That is what Santa Rosa County Commissioner Gordon Goodin said yesterday when the commission was deciding whether to join in a regional transportation authority with Escambia County. The RTA is the brainchild of Escambia County Commissioner Gene Valentino.
It calls for the counties to pool together their state road dollars and use them to pay bonds that could finance major road improvements in the region.
WEAR TV 3 reports:
Gordon said: “I don’t have enough of a basis, enough firm good will and fuzzy feelings in my heart to go out and say Escambia County is who we ought to be doing business with.”
Gene Valentino: “We’ve got to bury the hatchet and get underway with the more important issue of protecting the health and safety and welfare of the citizens and providing an economic opportunity. And I say again Dan, If someone’s got a better idea, come out with it. I’ll put my idea on the shelf and we’ll go with yours. But if we don’t do something the whole underpinnings of our economy in the panhandle are going to crumble.”
Santa Rosa County voted to study the RTA so more.