Editor

It’s back to the drawing board for a new museum of military history in Osceola County after county commissioners Monday decided not to move forward on the $2.6 million purchase of the former Coggin car dealership at 4425 W. U.S. Highway 192.

In not approving an addendum to the sales contract dealing with environmental issues on the property, commissioners in a 2-3 vote stopped the purchase from owner Alan C. Starling. Tourist development tax money would have been used to buy the site.

After about $370,000 in renovation work (also using tourist development tax money), the site would have been home to a new facility replacing the Veterans Tribute and Museum now located at the Osceola Square Mall.

Commission Chairman Fred Hawkins Jr. and Commissioners Brandon Arrington and John Quiñones voted against the addendum; Commissioners Ken Smith and Michael Harford voted for it. That decision, though, didn’t stop veterans and commissioners’ efforts to find a new home for the current facility, with commissioners pledging to consider Osceola Heritage Park or other county-owned sites as a possible home for it.

“A no vote here doesn’t mean we don’t support veterans,” Hawkins said. “This was a business decision and I fully support moving this forward to a new location. We had concerns from the beginning about taking property off the tax roll. OHP is a great idea.”

Arrington said his vote against the site was an “issue of fiscal responsibility.” He suggested veterans instead use a county-owned warehouse on Shady Lane for a new museum.

Quiñones said he was concerned with the $300,000 annual subsidy of tourist development tax money that would have been needed in the first two years of the new museum’s operation at a time when tourist taxes still have not recovered due to the recession.

“This is more about trying to be fiscally responsible,” he said. “I look forward to more discussion.”

Harford said buying the Starling property for a new museum would make a commitment to a segment of the tourism industry that the county should be trying to attract (military reunions and staycations by veterans or military retirees) and would be a way to thank veterans for the sacrifices they have made.

“This is our chance to make a statement of thanks,” Harford said. “The concerns we’ve had have been addressed; the veterans believe they can be self-sufficient; we have to move forward on this.”

Smith urged fellow commissioners at their July 19 meeting to discuss setting aside $3 million of tourist tax funding to build a new museum at Osceola Heritage Park on East U.S. Highway 192 adjacent to and west of the existing Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau office.

“I am not gong to let this die,” he said.

Don Smith , president of the Osceola County Veterans Council and chairman of the Veterans Tribute and Museum, said he was “very disappointed” with the decision but understands commissioners “have a job to do.”

Smith said the amount of money needed to buy the Starling property and renovate it to bring it up to code was “misconstrued,” with inflated numbers – as high as $5 million to $7 million – circulating, even among county officials. The closer number, he said, was about $3 million, not including $600,000 for two year’s worth of subsidies once the museum is up and running.

“We asked for enough money to bring it up to code, but the price escalated,” the veteran said.

Smith also said the offer of a new museum at Osceola Heritage Park is attractive but that it would mean an additional delay to moving out of the mall, plus it is too far away from the heart of the county’s main tourist corridor.

“How long would it take is the question; and I don’t think $3 million for a new building (at OHP) would be enough,” Smith said, adding that the county-owned site on Shady Lane was too small to accommodate what veterans want to accomplish in a new museum.

The addendum essentially would have held Starling liable for any future environmental cleanup deemed necessary and also would have required him to set up a $30,000 escrow account to cover the county’s contamination monitoring costs for three years.

County staff said contamination on the site – left over from auto maintenance operations – does not need to be removed, only monitored.