Santa Rosa will fund SROs in summer; Guardian program draws debate pnj.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pnj.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Santa Rosa County missed out on critical infrastructure funding for the current fiscal year because county staff failed to meet a deadline from the Florida Department of Transportation, despite multiple meetings and reminders from the state agency.
The funding program, called Small County Outreach Program (SCOP), allots $20 million each year to counties in FDOT s District 3 that have fewer than 200,000 residents. The money is intended for critical road repaving and reconstruction projects.
Out of the 16 counties in FDOT s District 3, only three are not eligible for the program because of population size Escambia, Okaloosa and Leon. Of the 13 eligible counties, only Santa Rosa did not apply for SCOP funding this year.
The petition, which is being signed in-person during the pandemic, so far has a few hundred signatures, and organizers said they hope to get a thousand. Larry Hetu, a Gulf Breeze resident, is helping to get the petition around and said the cause could have important long-term implications for Santa Rosa County.
“We think this can establish ourselves as being the destination for conservative persons and patriots,” Hetu said.
Newly installed Commissioner James Calkins so far is the only board member to enthusiastically support the renaming, calling it a “great idea.”
“There are lots of things named around the country after presidents, and this area, Santa Rosa County, voted for Donald Trump very strongly,” Calkins told the News Journal on Monday. “I think it’s a fantastic idea and it would be good for our county. After this was brought up, I talked to multiple business owners, multiple people, and I’m getting enthusiastic support for it.”