BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— During a special meeting on Monday, Sept. 26, the Keystone Heights City Council approved its 2022-2023 budget, adopted the county’s comprehensive emergency management plan and declared a state of emergency as Hurricane Ian continued to track toward the Lake Region.
The millage rate for the 2022-2023 fiscal year is 4.2901, a 6.34% increase over the city’s rolled-back rate of 4.0344 mills.
The rolled-back rate is the millage at which the city would collect the same amount in property taxes as the prior year, considering increases in assessed values.
Florida law defines a tax increase as any rate above the rolled-back rate.
Budget
The city’s overall budget consists of individual spending plans for its cemetery, infrastructure, community redevelopment and general funds.
Council members budgeted $32,000 in revenues for its cemetery fund, with $15,000 in lot sales, $14,000 from cell tower rents and $3,000 from burial permits.
Major expenses include $6,000 for salaries and wages, $5,562 for capital improvements and $5,000 for audit fees.
Keystone’s infrastructure budget includes a carryover of $120,000 from previous years and state sales tax revenue of $156,000.
Council members budgeted $128,000 for roads and sidewalks improvements and the balance for other, un-itemized improvements.
The community redevelopment budget lists tax revenues of $123,000 and a carryover from previous years of $110,000.
Spending includes business expenses of $16,550, contract services of $21,500, events spending of $59,000 and capital improvements of $135,500.
Capital improvements include $75,000 for the city’s South Lawrence Boulevard Streetscape project, $50,000 in grants and $50,000 for beach improvements.
The nearly $900,000 general fund lists $255,401 for city staff payroll, $59,000 for the city attorney and $24,600 to compensate council members.
Public works salaries and benefits take another $99,253 from the budget.
Operating expenses, like utilities, traffic light repair, road paint and supplies claim an additional $67,380.
Emergency plan
The county’s comprehensive emergency plan outlines the county’s preparation and response to disasters like adverse weather, hazardous materials spills, wildfires, terrorism and pandemics.
Keystone Heights council members adopted the county’s plan into their own policy for disasters.
Of the 13 hazards outlined in the county document, wind from a tropical cyclone is the only one listed as a high risk, with flooding, drought and heat waves, freezes and wildfires listed as moderately high risks. Earthquakes, civil disturbances, tsunamis and nuclear power plants are low risks to the county, according to the plan.
The document states that river flooding is a particular concern in the county, with Black Creek experiencing property damage from flooding in 2012, damaging 578 homes. The creek also overflowed its banks in 2013 and 2017.
“Clay County experienced record-breaking flooding in 2017, as a result of Hurricane Irma,” the report states. “Even though the storm only brought tropical storm force conditions to the area, it still produced substantial flooding in Black Creek. Cresting North Fork at 27.89 feet and South Fork at 29.36 feet; damaging an estimated 858 homes, completely destroying at least 275 of them. This was the worst flooding ever recorded for both sections of Black Creek.”
The plan also discusses the risks of dam failure at Lake Asbury, which has three private dams.
“These dams are rolled-earth construction and some of the oldest in the state,” the report states. “Recent improvements in 2013 to the South Dam were made to reduce the probability of dam failure while protecting downstream properties from flooding due to large releases of stormwater from the South Dam.”
The plan states that under normal conditions, the risk of dam failure is low. However, with excessive rainfall, the risk of failure would increase, endangering residents and property around the lake and downstream Black Creek.
Wind damage
Clay County Emergency Manager John Ward has stated in earlier appearances in the Lake Region that wildfire and wind damage pose the greatest risks to the Keystone Heights area.
The report states that since Clay County is not a coastal county, there is an assumption that each storm that hits the coast will probably decrease in its intensity before reaching Clay County.
“However,” the report states, “tropical depressions and lower categories of storms still bring damaging high winds, which can affect the entire county.”
Two of the biggest risk factors associated with wind damage are prevalent throughout the Lake Region: trees and mobile homes.
“Falling trees pose an obvious risk to life and property,” the report states. “Additionally, specific structures may also be more vulnerable to winds, including older homes not built to the more rigorous building codes implemented over the last decade or mobile homes. “
Wildfire
The emergency plan states that 80% of unincorporated Clay County is suspectable to brush fires, especially in areas like the Lake Region, where undeveloped land and residential areas intermingle.
“The high-risk areas are located in residential districts in the wild land/urban interface, or where structures and other human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wild land or vegetative fuels,” the report states. “It is where wild land vegetation and urban encroachment co-exist, but neither one dominates. Fires that start in these areas can be dangerous because they can easily spread through developed and undeveloped areas.”
The report adds that when a La Nina weather pattern is present: a cooling of the Pacific Ocean, wildfire occurrences in the area increase.
Additionally, a La Nina weather pattern is also favorable for the development of tropical cyclones because the pattern results in less Atlantic Ocean wind shear than its counterpart: El Nino.
Last year brought the least number of wildfires in the county over the past 11 years. Only 15 fires occurred in 2021 which scorched 248 acres.
The years with the highest number of wildfires over the past decade include 2011 which had 91 fires that burned 992 acres, 2018 with 89 fires that burned 923 acres, and 2017: 44 fires which burned 1,269 acres.
The report also says that the Camp Blanding military training site presents its own disaster risks, like hazardous materials spills, aircraft accidents, mass casualty incidents and terrorism.
