Cottondale toll road committee formed at end of emotionally charged meeting

By Deborah Buckhalter/Media General News Service
Published: June 25, 2008

COTTONDALE, Fla. - - A committee of Cottondale-area residents will help craft a resolution for Jackson County (Fla.) Commissioners to consider as the board decides whether to allow a toll road to be built within its jurisdiction.

The road would be an I-10 connector meant to give southeast Alabama fast-paced access to Interstate 10 in northwest Florida, and would likely go on to cut a path to the Gulf coast in Panama City.

Cottondale Police Chief William Watford, veterinarian Dr. Meigs Woodham, landowner/farmer Sonny Davis, businesswoman Lola Huddleston and citizen Kim Lee will serve on the committee, with Jackson County Development Council Executive Director Bill Stanton serving as moderator.

Their task will be to lay out some ground rules for Jackson County’s participation in what will likely be an involved process of determining whether the road should come through this community.  The committee’s resolution is expected to call for a feasibility study early in the process to explore all the potential impacts to the area’s economy, its environment and other factors.

The committee was established near the end of an emotionally-charged meeting which ran more than two hours over schedule Tuesday night in Cottondale.

A crowd of more than 300 people turned out, with some standing in the lobby to hear what was going on inside the packed meeting room. The committee was put together around 11:30 p.m., the members selected from the roughly 50 people who stayed for the entire meeting, which had originally been set to end at 9 p.m.

Focus 2000, an organization with roots in Dothan, wants to establish the access road to I-10, using the toll to pay off bonds that would be issued to built it. The group has considered various general routes through the region.

Jackson County is currently being looked at closely as the primary host community along the path to I-10 and Bay County, now that Washington County Commissioners have declined to enter an agreement with the not-for-profit entity. Washington County was the first choice, in part because it offered a more direct line to the port in Panama City.

The crowd assembled at the Cottondale Civic Center was standing-room only when the meeting began at 6 p.m., and tempers flared as the discussion touched on several sensitive subjects. Property rights, quality of life issues and the potential threat to businesses in Cottondale were among the top concerns.

The owners of some businesses along U.S. 231 in Cottondale said they believed an access road would pull their potential customers off the path by their door and essentially put them out of business.

Others were concerned that the county might invoke its power of eminent domain to force the sale of any property needed for the access road.

The Cottondale committee may well create language in its proposed resolution stating that the county would not do so.

See more on this story in Thursday’s print edition.

Deborah Buckhalter is a reporter for the Jackson County Floridan.