The monthly Governing Board meeting and Public Hearing on the budget today in Live Oak was attended by multiple OSFR members and well as members from the Ichetucknee Alliance. President Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson spoke before the board and requested a moratorium on large, excessive water consumption permits, as she has done time after time in the past.
At last month’s meeting in Live Oak, Ichetucknee Alliance president John Jopling made a similar plea to the board. While the board continues to disperse many permits, at today’s meeting Chairman Don Quincey commented something to the effect that, in the future, the board could expect a challenge for nearly every large permit issued.
This comment certainly indicates that the public, whose “interest” has been under-represented by the water managers, is now more in the thoughts of the water managers. The several challenges recently underway in Florida has caught the attention of the districts.
