by Kathy Foster
Ted Everett, Washington County Economic Development Council, and Ada Clark, Disaster Recovery Coordinator with Emerald Coast Regional Council, welcomed elected officials from each of the county’s municipalities to a Diaster Recover Workshop hosted Monday evening at the Florida Panhandle Technical College in Chipley.
Addressing the group, Everett said each municipality has its own needs and those in charge in each community need to develop plans now to move forward.
Pointing out that municipalities need to plan for 10 to 15 years from now, Everett said they shouldn’t just try to get things back to where they were when Hurricane Michael made landfall.
In her comments, Clark said not all guidelines for applying for funding have been finalized and she suggested leaders spend some time now developing plans for what their communities will need to move forward. She suggested the following:
- Develop a list of what is actually needed.
- Develop plans now and don’t wait for possible funding to become available.
- Have the costs laid out in the plans.
Everyone agreed that emergency shelters are one of the items needs throughout the county. They said the Ag Center could not be used due to its condition and it was noted that the structure is actually owned by the State and the State has not funded the upkeep of the building over the years.
However, Clark said she wouldn’t expect every community in the county to get funding for an emergency shelter.
Affordable housing was another area that needs to be included in the planning process.
All of those speaking at the workshop said they didn’t expect anything to happen overnight, but they feel Washington County citizens deserve to have their elected officials working on their behalf.
