By DOTTY NIST
County commissioners were told that 164 cars, 24 bicycles and over 523 people took advantage of parking funded by the Walton County Tourist Development Council (TDC) at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park during the Memorial Day weekend (May 23-25).
The report was part of an update provided to the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) by TDC Executive Director Jim Bagby at the May 26 BCC regular meeting.
This was the first year for a partnership between the state park and the TDC in the interest of offering more parking for beachgoers. Through the agreement, the beachfront park waived park fees for beachgoers and opened up a parking lot for their use. The park also agreed to more frequent runs by the shuttle that carries patrons from the parking area to the beach. In March, the BCC had approved up to $25,000 in TDC funds to reimburse the park for fees.
Bagby also discussed new rules for vending that went into effect on May 22 as part of BCC-approved changes to the Walton County Waterways and Beach Activities Ordinance.
The rules had been mainly in response to input from beachgoers wanting to bring their own beach equipment, who complained of vendors monopolizing beach access areas with their set-ups.
The rules established a “50-percent rule” for vending at beachfront property associated with public beach accesses. This provides for vending of chairs, umbrellas, and any other vendor equipment to be limited to half of the square footage of these areas as marked by TDC staff.
Bagby reported that there had been three violations of the 50-percent rule and 14 violations of vending without a permit. There were verbal warnings for these violations, Bagby noted, and violators would be due written warnings if the violations were not corrected.
Bagby also discussed procedures for articles left on the beach in the evening in violation of the requirements of the county’s Leave No Trace Program. He said the policy of tagging the items one night and going back to remove them if they still remained had been discontinued. Now if something is left out on the beach in violation of the ordinance and is still in place at 3 a.m., staff remove it to the Beach Operations facility, Bagby detailed.
District 5 Commissioner Cindy Meadows brought up property donated to the county by the family of Miramar Beach resident Mike Myer (deceased) in the area of Pompano Joe’s restaurant and the Miramar Beach Regional Beach Access. Previously there had been an item on the draft meeting agenda for consideration of presentation of a plaque to the family in recognition of that donation.
County Commission Chairman Bill Imfeld stated that the item had been removed from the agenda. He gaveled down Meadows as she attempted to discuss the matter. He immediately called for a recess of the meeting, after which there was no additional discussion about the donation or plaque.
During the recess, in response to a reporter’s question, Imfeld said he had removed the item from the agenda because it required further review before coming before the BCC. He said it had not been on the agenda under Meadows’ name before being removed and that it would be on the agenda for the June 9 regular BCC meeting.
Later, during a public comment period, Miramar Beach resident Don Riley raised objections to the chairman’s ability to set the agenda as “overly broad” and to “rudeness” seen at the meeting. “That’s not the way our government should function,” Riley asserted.
