Hello Everyone,
Here is the latest news on Lily Springs...
From the Gilchrist County Journal (not an online
paper, purchase it as a hard copy, in Trenton, as this story is from
this week's issue). The headline reads: "RESOLUTION
TO SUPPORT LILLY SPRINGS FAILS AFTER OWNERS SEEK BULK WATER TRANSFER PERMIT FROM
SRWMD". The resolution to support Lilly's 10
acre land sale for public use fell through when the Gilchrist County
Commissioners heard about the plans for the owners to bulk transfer water for
water bottling purposes. The SRWMD Director and Chairman of the Board were in
the Monday night meeting on other business when the Gilchrist Commission
asked them about Lilly's bulk water transfer permit. The District told
them it was true that Lilly was pursuing a water use permit (the
article says much more). The 5 member Commission asked the District
to keep their interests in mind when the permit is decided, basically saying
they did not want this type of business in this area of the County along the
Santa Fe River. The County is still in favor of keeping the
land in public use as a park. Lilly is asking $1.8 million
(I had previously reported in error $1 mill.) for the 10 acres riverfront with
a low end 2nd Magnitude Spring. The District told them they would
entertain a $500,000 price tag for the ten acres.
The District also told the Commissioners they arranged a
meeting to hear from the public and everyone will be given an opportunity
to speak and be heard.
Lily Springs Public Input
Meeting
Thursday, August 27th
3 - 5 pm
Suwannee River Water Management District
Headquarters
9225 County Road 49 (you can drive
directly to this location from US 27, out of Branford, near cement plant)
Plan a little more than 1 hour to drive from
Trenton
Live Oak, FL
1-386-362-1001
And, keep the letters with a stamp on it coming into the
District.
Address your envelopes like this:
Suwannee River Water Management District
Mr. David Still, Executive Director
9225 County Road 49
Live Oak, FL 32060
attention: permit WUP 09-0017
And please include your name, address and phone number in any
correspondence to the District.
And, the owner's of Lily Springs requested from the SRWMD a
postponement of the public input meeting. Jon Dinges, Director
of Water Resources and meeting organizer, told me in a phone call last week
that the District was going to follow through with the public input
meeting as scheduled and planned.
Here are 2 articles from the North Florida News (previously known as the
High Springs Herald):
Group urging people to attend
meeting about Lilly Springs bottled water permit
|
Lilly Springs – water plant or public
land? |
Hope to see you all at 3 pm in Live Oak on Thursday (this week),
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson
president, Our Santa Fe River
