Midway gets directors on SSRUS board

The Gulf Breeze City Council appointed two Midway residents to the South Santa Rosa Utility System Board of Directors at its regular meeting Monday.

Todd Johnson and Cathy Benoit will represent residents of the 32563 ZIP code on the city-owned water and sewer utility’s board, which reports to the city council. Gulf Breeze provides water and sewer services to its residents and in the 1980s bought SSRUS, which provides service to Fairpoint Peninsula customers between Gulf Islands National Seashore and roughly Edgewood Drive – the area commonly known as Midway – from a private owner. The council at that time decided to operate the services separately.

Earlier this year, the city realized it needed to raise SSRUS rates to balance its budget. The utility funded infrastructure construction with bonds, expecting to use impact fees from future development to payoff its debt. But new construction decreased dramatically after 2006 while expenses – debt service, administrative and maintenance costs, for example – remained largely unchanged.

For more on this story, see the Nov. 26 issue of the Navarre Press or subscribe online.