CRESTVIEW — After a detailed presentation by Growth Management Director Teresa Gaillard, the City Council gave its consensus that she should continue the process of evaluating how the city offers out-of-city utility services.
Gaillard estimated the city currently provides water and sewer services to between 300 and 400 addresses that are not within the Crestview city limits.
Most of these properties are just outside the city but are not served by Okaloosa County services. Most are in the area east of State Road 85 around Aplin Road and East Chestnut, Gaillard said.
But short of actually comparing each address to a map, identifying who is in the city and who's right outside of it is difficult, she said.
"There's not a viable way to track the out-of-city customers that are out of our utility billing area," she said.
Another problem is though the city requires property owners who request Crestview city utilities to agree to be annexed into the city when their property becomes contiguous, the agreements are between individuals and the city, not the property and the city.
So when an owner sells his property, unlike the water and sewer hookups and service, the annexation agreement does not transfer to the new owner.
"When it comes time to annex, we're not interested with the person who's gone," Public Works Director Wayne Steele said. "Our interest is with the property. The language needs to be changed within the municipal service agreement, and tie it with the property."
But that, city attorney Ben Holley said, might violate state law, which requires the person that is the owner of the property to be in the agreement.
That will be among questions Gaillard said will be researched following the council's unanimous consensus that she prepare information on how she plans to approach reworking the annexation and out-of-city service procedures.
"What I'm needing in order to propel our city forward, that will affect the modernization of our procedures, I'm requesting in-depth research to modernize the documents, work with land attorney, and examine rates charged," she said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview to evaluate out-of-city services