A small group of attendees at the Vernon, Florida City Council meeting on Monday, September 16, 2019 gave a cheer as Washington County Commissioner Tray Hawkins announced that the County has agreed to assist the City in repairing and paving a portion of Church Street, a longtime impediment to safe transit in the City.
The section of Church Street, which runs from Hwy 277 in the vicinity of the Circle H convenience store to Moss Hill Road and Vernon High and Middle Schools, has been in varying states of decay for many years, with no funding source in place for anything but temporary repairs, which typically did not last past the next big rain storm.
‘This is something long overdue, and we would have acted sooner had we known that the City wished to move forward on this matter’, stated Tray Hawkins, Chairman of the Washington County Commission and a Vernon resident.
‘Thank you, Tray Hawkins’, stated Vernon Mayor Laura Olene Brewer at Monday’s meeting, ‘we appreciate your help in this matter’.
The section of road in question supports a high volume of traffic, and has become an expedient short cut between Hwy 277 and Moss Hill Road, with damage exacerbated by that high volume of traffic heading to the Vernon Middle School and Vernon High School.
‘The street is closed to truck and large vehicle traffic’, said former Vernon Mayor Tina Sloan, ‘but with the amount of traffic we see on that section of roadway, temporary repairs do not last long and this permanent solution was what was needed’.
This interlocal agreement is just one example of the positive strides made by Washington County recently, with better fiduciary oversight and reduction of debt being a large part of that process.
‘There are many good things happening in Washington County’, said Hawkins following the meeting, ‘from trimming waste to improving infrastructure to better coordinating between municipalities in the County, and we are proud of our accomplishments over the past several years’.
