Today I attended the monthly meeting of Republican Woman which takes place at The Club. I like attending meetings which are walking distance. And I also like having it be a luncheon meeting which is wonderful. The staff makes sure I get my Diet Coke since I don't drink coffee or tea. I had printed off some info for Marlena which I carried with me, and the waitress, Emily, handed me an envelope from her. Marlena wrote me a thank you note and included a refrigerator magnet which was kind of cute:
Marlena is incredibly fit and thin as a rail, of course, so I know this does not describe her!
Once the meeting got underway, our speaker was introduced. My friend and financial advisor, Diane, addressed the group in her role as a County Commissioner. She was elected to fill my former neighbor, Travis, seat on the Board. The presentation she gave was about transportation in our County based around the development of a beltway of roads connecting the various portions of the county with each other.
In her opening remarks she asked how many of us remember the outer beltway planned in the early 90's, which didn't happen. I raised my hand. And who remembered this beltway being planned in the 2000's, which didn't happen. Again, I raised my hand. Sadly so. We lost our shirts business-wise planning to build homes in The Villages of Fireside in the early 1990's when the original plans were made for the beltway. Nothing but bad stuff happened out there, not the least of which was having the developer die of a heart attack while cutting grass on the property only days before the Grand Opening of the community. Gulp! We went ahead anyway, as we had built a model home already and were ready to go, as were the other builders.
And then what happened? The Department of Defense closed the Navy base at Cecil Field and the funding for the outer beltway disappeared. A double whammy! All the plans based upon these two things were dashed, our new community would be a hop, skip, and jump from Cecil Field via this new connector. Nuts!
No more base, no more roadway, no more customers. In short, we sold, thanks be to God, our lovely model home, and eventually our spec home where we lived for a while and got out of Dodge, so to speak. We had built a couple more custom homes in the neighborhood before the remaining lots were sold to a tract home developer. This, of course, hurt the value of the custom homes already in place, but that was out of our control.
So, when I heard about the pending outer beltway coming again, I did not hold my breath. It is a good thing I did not because it sure looks like it is a definite GO this time, with Diane serving on the Commission for Transportation. Her presentation showed the connectors expanding to the west and south, not only affecting Clay County but also surrounding ones. She showed how the roads would be interconnected, somehow getting people from Clay County to the JAXPORT in 10-15 minutes. JAXPORT is one of the fastest growing employers/industries in the region. Having these connectors for transporting materials and product will make a big difference for drawing other business.
And, with business comes homes! Here is the good news---Diane announced there are plans to add a total of 12,000, yes, 12,000 residences in Clay County by 2023. This is huge news! Not all single-family homes but still, that's a whole lotta of work for people in the construction industry. From the folks who survey the land to those who run the laterals for plumbing to those who build the structures to those who close the deal at the end. Wonderful!!! I am selfish, of course, because this has a trickle down benefit to me but it also does to my friends and loved ones in the business. Hooray for Clay County!!!
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