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Source: Florida Highway Patrol
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Source: Florida Department of Law Enforcement
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Source: City of Panama City
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Prescription Drug Overdose High in Bay County
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Panhandle Libraries Lose Funding
By: Allyson Walker
Registered Sex Offenders Arrested for Failure to Update Addresses
Source: Bay County Sheriff Office
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Bay County, Fla:
As water flows to Tyndall Airforce Base, the cash flow to Bay County falls into dispute. According to the commission, Tyndall, who buys water wholesale from the county, owes nearly $500,000 in delinquent water bills.
“As tight as we have the water system, it’s major because we run that thing to break even,” said Commissioner George Gainer.
The county dates the debate back to 2007. That’s when commissioners increased the water rate from $0.90 per 1,000 gallons to about $1.50 with a built in escalator for inflation. Despite this change, that affects all wholesale water buyers, Tyndall continues to pay the old price.
“We can’t have one person in bay county paying more than another one does for water,” said Gainer.
The county wants to take action. Commissioners plan to hire a law firm to duke out the disagreement in a courtroom.
On the other hand, Tyndall believes there’s no wrongdoing.
The base issued a statement that reads, “Tyndall has paid its legally contracted water rate in full and will continue to do so until a new rate is established in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulations.” It continues on to say… that “the Base has not paid the difference between the contracted water rate, and the new higher water rate, because the new rate does not take the FAR into account.”
“What they’re saying is that anything we did to improve our system, that didn’t directly benefit Tyndall, they’re not going to pay and we’ve understood that from the beginning,” said Gainer.
The county argues, most capital improvements like pumping stations for example, do affect Tyndall.
“Certainly, we couldn’t cut the water off at Tyndall, as easily as they’ve cut the payments off to us,” said Gainer.
Both sides believe they have a positive relationship, but this issue is just an ebb to the normal flow.
At a meeting tomorrow, the county plans to pick a lawyer to mediate the process. There will also be a public hearing to discuss a penalty for late payment of retail and wholesale water accounts.
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Before Bay County wastes a whole bunch of our local tax dollars, someone needs to visit the contract in effect with Tyndall. Often, they are multi-year contracts and stipulate when they are re-newed, any adjustments in price for the option years, and when/how contracts are terminated.
So, if the initial contract was let in 2005, the time for Bay County to say “wait” is during a period specified in the contract—once that period expires, the additional option year is entered into at the agreed upon price.
Running into court, for what seems like an overly hefty price increase, and not attempting to understand what has been signed, or attempting to resolve the matter with a little spirit of partnership seems counter productive. Tyndall may just be following the rules Bay County agreed to.