At the meeting on December 18, 2014 the Columbia County Commissioners approved the SRWMD Water Conservation and Water Shortage Ordinance No. 2014-12. This ordinance involves water restrictions and enforcements.
OSFR president Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, along with Lucinda Merritt, spokesperson for the Ichetucknee Alliance, both expressed to the board their support for this ordinance.
OSFR highly commends the Columbia County BOCC for this approval and recognizes that this is a strong leadership action, even more so when one realizes that not all neighboring counties have taken this important step. This in effect means that Columbia County is sacrificing in order to save water, which may be used by neighboring counties who have elected to avoid the sacrifice, but still enjoy the abundant water at the expense of those counties which enforce the ordinance.
This type of cooperation between the SRWMD and the counties is exactly what OSFR has been working toward and we hope to see more of this.
Another happy note at the meeting was the uplifting and harmonious singing of holiday songs, offered by the commissioners and staff, much to the delight of the audience.