By: Robin Ford Wallace, Staff Reporter

The Dade County Commission held a special called meeting Oct. 29 to call dibs on over a million federal stimulus dollars for economic development before a Nov. 2 deadline. Commissioners also voted at the Thursday night meeting to pass a resolution regarding noxious manufacturing smells.

A long-planned ordinance regulating subdivisions was discussed as well, but the Commission decided to wait until its regularly scheduled November meeting to vote on a finalized version.  

As to the economic development issue, Commission Chairmen Ted Rumley explained that the amounts of $451,000 and $677,000 had been allocated by the state for bonded economic development and facility projects, but that the county had to declare its intent to use the funds or give up any right to them. “If we don’t do it, don’t tie it up by the 2nd, we’re giving it back to the state anyway,” he said. 

He said Dade hadn’t acted on the matter earlier because it had been understood that accepting the allocation meant the county must issue bonds for economic development projects, and there was no such project the county wished to bond at this time. Actually, though, he said, counties are under no obligation to issue bonds before a second deadline in July 2010, so that it was in Dade’s interest to reserve the funds in case a suitable project arises in the next few months.  “There’s no strings attached,” he said.

The money would have to be used on projects that draw industry to the county, such as infrastructure or a building pad, but that would be determined at a later time, said
Rumley.  “When it comes down to actually doing it, that’s when you get serious and pinpoint, well, what are you going to use the money for,” he said.

If the county does use the money, the stimulus package would pay for 45 percent of interest on any bonds issued, said Rumley, making it a good deal for the county. The county Economic Development Authority would be in charge of choosing projects and would also be the body that issued bonds for them.

Commissioners voted to accept the allocation with the stipulation that any such bonding be subject to the Commission’s approval.

As to the noxious smell resolution: Rumley said that a toilet paper manufacturer had expressed interest in opening a paper mill on the Wildwood site soon to be left vacant by Kenco. “They assured us in a conference call that there was zero smell,” said Rumley.  But he had called around to four other sites where the manufacturer had plants, and: “According to what the municipalities told me, it’s a different story,” he said.

Rumley said if there really were no odor problem, such a facility might be a good thing for the county in that it would mean 200 or so jobs.  “This is what you’ve got to weigh out,” he said.

In an Idaho county where the manufacturer had a plant, said Rumley, an official had told him that on a scale from 1 to 10, the smell was an 11. “It affects a 40-mile area when the wind’s not blowing, their whole county,” said Rumley.  “But they employ 3,000 people in that county, and that’s their major employer.”

Passing the resolution didn’t mean saying no to the mill, he told the commissioners; it just gave the county a right to say no.  “We’ll have a say-so,” he said. “Right now we don’t have any say-so.”

The resolution passed without opposition.

As to the subdivision ordinance that has been under discussion since July, the commissioners gave their attorney yet more particulars, and opted to allow District 4 Commissioner Peter Cervelli, absent from the meeting because he was on vacation, a shot at adding some of his own before putting the measure to a vote.

District 1 Commissioner Lamar Lowery suggested amendments to the ordinance requiring main utility trunk lines to be located off roads, and to require cul-de-sacs widths to jibe with the county’s road ordinance. 

Scottie Pittman of District 2 asked for a clause making it clear that the county is not obliged to pave roads should the developer default on his promise to do so. “That way, later on, the residents couldn’t come in and bring a lawsuit and make us pave a whole new subdivision when we’ve got older subdivisions out there that we can’t pave,” he said.

Pittman also suggested requiring prospective developers to put up letters of credit guaranteeing their work as opposed to purchasing performance bonds. “I think definitely we need to go away from the bond if we can,” he said.

As this newspaper has previously reported, Marion County, Dade’s neighbor across the Tennessee border, has often found it necessary to sue bonding companies before they pay up.

District 3’s Robert Goff, at the risk of being repetitious – “Maybe I’m beating a dead horse” – wanted the ordinance to just say no to earthen dams, such as the one on Lookout Lake that has caused Dade major migraines in recent months. 

Rumley agreed, and instructed County Attorney Robin Rogers to put that caveat in both the county’s subdivision and roads ordinance.

The chairman had already, he told commissioners, asked Rogers for his own amendment: As drafted, the ordinance regulates any division of a land tract into five or more pieces. Rumley asked for an exemption in the case of heirs divvying up family land. That way, if children need to share out family land after the death of a parent, “You don’t have to go through an act of Congress to do it,” said Rumley.

Again, the Commission will take the matter of the ordinance back up at its regularly scheduled November meeting on Thursday.