FELLSMERE — Instead of holding firm to its plans for a large natural gas service area, one that would have encompassed land outside its borders, the City of Fellsmere backed down at the behest of Indian River County officials, staving off what could have become a legal battle.
The Fellsmere City Council, which said it had every right to draw up a natural gas area that would have served those outside the city, drew the plan back to the city’s boundaries in an attempt to keep the process moving forward.
The change of plans came as welcomed news to County Administrator Joe Baird, who attended the council meeting Thursday night with Deputy County Attorney Bill DeBraal and Finance Director Jason Brown.
“That’s what we wanted,” Baird said of the city’s modifications to the service area. “We’re glad they listened.”
He said he looks forward to working with the city to help the city secure a grant that would help fund a natural gas line through town.
With minimal discussion from the Fellsmere City Council, Mayor Susan Adams said she felt the city was well within its rights to create a service area that included parts of the unincorporated county and move forward as planned.
However, she said, due to the discomfort county officials have with the plan, and in an effort to cooperate and “be neighborly,” Mayor Adams suggested the council scale back the plan.
“That seems to be very palatable to everybody,” Adams said.
“I’ll go along with it,” said Councilwoman Sara Savage.
City Manager Jason Nunemaker has maintained throughout the process that having a larger-than-city service area would better attract a natural gas provider for economic purposes.
After the meeting, he said that it was in the city’s best interest to keep the process moving and, to do that, the city downsized its service area plans.
“I think we could’ve done more” for both the city and the surrounding area if a larger service area had been approved, he said.
The city is working to bring in natural gas to help spark economic development, in particularly a potential commerce park on the west end of the city, where an organic aquaculture company wants to move in.
Nunemaker has said the company’s electric bill would be an estimated $900,000 annually. With natural gas, the power bill would be significantly less.
Thursday’s meeting followed a discussion from the Board of County Commissioners, which met on Tuesday. Commissioners voted unanimously to oppose Fellsmere’s plan for a larger-than-city service area.
They raised various concerns, including taxation without representation and the legality of the city’s proposed actions.
The county got a legal opinion from one firm that advised the city, essentially, didn’t have a leg to stand on. Likewise, the city got its own legal opinion from another consultant, who said the city had every right to be doing what it planned to do.
With county leaders poised to legally challenge Fellsmere’s proposed service area, the City Council agreed to a compromise – scale it back to the city limits.
“Just because you’re right, doesn’t mean you have to,” Mayor Adams said after the meeting.
Commissioner Wesley Davis, after Tuesday’s board meeting, said he was considering attending the Fellsmere meeting. He did not attend after all.
He said Tuesday that he wanted to avoid legal action, noting that the county lost the last time it took Fellsmere to court.
“Have we not learned anything?” Davis rhetorically asked. “We know how this book ends.”
