Is this toll road going to destroy the forgotten coast?

[BloodyChamp]

So to save the courthouse they’ll wipe out landowners and all the swamp land and even rivers that come with the bypass. That’s great.

I asked the SRWMD if they were going to sell any land and they said it didn’t matter what they wanted to because their land is subject to being taken also. That’s even more great.

[CSMarine]

Seen the map, but didn't quite understand the route from Dixie County through Taylor County. My land and house is a couple miles east of Beach Road at Dead Mans Curve. Looks like the proposed route would go close to me.

[Steve Stinson]

Post a link to the map if you have it. I haven't seen one so far.
Thanks

[CSMarine]

Steve, I was looking at the map on the link Scalawag posted yesterday.

[doomtrpr_z71]

What I find interesting is all of these new Eco settlements and coastal villages, people ain't going to move to live in a coastal village and work in Perry for Gilman, the money don't work out that way.

[Steve Stinson]

What a mess.

[GusMccrae]

Talked to a guy in Steinhatchee yesterday about it. He hopes it brings decent jobs and runs some of the meth out if the area. I’m just not sure it works that way. I’m a staunch conservative that votes Republican 90% or better. It these central/south FL republicans pushing this need to find out what the people in this area really think. I kind of like things the way they area. 19 in that area is not a busy road.

[BloodyChamp]

Creating jobs doesn’t mean creating jobs anymore. It’s became a copout political term that really means taking another piece of the pie, or the Earth. Steinhatchee, Monticello, etc has plenty of it and they want it. And the law says whatever piece of it somebody else already has they can just take.

[CSMarine]

I tell ya'll I was raised, and lived most of my adult life on the gulf from Crystal River to Panacea.
Over the nearly 70 years I've been here, the only area that ain't been ruined to me is from the Suwannee River to Carrabele.
Been expecting it for years. Rich folks from somewhere else have been trying to ruin Taylor County coasts for years. I guess the state will end up getting the job done.

[Nopatients]

I really hope this isn’t going to be some crazy problem it may not be a problem for us but our kids will for sure have to deal with it

[BloodyChamp]

The mill is actually pumping into the Gulf now correct? Won’t be long until it’s ruined

[CSMarine]

They claim it's clean. It's so clean that.....a few years ago every house on Pucket and Spring Warrior road were told not to drink the well water because the aquifer
was contaminated by the chemicals from Buckeye. They had to provide bottled water to everyone on those roads for years. Then all of sudden they stopped and told everyone it was safe to drink their well water.
Since, I lost my sister to cancer at age 47. Many such cases of cancer in those areas. Lots of folks dying from same disease on the same roads.
They can tell me till the cows come home how safe it is. I call them liars.

[doomtrpr_z71]

The water is treated now but I don't think they have been able to move the outflow to the gulf. It's brackish water and that's why the outflow was to be moved out of the river for the restoration project. If you have concerns about the water, there's about a dozen labs nearby that can test your well water.

[BloodyChamp]

It’s passed every kind of test they can test from what I’ve read, and I’ve kept up with this my whole life. Bream have even popped back up. And the Finholloway River FB page which, while I understand their frustration, is run by the most uptight tree hugger keyboard warrior you’ll ever see - has even angled their stuff towards the Gulf’s problems.

Now with that said I ain’t eatin no fish out of that mfer lol!!!!! Or drinking any water from that area. And this hardly absolves them of the people they basically killed imo.

[BloodyChamp]

I went to the meeting that decided where not to put the road and everything they said sounded perfect. They talked about not putting it near the coast, springs, habitat, etc. I didn’t hear them specifically say “river” but between everything they said like aquifer recharge areas, swamp (no further explanation here but obviously it means functional swamp not stink hole), habitat, sinks etc I think they included the rivers. If I had to pick a concern besides my main one (more on that in a bit) it would be that because they didn’t say “river” anywhere, that put the less glamorous parts of the Aucilla, St Marks and Pinhook Rivers in danger. However, I’m guessing that either Forever Florida or the Outstanding Waterways would protect our rivers from as much as literally building across them.

Now as for main concern...they were slam full of crap. They don’t care about any of this stuff, us farmers or anything else and they’re going to build the road wherever they think it will make money and win elections. They’ll run over anything in the way of it to.

And now my glimmer of hope lol! My cousin works for Comcast and he’s a class act. Never has and never would lie to me. If we would he would have already done it because he’s a bigshot and I’m just a farmer who goes fishing a bunch. He hates this way of life. Thinks it’s dirty. Thinks I’m dirty (lol!) but he has never judged me and he always tells people that’s my cousin no matter what. He says that it won’t come this way because there’s not enough money to be made. He doesn’t even think they’ll decide to lay the cables for the broadband (1 of the selling points) and that if they do, he won’t do it because it will be a waste of time. That would leave them without the best cable company doing the job. He also says that it wouldn’t even get started until atleast 2030 at the earliest.

So...heck idk. The people against it pretty much nailed it on the mic. If it comes down to that then we’re safe but we all know better than that. My hope is that they just decide it’s not worth it this far east. My cousin also mentioned that their real priorities for now are 2 corridors way south for the Turnpike. He says it’s also possible that they start with those then up and quit when the rest of it east doesn’t turn into money instantly.