Gulf County weighs economic development options

Gulf County commissioners weighed a lot of ideas last week at a morning-long workshop in Honeyville, everything from the humane society to work crews to a living shoreline project.

But economic development was front and center the main topic, with everything else coming in a fairly distant second.

At the Jan. 15 workshop at the Honeyville Community Center, the morning began with a presentation by Jim McKnight, director of the Gulf County Economic Development Coalition, which set the tone for the discussion to come.

McKnight said Eastern Shipbuilding, with 486 employees, is the largest employer, both overall and in the private sector. The Florida Department of Corrections, with 310 employees, is the largest job creator in the public sector, with the school district a close second with about 300 staffers.

The county, including constitutional officers, provides jobs to 224, followed by Ascension Sacred Heart, which has a payroll of 165 workers. The Piggly Wiggly employs 101, about the same as Cross Shores Nursing and Care Center. 

Below these are the city of Port St. Joe, with 71; North Florida Child Development with 64; the Shipwreck Raw Bar, 58; Desert Cattle and Timber, 54; and Raffield and Wood’s Fisheries, each with about 50.

Eastern’s securing of additional contracts for work to be done in Port St. Joe quadrupled its workforce, and work on three ships and four tugs is expected to continue this year and next, he said.

The reopening in stages of the Gulf Correctional Institution Annex this year will ultimately add 140 jobs, so the total in corrections will likely be 450 by year’s end, McKnight said.

He said he plans to request at the upcoming Monday afternoon, Jan. 27 legislative delegation hearing that State Sen. Corey Simon and State Rep. Jason Shoaf back efforts to reopen the Howard Creek Work Camp in 2026 or 2027.

McKnight asked that Gulf County commissioners support legislation to raise correctional salaries from $22 to $25 per hour, contending that each raise of $1 per hour has a $4 impact on the local economy.

Commissioners were supportive of McKnight’s proposals, including the setting as their number one economic development priority that of creating a Maintenance, Overhaul and Repair (MOR) floating drydock, with a price tag estimated by County Administrator Michale Hammond to be as high as close to $75 million.

The county is continuing its request to Triumph Gulf Coast for $44.5 million, which would still need another $29 million if the project, which would yield high-paying manufacturing jobs, is to come to fruition.

Hammond speculated that “we could get north of 30 (million) dollars” from Triumph, so the challenge will remain for the county to build the facility and ensure shipyard jobs after 2026. “The gist is it will happen at some juncture,” he said.

Commissioner Randy Pridgeon, a retired Leon County school administrator and a driving force behind conducting the workshop, said a key to Triumph success will be the proposal’s connection to education.

“If it’s not tied to the school systems your probability of getting that is very thin,” he said. “It (the proposal) is not going to pass muster if we don’t have certifications (that students can earn).

“They (Gulf County students) can pass these; we don’t have to worry about that clawback,” Pridgeon said.

“If we don’t do this we won’t have 486 jobs five years from now,” added McKnight, noting that “it’s going to be a big lift for Triumph to put that kind of money in.”

While the floating dry dock got unanimous backing, commissioners wanted more specifics about a proposed Gulf County airport.

Pridgeon, who expressed reservations in his campaign about the costly proposal to put an airport on St. Joe Company land, said the airport should be lowered in priority.

“I heard it was going to be an economic driving engine, but I don’t see this airport bringing jobs to this county,” he said. “I just don’t think this is a priority for Gulf County.”

Commissioner Phil McCroan said he initially supported the airport from an economic viewpoint, but now “I have some concerns myself.”

Commissioner Jack Husband said that he is withholding judgment but that he has received several negative phone calls. He said he saw the airport as offering redundancy during a hurricane for handling port-storm tasks. “After Hurricane Michael we were all scrambling,” he said. “This would give us quite a few lifelines.”

Pridgeon noted that Franklin County has taken steps to boost the fortunes of the Apalachicola Regional Airport. That airport, built for training during World War II with three 5,000-foot runways, has undergone a resurgence of sorts, with the growth of a more dynamic airport board led by Steve Kirchenbaum, with the strong support of the district commissioner Ottice Amison.

“I don’t see that (building a new airport) helping us, maybe five years from now,” said Pridgeon. “I don’t want to get into a contest with them (Franklin County). They’re trying to grow theirs.”

Hammond emerged as a vocal proponent of the airport proposal, arguing that with 6,500-foot runways and a state-of-the-art design, an airport “has the potential to be better than Apalachicola. 

“I think it grows more business,” he said, stressing that a vibrant airport, tied into the port, would be a good use of land in unincorporated areas along the canal between Port St. Joe and White City.

Hammond said the site could be earmarked for light industrial, employing blue collar workers in anything from tool and die to boat propellers, “the little support things for the port. It’s not part of the tourist corridor.

“We’re the only coastal county without an airport. I think there’s a lot of economic impact,” he said, noting that as much as 95 percent of the airport’s costs could be funded by federal and state transportation funds.

“It would be an economic boom,” Hammond said. “But let’s pull the plug sooner rather than later (if the county wants to abandon the proposal).”

In the end, commissioners agreed that they would prefer an airport that focuses on commercial and industrial use, tied directly into the port, as opposed to a strictly recreational one.

“I don’t view this as a personal airport for the cape,” said Husband. “If you have a floating dry dock you’re going to have to have an airport.”

“I can buy into that,” added McCroan.

“I don’t think our focus needs to be that we’re fixing airplanes there,” said Pridgeon.