by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
After 11 years as a St. Johns County commissioner, Jim Bryant says he still cares about the bottom line, serving the residents and saving people money.
He spoke to Realtors who attended the Northeast Florida Association of Realtor’s St. Johns Council meeting held last month at the Caddyshack Restaurant in the World Golf Village.
Currently, a main issue he is facing right now is some of the new commissioners want to make significant budget cuts, which could lead to a loss of fire and police services to the community.
“We are at a unique time right now,” he said. “There tends to be a movement now by some of my commissioners to cut services and reduce or slow down the expansion of fire service and police force.”
Bryant does not agree.
“We are a relatively affluent county that wants the best of everything,” he said. “They deserve the best of everything and I think they are willing to pay for a higher level of service. I just hope the new commission doesn’t try to slash everything and then cut the level of service.”
Bryant said there was a study done in 1995 that laid out the plan to expand professional fire services all over the county.
“You try to place your fire stations strategically to get a five-mile radius,” said Bryant. “What some of the new commissioners don’t understand is that if we get these professional fire services in an area, all of homeowners’ ISO rating goes way down.”
If they get that ISO rating down, Bryant said, the homeowners will save approximately 50 percent on their homeowner’s insurance.
“They don’t understand that,” he said. “I would hope that my new commissioners would put more thought into what they are trying to do. I understand they are trying to cut the budget, but they need to understand the effects of cutting that budget. I hope they stay on the plan of expanding the fire services because it will be cheaper for the residents anyway.”
During the meeting, Bryant discussed several new affordable housing projects going on in West Augustine.
“We picked up a bunch of lots in West Augustine from a developer in Orlando for about $1,000 apiece,” he said. “Those were the first lots that we made available for affordable housing. It was already pre-platted subdivision back in the 1950’s. The right-of-ways were already there so we just had to open the roads. We set aside money to offset the high impact fees that we all see now to pay for the impact fees on these affordable houses. We lined up a number of small builders that participated in this program to build these homes that sell for $110,000 to $150,000 and they have experienced some success with it.”
Currently the residents rely on wells and septic tanks for water and sewer needs because Bryant said the City of St. Augustine will not put the infrastructure in for water and sewer in that area because they think the area is so depressed that the people will not be able to pay for water and sewer. “That may be true to an extent, but they shouldn’t be denying the access to safe water and proper sanitation,” he said.