C.J. Gish
Alachua County has purchased a 605-acre tract adjacent to its Phifer Flatwoods Preserve off County Road 2082, just west of Hawthorne, for $1.5 million, according to a release on Tuesday.
Bought on Friday through the Alachua County Forever program, the new purchase will run along two miles of the Lochloosa Creek as it heads toward Lochloosa Lake. The land came from the Carrie C. Brown family, and the purchase happened on what would have been Brown’s 107th birthday.
The Wild Spaces Public Places program (WSPP), a half-cent surtax in Alachua County, funded the acquisition. Since WSPP began in 2016, the county has bought 13,405 acres of land with the funds. The Alachua County Forever program has protected, though purchases and easements, 32,506 acres since 2000.
This group of libbers is very engaged in buying swampland! Another day, another swamp purchased! How many worn out, beyond useful life, roads in Alachua County have they repaired? How many new roads, and traffic lights have they added due to all the new subdivision construction they continue to add? ZERO!!! It will be more of the same if they are not voted out and replaced with taxpayers who have to drive on these dilapidated, unsafe, roads daily! Vote them all out in November! Remind your friends to vote against all incumbents running!
Vote against all incumbents running? Great, I can’t wait to kick DeSantis out.
LoL! Because you don’t understand, perhaps due to your age impairment (are you 21 yet?); vote all AC incumbents who are so focused on buying swampland but not doing anything for the actual taxpayers! Speaking of taxpayers, that probably doesn’t include you Joe! Regardless, if their last name begins with C, W, P, vote them OUT and of course, don’t vote back in the other returning candidate who falsified their property tax homestead claim, Ms. A, (just like W)! Hopefully, W and A will be able to make an extended visit to one of Governor DeSantis’ state penitentiaries for their property tax crimes!
The funds discussed in this article cannot be used for road improvements, as this was a voter approved initiative. On November 8, 2016, Alachua County voters passed the Wild Spaces Public Places surtax, an eight-year, half-cent sales tax to acquire and improve conservation lands and create, improve and maintain parks and recreational facilities within Alachua County. Among its provisions was a requirement for citizen’s oversight of the expenditures. On March 28, 2017, the County Commission adopted Resolution 17-36 establishing the Wild Spaces Public Places Citizens Oversight Board. The Oversight Board has met since 2018 to review funding receipts and expenditures by all the sales tax recipients and has handled several issues that arose during their tenure. You can still vote out the commissioners regarding the lack of road improvements, but it will not have an effect on the Wild Spaces purchases.