It was recently reported that the Holmes County, Florida Board of Commissioners, along with the Holmes County, Florida Development Commission, has signed a contract with Busy Bee to bring a new truck stop facility to the area.
The development was made possible in large part through the cooperative efforts of the Washington County, Florida Commission and the late Jim Town of Sunny Hills, who worked towards the extension of sewer and water in the regional partnership of the ‘Hwy 79 Corridor’ project.
‘We are excited about all that is happening in the area’, said Washington County Commissioner Todd Abbott, ‘and this is just the tip of the iceberg’.
‘We have worked for the past several years toward the development of infrastructure for the Hwy. 79 Corridor, and as a part of that team, I am proud of what we have accomplished’.
The Hwy 79 Corridor Project has been touted over the past several years as an opportunity to maximize the adjacency to the regional airport and the growth of the region, including the four-laning of Hwy 79 to Panama City Beach.
The partnership, comprised of the City of Bonifay, Florida, along with Holmes County and Washington County, is established to facilitate an area comprised of 1,525 acres south of the interchange of I-10 and Highway 79, and the Corridor Authority runs south along both the east and west sides of Hwy 79 for 2.1 miles from the City of Bonifay, through Holmes County and into Washington County at the intersection of WC Hwy 280 (Douglas Ferry Road) and Highway 79.
‘We have a sitting Board of Commissioners in Washington County who work together well and have been working well with the Board of Commissioners in Holmes County as well as the City of Bonifay, and we have succeeded in many of our goals, with many more on the horizon, so we are continuing to work diligently toward the benefit of the citizens’, added Abbott.
With a reported over 130 employees, over $5 million payroll yearly, over $300k in property taxes and over $1.5 million tax revenue in gas sales, the Busy Bee complex will be the largest retail employer to the area.
This project may be the first in the Panhandle, with 3 governments solving a mutual problem- that of a lack of sewer and water services south of I-10 along a major state highway between the Gulf of Mexico and the Alabama border.
Hwy 79 Corridor Authority board members are currently Tray Hawkins, Chair of the Washington County Commission, along with Jeff Good, member of the Holmes County Commission, and Roger Brooks from the City of Bonifay.
The initial projection is for 7 new businesses typical of Interstate interchanges (motel, fast food, quality restaurant, large convenience store, strip-center, etc.), potentially generating up to 219 new, well-paying jobs for the area.
The project has also developed a partnership with the Drone Program at Florida Panhandle Technical College, which produced this FAA Part 107-compliant video survey of the ‘Highway 79 Project’ area.
