Hurricane Ian’s flooding impact may have occurred over a year ago, but it was on the minds of local leaders who implore their state lawmakers to provide funding so those floods never occur again.
That was a common topic at last week’s annual meeting of Osceola County’s legislative representatives in Tallahassee.
State Sen. Victor Torres and Rep. Kristen Arrington, Carolina Amesty and Paula Stark, who are sitting in on this week’s special session, were part of the Nov. 1 meeting.
The seat that would have been taken by Rep. Fred Hawkins, who left the seat this year to become college president at South Florida State College, was empty. Primary elections were held Tuesday to see who will face off for the seat in the Jan. 16 general election.
The city of Kissimmee, represented by City Manager Mike Steigerwald, asked for $500,000 to complete a $1 million drainage improvement project. Areas not in 100 or 500-year flood plains that nonetheless flooded during the unprecedented rainfall from September 2022’s Hurricane Ian.
“This will help us better anticipate the storms that we’re seeing with greater frequency today,” he said.
The city also supported Osceola County’s $1.28 million ask for vegetation removal from Lake Toho, to enable the lake to hold more water.
“Removing (the vegetation) makes us more storm-resilient,” County Manager Don Fisher said.
Steigerwald also asked for funding to complete the funding for the Thacker Avenue northern extension to connect to Osceola Parkway. Developers funded the first part at the southern end, but now the city is on the verge of needing to provide signals at Ball Park Road and Flora Parkway.
S. Cloud leadership asked for assistance for drainage improvements along 192 and the “state streets” that will enable the city to install a highcapacity drainage system in the area. The city has put in $1 million, and asked the state for the rest for the $3.2 million.
“Our aging system is prone to flooding, and this will certainly benefit the residents who live in that area,” Mayor Nathan Blackwell said.
He also asked for state assistance to complete the city’s sea plane base, which he said would provide a positive economic impact much like one in the city of Tavares in Lake County.
County Manager Fisher also asked for $6 million toward the $42 million Cross Prairie Parkway Connector road project, which would connect the south side of Tohoqua to a proposed new Florida’s Turnpike interchange with Nolte Road. This would “create a bridge” that would ease traffic concerns in the area, Fisher said.
Osceola County School Board Chair Terry Castillo asked not for funding but for legislation assistance, such as allowing flexibility in local assessment choice options, and reducing certification and endorsement process to help retain the best staff. Janet Moody, president of the Osceola County Educators Association, was the one to ask for funding, urging the delegation to support increasing state education spending by $2.5 billion annually for seven years. The extra funding would address supporting reading and math competency, the mental health crisis and prepare students to be a part of the work force.
All of the elected officials mentioned or asked the delegation to support home rule, legislation that allows local municipalities to enact their own rules, resolutions and ordinances and that all them to selfgovern themselves without state or federal-level interference.
A number of requests came from the public or smaller groups, such as a family organization working to curb gun violence, who asked to expand secure storage, uphold the three-day waiting period on gun sales, maintain the age requirement to purchase a firearm at 21, funding community violence intervention programs.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida, which established a new club in St. Cloud this year, asked continued funding to serve its youth members, as did Hope Partnership in its mission to provide all residents a safe place to call home. Natalie Mullet represented Park Place Behavioral Center, in lieu of former CEO Jim Shanks who passed away earlier this year, to ask for $650,000 in funding to support a new long-term substance abuse program.
