The state pulled today its approval of Santa Rosa County’s plan to boom the Pensacola Bay and Bob Sikes bridges just the County Commission was preparing to review and approve a bid for the job.
The booming plan had been submitted last Saturday, May 1 and approved Wednesday, May 5 – the day after Gov. Crist visited the area with DEP Sec. Mike Sole and assured the commissioners of both counties that their plans would be reviewed and approved.
According to Santa Rosa Commissioner Lane Lynchard, one reason for the reversal was the SRC plan was too costly.
“Really?” asks Lynchard. “BP made over $60 billion in the past two years, our plan would cost $5 million to implement for the first month…to deal with a problem not of our making.”
“BP should allow any affected county the latitude to implement reasonable protective measures, especially ones that have been initially approved by the unified command, “says Lynchard. “We can not wait until oil is lapping at our shores to implement a plan, we have to act.”
Here is Commissioner Lynchard’s letter to Gov. Crist: Lynchard letter
Lynchard states in the letter: “Preliminary estimates for the plan exceed $6,000,000 per month. This equates to over 12 percent of our annual ad valorem tax revenue.”