The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) discussed the technical issues associated with providing a low pressure sewer system to homes on No Name Key that are not tied into the electric grid.  There are additional costs associated with the sewer tie-in for these “non-grid” homes.  Here is a link to a video of the discussion.  (You may have to use Internet Explorer in order to view it.)

County staff recommended that the BOCC stick with the current plan, which is to provide a low pressure system without providing additional financial assistance to the affected homeowners.  Astoundingly, there were speakers who opposed additional county subsidies.  How refreshing!

More astonishing, Comm. Rice actually acknowledged the fact that increasing costs or providing subsidies to the “non-grid” homes places an additional financial burden on county-wide taxpayers.

Neither Carruthers nor Kolhage pushed hard for additional financial subsidies courtesy of the taxpayers.  Another miracle.  I don’t know what the heck is going on over there, but I like it!  

The BOCC has created a huge financial mess and they still need to clean it up.  But this is probably the first time they didn’t actually make it worse when they had the opportunity.

In the end the BOCC went with staff’s recommendation.  County-wide taxpayers got lucky this time.