afternoon, taking my mind in an entirely different direction. 

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She gave me a great blog idea that will grace your phone screen very soon. Today, we’re thrilled with another presentation of County Commission email.

Commission email is a Just Wright Citrus staple. Best way to know how people in this county REALLY think? Read Sound Off and the emails citizens send commissioners.

I’ve had my mind on Primary matters the past few weeks and left the commission email unattended. Zipping Tuesday through several weeks’ worth, I found two themes:

— Road resurfacing. I’m honestly a little confused where we are with all this. The county recently did some spot resurfacing in troubled areas, such as Forest Ridge Boulevard in front of Publix and chunks of Dunklin Avenue near Citrus Springs.

And Tuesday’s County Commission agenda has an update.

But I know this. Citizens living on these lousy neighborhood streets have had enough. It’s hard not to blame them.

I was taking a drive through Citrus Springs the other day and ended up on a neighborhood street —  the one in today’s photo — in deplorable condition. This isn’t one of those isolated streets to nowhere throughout Citrus Springs and Pine Ridge. No, this one has nice houses on it and is still filled with craters. A 5 mph road.

Every week’s commission email includes someone complaining about the condition of their road. They’ve moved here, bought an expensive home, pay taxes, and logically think the county will make their public street drivable.

Then they’re shocked to find out this problem exists throughout the county, that we have a rating system, and a repaving priority process that makes no sense to ordinary people.

I’ve been doing this for a day or two, and I could not begin to explain how the county rates neighborhood streets for repaving. They’re scored on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the worst. Here’s a GIS map of the county streets; you can zoom in and see the rankings (red streets are the worst).

Road work is complicated, and I’m not trying to diminish that. I’m just saying this process has become way too confusing for ordinary citizens like you and me to figure out. Of all the things the county government does, this ranks right up there in citizen interest. Make it simple.

— Every so often, the county hears complaints from builders or out-of-town contractors about the slow and confusing permitting process.

Here’s another area I don’t understand, or need to for that matter. I’m not a builder. I haven’t a clue how that industry works.

But I know this: They need permits to perform work.

I found an email from a company hoping to provide fiber-optic internet service to rural areas near Dunnellon. The company has had success doing this in other counties, it said. It has customers eager for the service. What it didn’t have was a right-of-way permit from the county to lay the fiber-optic cable.

The county made several points why the business hasn’t qualified for the permit yet. It then suggested a sit-down to work out all the details.

The details are above my pay grade. It’s concerning, though, when similar topics continually raise their heads. Are these people simply complaining because the government won’t roll over for them, or does the county have a disjointed permitting process?

I was pleased with this response to the company from Eric Landon, the Growth Management director:

“I realize that each time I discuss a permit with a customer, that it is THE most important permit for that individual and I try to treat it as such.”

Good attitude. Great attitude. Still, I see emails from confused contractors. Something isn’t adding up here.

— Unrelated to government, thanks for the enthusiastic response to my Buddy Bandana idea. That’s stimulated some conversation at the World Headquarters, and we should be rolling out an announcement next week. Knowing how readers embraced Buddy, I think you’re going to appreciate what we’re coming up with.

It’s Wednesday. Enjoy it, friends.

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