Spring Ridge residents explore road options

By Carrie A. Mizell

Residents of the Spring Ridge community are considering a special assessment that would fund road improvements in their neighborhood.
The first of two informational meetings between the county commissioners, members of the Spring Ridge Road Committee, and residents of the community will be held on Thursday, April 8 at 7 p.m. at the Spring Ridge First Church of God. According to Carlos Perez, chairman of the Spring Ridge Road Committee, the purpose of the meetings will be to answer residents’ questions regarding the proposed special assessment.

Similar to the special assessment for road improvements that was passed in the Rolling Oaks community not long ago, the Spring Ridge special assessment would appear on residents’ annual property tax bill.
Though residents of Spring Ridge have appeared before the county commission numerous times to ask that improvements be made to their deteriorating roads, resurfacing work on the six miles of roadway has not been completed. Despite the commissioners’ attempts to show the Florida Department of Transportation that the resurfacing project in Spring Ridge is, and has been their number one priority for the last three years, grant funding has been turned down each year.
According to Perez, Gilchrist County simply does not collect enough money in gas taxes to pay for the repaving of roads within subdivisions. As he explained, the county has only six gas stations, and only about $400,000 a year to be spread across the entire county. This is not even enough money to fully fund the road department and its current road maintenance responsibilities. Therefore, almost all paving done within the county has to be performed using state grant funds.
Because the state has not opted to fund this project, the Spring Ridge Civic Association formed a Road Committee to look into the possibility of funding the road improvements through special assessment. Committee Members Carlos Perez, Jerry Kiernan, Dee Kupchak, Virgil and Elaine Munn, Betty Murphy, Ann Patrick and Chuck Zahalka have met with Gilchrist County staff members over the last year to learn more about the special assessment process.
After the two informational meetings are held, the owners of the 180 parcels within the proposed special assessment district will have until May 1 to vote for, or against, initiating the process of a special assessment.
According to a Gilchrist County Special Assessment District Ordinance, 70 percent of the parcel owners in a designated area must sign a petition requesting that the county commission start the process of imposing a special assessment on the neighborhood.
Once the process has been started, the next step would be determining an estimate of what the amount of the annual special assessment would be. According to Perez, the county will determine this based on estimates for the cost of repaving, and the cost of financing the project. After the annual special assessment is determined, the amount of the special assessment can be estimated by dividing the number of parcels into the annual loan payment amounts. Perez stated that the cost of such a repaving project is typically spread out over 15 to 20 years.
Lee Mills of Mills Engineering provided Gilchrist County Coordinator Ron McQueen with a cost estimate for the resurfacing of a typical paved road in the county, based on current costs involved.
“The estimated construction cost for resurfacing a roadway having an 18-foot wide paved driving surface is $103,000 per mile,” Mills stated. “The estimated construction cost for resurfacing a roadway having a 22-foot wide paved driving surface is $110,000 per mile.”
The next step in the process would be to fully inform all parcel owners of the estimated amount of the special assessment.
Though the exact amount will not be known until the bids are received for the construction and financing, the estimate will be in the form of a range.
County commissioners will be able to give property owners a guarantee that the special assessment will not exceed a maximum set amount.
Once this information has been presented, the county commissioners will schedule a public hearing to hear citizens’ input on whether or not to create the special assessment.
According to Perez, properties within Spring Ridge that front County Road 340 would not be subject to the special assessment because they will not directly benefit from the repaving of the internal roads.
The second meeting between the county commissioners, members of the Spring Ridge Road Committee and the residents of Spring Ridge has been set for Saturday, April 10 at 4 p.m. for any resident who has questions on the special assessment and cannot attend the Thursday evening meeting.