Walton County commissioners on Tuesday took a first look at proposed changes to the county’s beach activities ordinance, all of which will have to go to a public hearing before any final adoption.
Among the proposed changes is a dramatic increase in the fines for ignoring double-red flag warnings to stay out of the Gulf of Mexico during dangerous surf conditions. The proposed increase comes following a tourist season that saw a substantial rise in the number of double-red flag water rescues by the South Walton Fire District.
In a single week in August as Hurricane Laura churned across the Gulf and kicked up the surf across Northwest Florida, SWFD personnel performed 31 water rescues. One of those rescues sent a SWFD lifeguard to a hospital.
In all, through October of last year, the county logged 302 incidents of people ignoring double-red flag warnings, with each incident involving more than one person, according to information from the county’s public information manager.
The current fine for violating a double-red flag warning is $100, but after review by the county and two public workshops on the beach activities ordinance, commissioners got a recommendation Tuesday that the fine for a first offense be raised to $250, with the fine for a second offense and any subsequent offense being set at $500.
For at least one commissioner, that wasn’t enough.
“If you’re irresponsible enough to go in the water” when double-red flags are flying, the initial fine should be $500, said Commissioner Danny Glidewell.
“And I think they ought to go to jail on the second offense,” he added.
Whether Glidewell’s suggestions make it to a final version of the beach activities ordinance or not, another proposed amendment to regulations regarding double-red flag violations likely will get a second look from commissioners.
That proposed amendment defines being in the water, and thus subject to a double-red flag violation, as being in water that at any time comes up to the knees.
David Vaughan, the SWFD’s beach safety director, said setting that standard “isn’t really closing the water” to beachgoers, as is the intent of the double-red flag warning.
And, Vaughan added, the knee-high standard ignores the phenomenon of the “sneaker wave,” a disproportionately large wave that can sometimes appear in a group of waves without warning.
Glidewell asked Tuesday that the South Walton Fire District be sure it is represented at any upcoming public hearings on the proposed ordinance amendment.
“This is a lot more complicated than us just fining somebody,” Glidewell said. “I want to hear what the lifeguards have to say, because they’re the ones risking their necks.”
Commissioners on Tuesday also took a first look at a proposed increase in vendor permitting fees, charged to businesses that provide chairs, umbrellas, bonfires and other goods and services to beachgoers. Under the proposed change, which like the other proposals will be subject to a public hearing before any final commission action, the cost of an initial permit would increase by $250, from $750 to $1,000.
Subsequent required permits, which vendors would have to get for operating at more than one location, would be issued at a cost of $50 to $100, depending on county staff resources required for issuance and compliance.
Glidewell was concerned that the proposed fee schedule didn’t include any provisions for charging a permit fee based on a vendor’s gross receipts. In support of that approach, Glidewell noted that a 5% “bed tax” currently is charged on vacation accommodations in the county.
In related business Tuesday, commissioners also talked about the current fee structure for bonfires, which currently require a $50 permit payment that has gone to the South Walton Fire District rather than to the county government. The SWFD also charges a $5 administrative fee in connection with the bonfire permits.
The county’s code compliance department is asking that an “interlocal agreement” be established with the SWFD to ensure that the $50 bonfire fee is sent to the county.
Sending that fee to the county would not preclude the SWFD from assessing its own additional fee, it was pointed out.
Currently, there are about 4,000 bonfire permits issued each year. That equals $200,000 in permit fees, which Glidewell pointed out could hire a number of new code enforcement personnel.
“We spend a lot of time with bonfires,” Code Compliance Director Tony Cornman told commissioners Tuesday.
“We can’t keep eating all of the cost for managing the program and not getting our money back,” Glidewell said.
At the same time, though, Glidewell wondered whether if an additional $50 was collected for bonfire permits, raising the total cost to $105, some beachgoers might not pay for bonfires, for which vendors charge $400 to $500.
“We may be going too high,” Glidewell said, suggesting that maybe the county and the SWFD could cut the fees back. “If everybody could take a little less, we could save some money on the consumers’ part.”
While vendors do offer bonfire services, individuals can hold their own bonfires as long as they have the required county permit.
During public comment on the bonfire fee proposal, Rich Jaffe of the Historic Inlet Beach Neighborhood Association told commissioners that while he didn’t think an increased county charge for a bonfire permit would be much of a disincentive, fewer bonfires would be welcomed in his part of the county.
“A lot of the folks who have homes along the beach get smoked out” as bonfires proliferate along the beaches, Jaffe said.
