If you're wondering about the hour-or-so long citywide power outage on Tuesday afternoon, July 27, know that it was maintenance work related and it wasn't supposed to happen, according to a Progress Energy (PE) representative.

The outage, in fact, was likely to be a main topic of discussion with PE folks on Wednesday, according to Bobby Pickles, PE community relations manager, who spoke with the Journal early Wednesday morning.

Pickles explained that the inexplicable outage occurred during routine maintenance work at the substation that feeds Monticello and the surrounding area. Typically, he said, these periodic maintenances take place without the public every becoming aware of the fact. Indeed, it's the goal of Progress Energy's to provide its service without drawing undue attention to itself, Pickles said.

Normally, when a feeder line goes out, it affects only a portion of the city, he said. But in this instance, the system became overloaded at a time when it was vulnerable because of the maintenance work and it shut down completely, he said.

Pickles provided a brief lesson in what he called "101 electricity", explaining that power is brought to the Monticello substation via a main transmission line and the power is then diverted into four feeder lines that each serves about a quarter of the city. He further explained that the particular maintenance procedure that PE was conducting Tuesday entailed temporarily disengaging three of the feeder lines and supplying all the power via the fourth line.

These exercises, he said, are planned and conducted during optimum conditions, as determined by a group of in-house experts who take into account as many vari-ables as possible, including time of day, temperature, weather and usage patterns. But it's impossible to account for all variables, Pickles said; and in this instance, an unforeseen factor — possibly having to do with the high temperature and the resulting increased power usages of air conditioning and other cooling units — triggered the massive outage.

Pickles said PE would be studying the outage with an eye to determining if it was an anomaly or if it could be prevented in future; and if so, how?

Progress Energy is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. The company includes two major electric utilities that serve about 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida.

Commissioners didn't get very far into their long-awaited review of the 77-page revised Jefferson County Comprehensive Plan on Thursday evening, July 15, before they had to stop the workshop and go into their regular meeting.

They did, however, address a potentially controversial proposal calling for a 153-acre property in Wacissa to be changed from Ag-20 (one unit per 20 acres) to R-1 (one unit per acre). Commissioners agreed to rezone the property to Ag-5 (one unit per five acres), after hearing from several area residents opposed to the R-1 zoning. Commissioners, in fact, left the door open to the possibility of leaving the zoning at its present Ag-20 designation.

Planning Official Bill Tellefsen started the workshop discussion by explaining that the Comp Plan revisions were based on the goals and objectives that county officials had identified some 18 months earlier and that had resulted in the formulation of the Evaluation Appraisal Report (EAR), the basis for the Comp Plan amendments.

Tellefsen explained that the majority of the revisions were to correct textural and other errors in the document or to clarify confusing and ambiguous language. Others of the changes, he said, were to bring the document into compliance with new state requirements; bring particular zoning designations into conformance with actual land-uses; and direct growth to desirable areas where the infrastructure existed.

"Many of the changes were simply to bring properties into compliance with the ways that they are being used," Tellefsen said.

Among the noteworthy revisions, Tellefsen pointed out that surface mining would now be allowed in Ag-20 properties, provided the activity met the established requirements and received board approval. He mentioned the creation of an Ag-3 category, which allows for a mix of agricultural and residential uses, as well as some commercial activity. And he talked about an R204 designation, which is specifically applicable to two parcels totaling 377 acres in the Waukeenah area; the R204 designation limits the number of housing units on the combined properties to a maximum of 204, or 1.848 units per acre.

Commissioner Felix "Skeet" Joyner expressed concern about allowing commercial and residential development in wetlands areas. He wanted to know what could be done to prevent development in such areas?

Tellefsen's response was that absent mapping out the wetlands areas — a costly proposition at best — nothing could be done to prevent people from building in wetland areas.

"You can't zoned it for no use unless you map it, which we can't afford," Tellefsen said. "To take it out of development, you have to map it and identify it as wetlands."

That, he said, was the rationale for clustering, which allows developers to get density bonuses, or extra housing units, for concentrating their developments on upland acreage and avoiding wetlands areas.

Prompted by Commissioner Hines Boyd, Tellefsen expounded on his theory that to spur economic development in the county would require encouraging high-density residential development at the business interchanges, such as US 19 and I-10. Not only would such high-density residential development make it economically feasible to put in the infrastructure, but it would also make it economically viable for commercial enterprises to locate there, he argued.

The idea — one that the Planning Commission had considered and ultimately rejected — appeared to find adherents among the commissioners.

"You have to bring in the people first to bring about economic development," Joyner said. "Until you get the people to support it, you won't ever get economic development here."

The argument is one that Joyner has made before: create population density by encouraging upscale subdivisions such as Heritage Hills and Hiawatha Farms and the Publix super markets and other desired businesses will follow.

Boyd too supported the idea.

"I think we ought to allow residential in the interchange areas," he said simply.

Tellefsen shared that the planners' discussions had involved creating high, medium and low-density areas within the interchanges, with the proposed allowable densities going as high as 16 units per acre. It was his estimation that it would require at least six units per acre to make the project enticing to developers and economically feasible for the creation of the needed infrastructure.

The commissioners asked Tellefsen to work up the figures and return to them with recommended residential density levels for the interchanges at their next workshop on the Comp Plan.

Joyner returned to his earlier theme that development in some parts of the county and at the interchanges in particular was not feasible or desirable, given certain environmental features. He specifically cited the northeast quadrant of the I-10 and SR-59 interchange, once slated to become a quarter-horse racetrack. Joyner ventured that the site was more fitted for "maybe a duck pond camp", if it was ever to be developed.

Another problem — one that Boyd touched upon — was that the Comp Plan revisions essentially left the density levels pretty much where they presently existed. No developers would want to come into an area where structures existed and have to remove these structures before they could construct new housing units, he said. Therefore, went his argument, it behooved the commission — for the sake of economic development — to designate new areas of high-density housing, such as at the interchanges.

Before the discussion could go much farther along these lines, however, a contingent of Wacissa-area residents attending the workshop specifically to address the rezoning of the 153-acre parcel asked to speak on the issue. Several had taken time off from their jobs to attend the workshop and worried that they might not get a chance to have their say before the workshop's allotted time ran out.

Responding to their concerns, Commission Chairman Danny Monroe dedicated the remaining 30 minutes of the session to their concern.

The residents basically wanted to know why an Ag-20 property that was overwhelmingly wetlands and that the owner had asked be rezoned to Ag-5, which they considered bad enough, was suddenly and inexplicably being proposed for R-1 zoning. Flood prone as the property was, it could hardly sustain one house per 20 acres, they said. So why, they asked, would anyone think that it could sustain one house per acre?

"There a sinkhole there that goes directly into the Wacissa River," one lifelong resident of the area said. "If you put houses there, it will ruin the Wacissa River."

It turned out that Tellefsen had proposed the R-1 designation, based on his reasoning that it would bring the property into compliance with the surrounding R-1 land uses.

"I'm the one who pushed for he R-1 zoning ," Tellefsen said. "The property is an island of Ag-20 surrounded by R-1 land-uses."

Joyner expressed astonishment with Tellefsen's reasoning. He was very familiar with the area and well knew that the 153 acres were mostly wetlands and unsuitable for development, Joyner said. It went back to his earlier argument that certain lands in the county weren't suitable for developing, he said.

After several more of the residents had their say on the issue, commissioners agreed to return the zoning to Ag-5.

Even so, another of the residents raised the ante.

"That piece of property won't hold more than five houses," said this individual. "Why change it at all? Why not leave it at Ag-20?"

Commissioners promised to consider the request.

Members of various local groups involved in the promotion of the community's artistic, cultural and historical resources came together last week at the invitation of the Jefferson County Tourist Development Council (JCTDC) to explore ways to meld their individual goals and further promote the community.

Held at the historic Wirick-Simmons House on Tuesday evening, July 13, and prompted by a combined $2,500 that the JCTDC recently received from Visit Florida to develop a new walking and driving tour brochure, the gathering afforded the participants an opportunity to learn more about each other's pet projects and do a little brainstorming about ways to promote the community as a destination point.

Among the entities represented at the meeting were the city, the chamber, the Monticello and Lloyd historical societies, the performing and fine arts communities, and the hospitality industry.

JCTDC Coordinator Nancy Wideman hosted the session, explaining that she was seeking input from the various groups for the redesign of the walking and driving tour brochure. Specifically, she wanted their help in identifying and prioritizing noteworthy places in the county that needed exposure and highlighting, she said.

"I'd like to go away from this meeting with a few ideas of what each organization here can do to further the goals that we identify," Wideman said.

Those goals — sometimes more appropriately described as obstacles to overcome in the effort to promote the community — include limited and scattered resources, empty storefronts in the downtown district, and a seeming inability on the part of the general public sometimes to appreciate the importance of historical and cultural preservation.

On the positive side, Jack Carswell and Wideman praised city and county officials for the giant strides made in recent years to safeguard and promote the community's natural, cultural and historical assets, including the city's enhancements of the Pearl Street Park and the courthouse circle, and the county's purchases of the Wacissa River property and the historic A-Building.

That said, participants were afforded an opportunity to tout their specific projects and offer ideas for the furtherance of the stated goal.

Dr. Anne Holt, of Monticello Main Street, talked of her group's efforts to convert the old jail on Dogwood Street into a museum and visitors' center.

Bob Crew, of the historical society, spoke of this group goal to expand the boundaries of Monticello historic district by affording property owners the option of joining it voluntarily.

Mary Ann Clarke, also of the historical society, related the group's efforts to restore the Wirick-Simmons House, with an eye toward opening it for tours and as a place to hold special activities in the future.

Melanie Mays, of Jefferson Arts, spoke of the nationally and internationally recognized artists who regularly showed their works at the group's gallery/studios on West Washington Street and of the children's art camp that the group will soon be again hosting.

Lisa Reasoner, of the Monticello Opera House, spoke of the exciting upcoming theatre season, which includes collaborations with theatre groups from surrounding cities and productions of such classics as Oklahoma and Steel Magnolias.

Mary Frances Gramling, of the chamber, spoke of her organization's promotion of the community's historical and cultural assets via its website and the county maps it makes available to visitors.

And Carol Miller, of the Lloyd Community Preservation Trust, talked of efforts to protect and enhance the historical and cultural resources there, most specifically the old train depot, and a Civil War trail that would include Lloyd as a stop.

Representatives of the African-American communities were unable to attend the meeting, but Rosa Bassa and Albert Thomas, two individuals well steeped in the African-American community here, are participating in the effort, according to Wideman.

Finally, Carswell capped the discussion with a quick overview of the many archeological, cultural, natural and historical places in the county that presented possibilities for promotion and development. The five-page list he disributed, put together by what Carswell described as a group of people who truly knew the county, included plantations; historic buildings, churches and cemeteries; significant archeological and geological sites; and rivers, lakes and other natural sights reminiscent of Florida 500 years ago.

"Our county is rich in history," Carswell said. "I worry sometimes that we don't get it. This map should show how profoundly and rich our history is. And the best part is that we can sell it. We can charge people to see it."

Carswell's comment was in keeping with an earlier observation by Dr. Holt, relative to "Florida 2060", a research study conducted on behalf of 1000 Friends of Florida. The study projects a population distribution scenario for the state's future.

"I urge everyone to read it," Dr. Holt said. "It says that Jefferson County will not grow. So we have nothing to look forward to other than attracting tourists."

Voters will get an opportunity to decide in November if they want to continue to pay an extra quarter mill in property taxes for another two years to help out the school district.

By a unanimous vote on Monday evening, July 12, the Jefferson County School Board approved a request by School Superintendent Bill Brumfield to place the quarter mill discretionary tax on the ballot. By law, it requires a super majority of the board to approve such a measure, or four out of the five members.

In making his request, Brumfield noted that the one-year quarter mill levy that the board had put in place last year had raised $125,000, but it was about to expire. He said he wanted the board to give him the opportunity to convince voters to renew the measure for another two years.

"You're not imposing the levy," Brumfield said. "All you're doing is letting citizens vote it up or down."

If voters approved the measure in November, his plan was to use the money to fix up certain school district properties, Brumfield said. He mentioned the old school auditorium on Water Street in particular.

"The auditorium needs painting, carpeting and fixing up," Brumfield said. "The Little League program and others use it. It's a community asset and needs to be fixed."

Certain buildings at the elementary school also needed attention, he said.

He noted that not only were projections for state funding down in the coming year, but so were the projections for local tax revenues, based on declining property values.

Public school districts largely derive their funding from state monies, with a portion raised at the local level via millage levies on private property. The state also allows districts to levy two optional millage levies for operational purposes.

Brumfield noted that unlike the county, which is getting reimbursed 95 percent of the monies that it lost as a result of the implementation of Amendment 1, the Legislature had not seen fit to return any of the same monies to school districts.

Amendment 1, among other things, establishes a second $25,000 homestead exemption on homesteaded properties valued at more than $50,000; allows portability of the accumulated Save Our Home (SOH) saving benefits for homeowners who move from one homestead to another; and provides for a $25,000 exemption on tangible personal property.

Per the preliminary calculations released by Florida Department of Revenue (FDOR) earlier this year, Jefferson County got back about $472,000 of the $519,000 that it lost in 2009 as a result of the property tax reform amendment.

The school district, for its part, got zero back of the $111,000 or so that it lost as a result of the amendment.

Following the School Board's approval of the quarter mill request, Brumfield said he would approach the Jefferson County Commission and the elections office next to ensure that the discretionary millage levy was placed on the ballot.

In a bit of housekeeping on Monday night, July 12, the Jefferson County School Board expanded, updated and/or clarified its policies on smoking, class ranking and the selection of valedictorians and salutatorians.

The revised smoking policy broadens the definition of tobacco products and the places where such products are prohibited. The new policy, for example, defines tobacco as any lighted or unlighted tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, dip, chew, snuff or "electronic cigarettes in any form".

The ban extends to properties and facilities owned, leased or contracted by the school district, including buildings, buses, offices, playgrounds, athletic fields and open areas.

The policy previously was more limited and general.

The Rank in Class policy establishes that students will be ranked on the basis of the credits they earn in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12, including those exceptional students who are earning credits toward a standard diploma. The policy remains virtually unchanged for all practical purposes, with the exception of one minor revision. Namely, it is that selection of students for particular honors will henceforth be done in accordance with established School Board policy, rather than by a high school guidance committee.

As for the selection of the valedictorian and salutatorian, the revised policy establishes specific criteria that candidates for the two honors must meet. Previously, the School Superintendent each year recommended to the School Board the criteria, guidelines and standards for selection of the two students.

The School Board is also in the process of adopting a revised and updated Code of Student Conduct Manual. Among the changes are new or enhanced sections on bullying and harassment, zero tolerance for school related crimes and a clearer spelling out of the disciplinary actions and other consequences for violation of the rules.

School officials plan to give copies of the manual to students and parents at the start of the school year and require that each sign a paper acknowledging receipt of the document. School officials say the rules will be strictly enforced.

Among the slew of new state laws that took effect on July 1 is one with particular application to rural residents, as it relates to the construction, maintenance, installation, repair and abandonment of septic tanks.

Senate Bill 550, approved by the Florida Legislature in the last session, is a comprehensive bill addressing a variety of water quality and water quantity issues. In the briefest and the generalist of terms, SB 550 will require periodic inspections and pump- outs of Florida's estimated 2.6 million septic tanks starting in 2011.

Other than this, don't expect to get much more information about the bill or its implications at this time, however.

Mark Positano is the environmentalist specialist with the Jefferson County Health Department, charged with the responsibility of enforcing the rules locally. Positano, however, knows little about the bill himself at this point, other than that it was approved.

"This is a huge undertaking of the state," Positano said. "We're still in the initial stages."

In fact, he said, the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of Onsite Sewage Programs, which is charged with writing the rules for the new law, has yet to start the process. Positano suggested that a call to the bureau might provide more information about the new law.

But Bob Glenn, an environmental manager with the Bureau of Onsite Sewage Programs, could give little more information about the bill, other than that the rules were being written. As for how long the rule-writing process might take, Glenn offered it could happen "fairly quickly", or it could take a while.But definitely, the program would "take time to ramp up," he said.

In the absence of further information about the possible implications of the new rules at this point, Positano offered that residents should focus their efforts on preventing the failure of the septic tanks as a way to avoid problems.

Positano shared with the News a list of do's and don'ts to ensure for the proper and efficient operation of septic tank systems.

Among the do's: do laundry over several days instead of all at once to put less stress on the system; repair faucet and toilet leaks as soon as possible; have the septic tank inspected and pumped regularly by a licensed septic tank contractor; and divert downspouts and other surface water away from the tank and drainfield, as excessive water will keep the soil from adequately cleansing the wastewater.

Among the don'ts: don't drive over the tank and drainfield; don't plant anything over or near the drainfield except grass; don't pour harmful chemical and cleansers down the drain; and don't run a separate pipe to carry wash waters to a side ditch or the woods.

For more information, contact Positano at 342-0170, ext. 209, or email him at mark_positano@doh.state.fl.us.

The Jefferson County School District expects to receive a portion of the $170.2 million that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced on July 2 that Florida would be receiving to turn around its lowest performing schools through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program.

The $170.2 million is part of the $3.5 billion that the federal government is making available to states from set-asides in the 2009 budget and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARA), more commonly known as stimulus money.

Gloria Heath is the federal program specialist for the Jefferson County School District, charged with writing the applications for Title I funding and monitoring compliance with the funding rules. Heath shared with the News on Wednesday, July 7, that between the elementary and middle/high schools, the district should be receiving $759,293 in SIG funding in the near future.

Heath said the bulk of the money would be going to Jefferson County Middle/High School (JCMHS), which is rated a Tier 1 school, defined as "the most in need of academic intervention," according to Heath.

Or as Dunce described it in the press release announcing Florida's $170.2 award, a Tier I school is one "that continues to performform in the bottom five percent of the state and isn't showing signs of growth or has graduation rates below 60 percent."

As for Jefferson Elementary School (JES), it is a Tier III school and a feeder to the middle/high school, "which is why we can serve them also," Heath said.

She said the number one goal of the SIG program is to turn around persistently low achieving schools through the implementation of one of four models: the turnaround, restart, closure, and transformation.

Heath said Jefferson County School District chose to pursue the less drastic transformation model, which entails improving the school through comprehensive curriculum reform, professional development and extending the learning time, among other strategies.

The three others models are considered more drastic. They range in the severity of their strategies from the replacement of principals and half the teaching staffs, to converting schools into charters schools, to outright closing the facilities and sending the students to higher achieving schools.

"The transformation model was the best for our school," Heath said. "It calls for a rigorous curriculum, rigorous instruction, an extended school day and a recovery program so that kids can regain credits to keep on track and keep from dropping out. We felt that the transformation model was the one we could do the most successful and built on some of the things that Dr. Rodney Ryan has already done or is doing at the middle and high schools."

Heath said the efforts to raise students' performances and ensure that they are making learning gains would include recruiting and retaining high performance teachers, providing for professional development, and updating the classroom technologies. She said the money would also allow for the purchase of a data management system that would provide teachers with a tool to gauge students' pretest and posttest progress.

As for the actual receipt of the federal funding, Heath said the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) had indicated that it would release the money to the individual school districts as soon as each submitted an application in an acceptable form. Heath, who was in the process of completing the application when the News spoke with her, said she expected the district could begin the program as early as July 22.

Meanwhile, the district continues to await word on another bundle of federal money that has been promised to states and school district to improve their educational systems.

Known as the Race to the Top competition, the measure proposes to award $4.35 billion in competitive grants to states that use the fund "to ease limits on charter schools, tie teacher pay to student achievements, and move toward common academic standards."

Florida is one of 40 states that applied for the federal funding through the FDOE, and Jefferson County is one of 60 school districts in the state that is hoping to get some of the Race to the Top funding. The district, in fact, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) earlier in the year detailing the specific steps, responsibilities and programs that it would undertake in collaboration with the FDOE if awarded the funding.

To be eligible for the money, school districts are required to come up with ambitious and achievable plans for "coherent, compelling and comprehensive education reforms" that turn around the lowest achieving schools.

Heath figures that the district stands to receive between $150,000 and $200,000 in Race to the Top funding. But so far, she has received no official word on the status of the funding, she said.

Heath made a point of distinguishing between the Race to the Top funding, which is a new initiative, and the SIG program, which is part of the Title I funding that the district has been receiving for years. She explained that the usual Title I funding has been in the $70,000 to $100,000 range.

"The reason that this one is so big is because of the American Recovery Act money," Heath said. "The way it breaks down, the regular Title I allocation is $116,883. The $642,410 is from the federal stimulus package."

The enhanced SIG funding, moreover, is supposed to be good for three years, Heath said.

"So it will have a huge, huge impact on the school district," Heath said. "It's a wonderful opportunity for us to transform the school and achieve Dr. Ryan's goal of having the middle/high school be an A-grade school. "

The Monticello City Council is scheduled to hold its first workshop on the budget for the coming fiscal year at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 20, at City Hall. The city's fiscal year starts Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30.

City Clerk Emily Anderson told the council members on Tuesday evening, July 6, that she would be getting together with department heads in the interim and have some preliminary numbers ready for the council members' review at the workshop.

Anderson further told the council members to expect a reduction in tax revenues.

She said that a subsequent notice from the Property Appraiser's office put the decline in property values at closer to five percent, rather than the two-percent decline that was initially estimated.

"We're looking at lower adjusted values, so that even if you do the rollback rate, it will be still be a tax increase," Anderson said.

The rollback rate, normally a lower percentage than the existing millage rate, is calculated to produce the same revenues as the previous year, based on the assumption that property values tend to go up from year to year. The rollback rate generally translates into a tax reduction for property owners.

The state, in fact, requires that a local government that doesn't roll back its millage rate for a new fiscal year must advertise a tax increase, as the exiting rate will generally produce higher taxes than the previous year because of the increased values of properties.

But in a recession such as the present where property values are declining, even the rollback rate will translate into higher taxes than the preceding year.

City Hall is located at 245 South Mulberry St., just southwest of the Monticello Opera House.