More than 200 in attendance for Alabama toll road meeting

CHIPLEY, Fla. - Eminent domain.

Just hearing the two words makes men like Theron Nolen mad enough to spit.

The Washington County, Fla., resident owns the same land his grandfather once owned. He came to a public meeting here Thursday hoping to learn the route of a proposed toll road a private company wants to build through the county. He also wanted to know if the county would consider using the legal process of eminent domain to condemn a man's land in the name of progress.

Eminent domain? Might as well just go ahead and stomp all over his granddaddy's grave.

More than 200 Washington County residents flooded the county annex Thursday for the public meeting. They heard about the lack of federal and state money available to build new roads. They heard about the possibility of a toll road being a magnet for economic expansion and they heard about the inner workings of the public-private partnership being used to make the road a reality.

What they didn't hear was the answer to the two questions on everyone's mind.

Where is the road going and will the county use eminent domain to take land in its path?

Members of Focus 2000, a Wiregrass-based private organization, have been formulating plans to build a toll road from Midland City in Dale County to Panama City in Bay County, Fla. They hope the road will eventually connect with Montgomery. They told Washington County residents Thursday that at least three proposed routes are still being studied.

"We hope to have a route in three to six months, but we're not prepared to say where it's going today," said Don Mears, executive vice president of Focus 2000.

That didn't sit well with Nolen.

"I didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday," Nolen said. "If I was involved in a project for a year, I can guarantee you I would know where it was going."

Mears said nobody likes eminent domain, and that Focus 2000 would make every effort to avoid it, including weaving the road around land if possible. But, Mears said, the eminent domain option had to remain on the table.

Washington County commissioners said they weren't comfortable with using eminent domain, nor were they comfortable with supporting a project based on one public meeting. Commissioners said they want more meetings to be held before deciding whether to give the project their blessing.

Focus 2000 members said Thursday's meeting wasn't held to unveil a route or reveal every detail, but to talk about the economic benefits a limited access road would bring to Washington County. Other details, they said, will be revealed when they are known.

"If we sit here and say we don't want a toll road, just wait. You haven't seen anything yet," said Edward Prescott, a Washington County resident and former district secretary for the Florida Department of Transportation. "If you think traffic is bad now, in five, 10, 15 years, I don't know if you could get on the roads we have now with a bulldozer."

But business owners on State Highway 77, the main north-south route through Chipley, say a toll road would dry up business. Those who own businesses on State Highway 79, the main north-south route through Vernon, say the same thing.

Prescott said state funding that had been planned to four-lane 77 and 79 to the Alabama line has evaporated. He said the economic downturn in Florida has forced the state to cut the transportation budget and use current money to maintain existing roads.

"Meanwhile, the (international) airport is being built in Bay County," Prescott said.

Doug Callaway, member of the Tallahassee-based Floridians for Better Transportation, said the toll road made sense economically and logistically.

"We have growing needs, growing population and declining funding," Callaway said. "The federal government is not going to be the knight in shining armor riding over the hillside."