County delays Mosquito zoning

PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 08/19/09

Anastasia Mosquito Control District staffers walked out of St. Johns County Auditorium with sour expressions Tuesday because just moments before, commission members had implied that district operations were inefficient and had voted to postpone a district zoning request for two months.

District board member Vivian Browning was upset.

"This was a hijacking, basically," she said outside. "We came here in good faith."

The district's board wanted to rezone 9.5 acres of its own property to build a new $2.5 million headquarters off Agricultural Center Road. The board thought the request would pass easily because the district had donated seven acres to the county for the new Emergency Operations Center.

"(At the time), they said they would handle getting our land rezoned," Browning said. "This (application) was a usual and customary procedure, but they made it a political procedure.

"This was really about us and our need to exist."

A sharp divergence of opinion began after District 4 Commissioner Phil Mays said he wanted to pull the two Mosquito Control items from the county's agenda so the district's "efficiency and effectiveness and waste of tax dollars" could be examined.

Browning said she "highly objected" to that accusation and told Mays, "We are not a county department. We have been a chartered by the Legislature as a special district since 1949."

The district headquarters is a 1970s building off Old Beach Road, which is only a few hundred yards from Anastasia State Park. In the event of a hurricane, harmful organophosphates and other insecticides could spill into the sea.

"This is a rezoning issue, not a funding issue," Browning said. "We own the land, and the public is invited to come to our meetings and see our finances.

"We have 28 employees and a world-class laboratory. We spend our money very frugally."

Vice Chairman Ron Sanchez said "numerous citizens" asked the commission to look into the district.

"We have no control over your board," Sanchez said. "We're looking for cooperation.

"We (also) must be careful that we're not trying to manage their money by holding up the zoning application."

Commissioner Mark Miner said the issue was a comprehensive land amendment and a rezoning only.

The district has more than $2 million in the bank, saved year by year to build a new headquarters. In the past, county commissioners have cast a covetous eye on the district's nest egg.

County Administrator Michael Wanchick suggested an efficiency study of district operations, which will take 45 to 60 days.

Mays made a motion to reschedule the rezoning and comprehensive plan requests until the commission's Oct. 20 meeting.

It passed 4-1, with Miner dissenting.

Browning and half a dozen Mosquito Control employees left the room.

"We do not (want) our headquarters in a residential neighborhood," she said. "We've been waiting on this for two years. Our entire facility will cost less than many of the upper end homes in the county."

Click here to return to story:
http://www.staugustine.com/stories/081909/news_1865245.shtml

© The St. Augustine Record