![Camelot Junction owner Cindy Coulter said the courthouse needs to remain in downtown Milton or business will leave. [AARON LITTLE | Press Gazette]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-48fd670f-6e93-2432-e053-0100007fe921-1259564a.jpeg)
MILTON — Downtown Milton is no longer an option for the county courthouse’s next location.
The Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 Thursday to exclude the area as a site for a future judicial center.
Commission Chairman Rob Williamson cast the dissenting vote after Commissioner Sam Parker made the motion with Commissioner Bob Cole’s second.
If the courthouse leaves downtown Milton, it will take business with it, Camelot Junction owner Cindy Coulter Booth said.
The downtown Milton location has been a steady component of courthouse discussion, Williamson said, but he suggested if it no longer will be, then the commission should consider paying for the courthouse with other options aside from sales tax. Okaloosa County paid for its new courthouse without using a sales tax, he said.
“If there’s a way to fund the courthouse without resorting to a local option sales tax then I’m all for it … I don’t want to take that option off the table without more thought,” Commissioner Lane Lynchard said.
Commissioner Don Salter agreed and said Okaloosa County paid for its courthouse through revenue streams the county lacks.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: County drops downtown Milton as courthouse option