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Bay County Approves $100 Million Bond for Hurricane Michael Recovery

The money will cover mainly debris removal, infrastructure and stormwater system repair. The decision comes after the county took out a similar $50 million bond for hurricane recovery in November.

(TNS) — Bay County, Fla., leaders approved a $100 million bond issue on Wednesday to pay for Hurricane Michael recovery work.

The money will cover mainly debris removal, infrastructure and stormwater system repair. The decision comes after the county took out a similar $50 million bond for hurricane recovery in November.

The Bay County Commission approved the bond issue during its regular meeting on Wednesday. Under the agreement with SunTrust Bank, the county will get $50 million in March and another $50 million in April.

"We need to continue to pay contractors, we can't just keep putting them off," Commissioner William Dozier said. "That's why we're doing this."

The county faces an estimated $400 million bill for hurricane recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to reimburse the county for most of its recovery spending. However, the reimbursement process could take years — time the county doesn't have to delay recovery spending.

"That first $50 million loan we took out has already been spent," Dozier said, referring to the November bond issue. "We've done so much debris pickup."

Ashley Stukey, county budget officer, said the county had 15 years to pay back the $100 million. The deal was shaped so the loan only had three years of interest, Stukey said.

"Hopefully we can get FEMA money back fast enough to pay all the interest off before the principal," Stukey said.

Dozier noted that while he and his fellow commissioners have mainly talked about the high cost of debris removal after the hurricane, there are other costs the county must cover too.

"There's also damage done to infrastructure and county buildings and whatnot," he said. "This money is going to go a long way toward moving us in the right direction."

Later in the meeting, the commission approved residential and commercial zoning requests for a 2,534-acre active adults housing project planned by the St. Joe Company. The previously announced project will be built west of State 79 and north of the Intracoastal Waterway in West Bay.

Ian Crelling, community development director for the county, said with the zoning approved, St. Joe can move forward with construction plans. A construction date has not been set.

"They can now submit to us for building development orders," Crelling said.

The commission also approved the first phase of an artificial reef construction project. The concrete reef will be built about 7 nautical miles out from Panama City Beach with $120,000 in Gulf recovery money paid by BP after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

"Artificial reefs are important for divers and fishermen," Crelling said. "The more places there are to fish and dive, the better it is for the community."

The new artificial reef comes after some on the other end of the county apparently were damaged by the hurricane.

In a recent email to The News Herald, Bob Cox, president of the Mexico Beach Artificial Reef Association, wrote that his organization had found that the hurricane had moved some of the reefs it oversees.

"In one of our shallow reef areas that averages 20 feet deep, we have early evidence that many of our 2- and 3-ton structures resting on the bottom moved approximately a quarter mile while piling mounted structures stayed in place," Cox wrote. "We expect hurricane impacts to be less at deeper depths as damage storm currents and surge decrease with increasing depth."

Cox wrote that when visibility and conditions improve for diving, his group would make more assessments of the hurricane's underwater impacts.

"From previous experiences, strong storms have both positive and negative impacts as nature continually changes our environments both on land and underwater," Cox wrote.

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©2019 The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.)

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