Anastasia Mosquito Control District looks to expand research with millage hike
Posted: September 10, 2016 - 10:12pm | Updated: September 11, 2016 - 7:24am
By JAKE MARTIN
jake.martin@staugustine.com
Still settling into its new headquarters and surrounding acreage at 120 EOC Drive, the Anastasia Mosquito Control District has already set its sights on the future.
Its proposed tentative budget of $4,644,800 for fiscal year 2016-17 includes capital outlay projects totaling $1,403,590 to be funded largely by a millage rate increase currently on the table.
Among the more noteworthy expenditures, as proposed, are $250,000 for an aerial landing/loading facility, $150,000 for a 1,500-square-foot student/guest house, $150,000 for pesticide and equipment storage, $105,000 for four 4x4½-ton pickup trucks, $100,000 for larvicide mixture equipment, $80,000 for an 800-square-foot droplet test and analysis lab, $80,000 for an 800-square-foot sentinel chicken house and $80,000 for an 800-square-foot wind tunnel.
Commissioner Catherine Brandhorst, secretary and treasurer for the board, told The Record on Friday these expenditures and others in the proposed budget are part of a plan to expand the district’s applied research capabilities.
She said the aerial landing/loading facility would enable the district to load chemicals onto helicopters or other aircraft on site, rather than transporting the chemicals to the Northeast Florida Regional Airport.
“That would represent a tremendous savings to us,” she said.
Brandhorst said the three-bedroom student/guest house would help the district save money by housing its interns on the grounds. She said although interns are mostly grant-funded, the district often has to pick up their housing expenses.
The purpose of the wind tunnel, she said, would be to attract and capture mosquitoes to test. The chicken house would accommodate about 50 sentinel chickens and include concrete floors and drainage for animal waste.
Rui-de Xue, district director, said in an email to The Record on Friday that the investment would put the district in a better position to secure grant funds from national and international foundation and private companies.
“The applied research facilities will attract intelligent scientists with high quality projects to our district,” he wrote, adding it would make district programs operate more efficiently and, ultimately, save tax money.
“The district will directly gain new and novel technology, free tools for mosquito control, and financial funds and assistance,” Xue wrote.
He also said current laboratory facilities have helped the district secure about $240,000 in grant funding in cooperation with universities and private companies, three visiting scientists (along with their money and projects), as well as three employees paid by the University of Florida and University of Miami.
Commissioner Jeanne Moeller told The Record on Friday the focus is on short-term applied research on what’s happening in the county and what’s working versus what isn’t when it comes to chemicals.
“Research is very important,” she said. “It’s going to be very localized with what’s happening here.”
Moeller said what happens here happens in surrounding districts as well, but that surrounding counties do not have independent mosquito control districts and are, thus, unable to do research on the same scale as AMCD.
One of the district’s more ambitious goals is to apply for a role in the World Health Organization’s Pesticide Evaluation Scheme, which promotes and coordinates testing and evaluation of pesticides for public health.
As indicated in Xue’s written response to a recent letter to the editor in The Record regarding the district’s new facility and its proposed millage rate increase, the district could play a hand in certifying pesticides sold in the United States and around the world.
“The companies have to pay for the evaluations and this will bring more jobs and businesses to the county and bring more scientists, students and visitors from all nations and the world to assist in our programs,” Xue wrote.
He said the district would also seek additional grants from outside resources to support the program, as it has in the past three years.
Moeller said her expectation is that the applied research program would be able to pay for itself after the initial investment.
“You have to build it for them to be able to come,” Moeller said.
Other major expenditures in the tentative budget include $1,470,676 for salaries and wages, $759,448 for benefits, $398,617 for operating expenses and $228,000 for chemicals.
Scott Hanna, district accountant, said two additional full-time positions — specifically, a biologist and a supplies/resources manager — are included in the budget at a combined cost of about $90,000. He said the positions will help meet demands of the district’s growth and the subsequent increase in assets, as well as heightened efforts to combat Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses.
Brandhorst said one of the things the district is doing that others aren’t is increasing its preventive program to kill larvae before they mature into mosquitoes, “which requires a lot of manpower and time.”
TAX TALK
The district’s Board of Commissioners on Thursday voted 4-0 in approval of a tentative millage rate of 0.2150, which would generate an estimated $4,526,538 in ad valorem revenue. This is an increase from the 2015-16 rate of 0.1773, which generated $3,428,830.
The annual bill for a property with a taxable value of $200,000 (after any eligible homestead exemption) under the current millage rate of 0.1773 would be $35.46. Under the proposed rate of 0.2150, that bill would come to $43.
The proposed rate is still under the 2014-15 rate of 0.2450. That rate, nearly double the 2013-14 rate of 0.1312, was approved 4-1 by commissioners to help fund construction of the district’s new facility. Commissioner Janice Bequette had voted alone in dissent, favoring renovation of the existing facility at 500 Old Beach Road, which has since been vacated.
Taxes paid to the district in the five years leading up to the 2014-15 tax hike had decreased each year by keeping the millage rate the same as property values decreased with the economy. At the time, the commission expressed its intention for the increase to last one year and for it to be lowered, if feasible, the next. While that intention came to fruition, the rate is now poised to go back on the rise.
Xue, Moeller and Brandhorst said taxpayers could expect the latest increase to be lowered after one year, once again.
“In the future, the tax definitely will go down and the annual active budget will stay at about $3 million for many years,” Xue wrote.
A final public hearing for the adoption of the millage rate and budget is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 22 at 120 EOC Drive, St. Augustine.
The next fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
COMMENTS
sponger2 09/11/16 - 08:29 am 50Didn't we cover this yesterday?
We don't need $150,00.00 for a "guest house". You want a guest house? Build one in your back yard with your own money. One of my friends did.
JoeJoe 09/11/16 - 09:25 am 20I am glad
The Record is calling them on this. However, how come the paper doesn't do the same to the county for all of the wasteful things they have spent our money on, like the Taj Mahals they have built with our tax money for starters?
Firstcoaster 09/11/16 - 10:09 am 20It's sure fun spending someone else's money
- What aircraft besides helicopters are able to land at a heliport? Quad copter? Paper airplane?
- You don't need two hangars, let alone one hangar, for helicopters, especially when you don't own a helicopter. Any helicopters spraying in our county are from an out-of-county aerial application company. Helicopters can park on the helipad just fine and don't need expensive hangars. Do you see a hangar at Flagler Hospital?
- Let the "guests" pay for their own housing.
- Jet fuel facility? Who is going to pay for the fuel? This would be a commercial fuel operation, requiring permits and licenses, processing fuel tax payments to the feds, having trained personnel to pump the fuel, fuel spill prevention and containment compliance, etc. etc. etc. A private out-of-county aerial application company can provide for their own fuel, either at our airport, OR, as they usually possess, their own fuel trucks as is done industry wide.
These mosquito people are sure generous with other people's money (ours)!
Oh, I almost forgot. Remember the AS-350B2 Astar helicopter that this district ordered and paid a deposit on not too long ago? They later patted themselves on the back for "getting the deposit back."
Guess what? There was a huge backlog of this model helicopter at the time. The district could have sold their "place in line," or reservation deposit at a profit, meaning $25,000 - $50,000 dollars more than the deposit. But they don't have a clue and left money (ours) on the table!
The inmates are running the asylum.
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