BOCC approves TCC to do SHIP admin

BONIFAY – The Holmes County Board of County Commissioners approved by a 3-2 margin to transfer administration of the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program to Tri-County Community Council. The action was taken at the BOCC’s regular meeting Tuesday morning.

Discussion of putting all administration of SHIP under one administrator began last BOCC meeting at then initiative of Commissioner Ron Monk. Possibilities discussed included keeping the position in county and making a county employee full time and running it out of the Building Department, turning administration over to TCC or contracting administration to Washington County SHIP Coordinator Stacey Webb.

There was no single SHIP coordinator for the County.

SHIP Board Chairwoman Shirley Hawthorne said the board discussed the various recommendations and found that consolidating all administration would cost $45,987 versus the $32,404 estimated in Monk’s original study. Hawthorne and other SHIP board members recommended keeping administration in county.

Benny Little recommended turning the administration over to TCC because they have an administrator in Joel Paul with experience, as well as a staff doing weatherization and some SHIP work.

Paul said he had no trouble with either recommendation. He said that if the BOCC decided to turn the administration over to TCC it would be absorbed by the organization’s current staff.

“If you decide we will cowboy up and do it,” Paul said.

The BOCC voted 3-2 against a motion by Commissioner Jim King and seconded by Commissioner Philip Music to keep administration in county and make Tink Brown of the Building Department full time. Commission Chairman Monte Merchant, Commissioner Kenneth Williams and Monk voted no. The same three voted to turn the administration over to TCC, with King and Music opposed.

TCC would answer directly to the BOCC and would take new applications as of Tuesday. The BOCC would also look into a separate office for the SHIP administration and TCC’s weatherization program.

In other business, The BOCC:

•Approved executing contracts extra funding for the road striping program. The additional $97,000 makes a total of $513,000 for the project and would enable all requested contracts on the list to be done.

The BOCC also approved changing the contract to put the reflectors on the stripes instead of in the road, and approved the contract with Guettler.

•Approved selling surplus bridge timbers from the Rum Road bridge to Archie Boyd for $2,322.98.

•Approved requesting technical proposals from the County engineers, David Melvin and Greenhorne O’Mera, for work on Sandpath Road and County 162 West.

•Approved a resolution supporting a request from the Florida Association of Supervisors of Elections to set back purchase of optical voting machines from 2012 to 2016 that would delay the County having to spend about $100,000 on the machines.