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 LILY 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 Lily’s bulk water transfer permit. The district told them it was true that Lily 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. Lily 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.
Hope to see you all at 3 pm in Live Oak on Thursday (this week),
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson
president, Our Santa Fe River