Dear Editor,
Recently I read a Letter to the Editor from Sheriff Wendell Hall to the citizens of Santa Rosa County on the proposed courthouse. I agree with Sherriff Hall we need a courthouse that will best serve the citizens for a significant period of time (50-75 yrs) with ample parking and room for expansion. It is in part for those reasons the new courthouse should be where it has been for the past 87 years. The proposed courthouse in downtown Milton adds 225 parking stalls to the existing 322 public and the 200 plus private stalls. That’s 250 more than the other properties can offer. The downtown Milton property in the data put out by HOK (project consultants) and Santa Rosa County only lists the new parking spaces and not the existing.
Additionally, the site information only includes those properties HOK felt were needed for the current project, and not the total available property. The area easily has enough vacant property to accommodate current and future expansion needs. Finally the City of Milton has pledged up to $1.875 million to the project to reduce the burden for all and shorten the length of the local option sales tax. No other site has that support.
Your readers should not be confused by the material distributed by some, contrasting the potential locations. That information does not provide the reader with information on the total picture. Unfortunately, the county has stated that it will continue to publish the misleading information regarding the downtown location. When the taxpayers have that information, I think they will agree that the courthouse should continue to be where it is today.
Matthew Hargraves
Milton Courthouse Committee Chair
Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Published county documents misleading about judicial site