A series of unfortunate events has led to delay after delay for the St. Lucie County Tax Collector’s Office opening its Tradition branch. Originally slated to open in December, the county is now cautiously optimistic it will open before month’s end.
“I do believe we’re rounding third base and heading home,” said Tax Collector Chris Craft.
Craft explained that the project was more complicated than initially expected from the telecommunications side. Hometown Cable owns exclusive rights for servicing Tradition, but the Tax Collector’s Office needs a second provider as well.
“We have to have redundancy in everything we do,” Craft said, explaining that the county hired AT&T to be that secondary provider.
However, AT&T had to build the infrastructure it needed to provide its service, and connect with the state’s system for security.
In all, five separate contractors have been involved in the project, all handling a specific zone of the work between Tradition and Tallahassee.
Craft said the primary contractor completed the first leg of the work – Tallahassee – but couldn’t find the work orders beyond that point. He has received apologies from various vice presidents of the companies involved. “That doesn’t do any good,” he said.
The contractors have since had to reset and retrace their steps, finding the work orders and getting the project done.
Craft has been told that it could be done before the end of March.
One of the frustrations is that St. Lucie County has no recourse for the delays. Craft said the county used a state contract to get the work done, and he’s been told there has never before been such a problem.
Typically, a contractor needs only to run infrastructure through two or three connections. In Tradition, St. Lucie County needed five or six. “There’s not much we can do but wait for the work to be done,” Craft said.
The county began the hiring process to staff the Tradition office a couple of years ago. The staff is fully up to speed at this point and has been working at the other two Tax Collector’s Office locations, in Fort Pierce and on Walton Road.
Those offices were built to handle additional staff, so there has been room to accommodate the newer hires.
Craft said his office fields multiple calls daily from residents in and near Tradition wondering when the office will be ready for customers. Once the office is open, Craft suspects there will be a “soft opening” without fanfare just to make sure everything is fully functional before making any grand announcement.
“Word will get out quickly,” Craft said.
The new 11,000-square-foot facility will offer full service for customers, including road testing for driver licenses, which currently is only available in Fort Pierce.
The department has struck an agreement with its neighbor, Christ Fellowship Church, that will allow road testing for driver licenses in the church’s parking lot. In exchange, the church will be allowed to use the Tax Collector’s parking lot for overflow parking.
“It’s a nice community partnership,” Craft said, adding that had the county purchased property elsewhere, that partnership wouldn’t have happened.
St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker and Property Appraiser Michelle Franklin have been provided space for their staff to serve the public at the Tradition office, along with a substation for the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office. Craft said the space could also accommodate the Port St. Lucie Police Department should the need arise.
The new Tradition office is located at 10264 SW Village Parkway Dr.