County to resume biodiesel production

Alachua County is set to resume producing biodiesel from discarded cooking oil waste to power emergency generators and county vehicles.

ALACHUA COUNTY – Cooking oil used to fry somebody’s lunch on one day could end up in a county-owned car the next.

Governor Rick Scott signed a bill on June 7 that eliminates some of the paperwork local governments must do in order to produce biodiesel fuel.

Under the old law, Alachua County had to be licensed as a fuel wholesaler in order to produce even small amounts of biodiesel fuel solely for internal use.

As a fuel wholesaler, the county had to file taxes that it is exempt from, only to file for a refund later, said Mark Sexton, county spokesman. In addition, the county was required to keep record of and report its inventory of biodiesel to the state.  

"The paperwork was really designed for big oil companies," said Chris Bird, director of the Alachua County Environmental Protection Department.

The new bill exempts local governments and school districts from the fuel wholesaler requirements so long as they only produce for internal use.

Alachua County makes fuel from discarded cooking oil waste that local residents and businesses offload to one of the several collection centers the county has set up.

The county suspended biodiesel production last year, said John Mousa, Environmental Programs Manager at the Alachua County Environmental Protection Department. The paperwork required and the manpower Alachua County had to spend was too burdensome, he said.

The new law exempts local governments and school districts from the fuel wholesaler requirement if they produce small quantities for internal use only.

Local restaurants and businesses can drop used cooking oil waste at one of the local waste management stations, where it will be taken to the Alachua County Hazardous Waste Collection Center to be converted to fuel. The county already collects cooking oil waste from residents and businesses since it can clog drains and impact the sewer system, said Bird. The biodiesel is an added benefit that can be used to power generators in case of an emergency, as well as powering county vehicles to cut down on how much fuel it needs to buy. By making the vegetable oil waste into biodiesel, the county also avoids paying a waste disposal fee.  

Because the process requires minimal manpower, and people are already providing the main ingredient for free, the cost is much smaller than buying regular diesel Mousa said.

Making a gallon of fuel from vegetable oil waste costs the county about $2 per gallon, while buying a gallon of regular diesel costs about $3 per gallon. Mousa said. Unlike diesel prices, which fluctuate, the cost of making biodiesel remains relatively steady, he said. No additional manpower is used to collect the discarded oil. "It comes to us," he said. In the months before the county suspended production, Mousa said the county was making about 150-200 gallons per month.  

"For every gallon of biodiesel we produce, that's one less we have to buy," said Alachua spokesman Sexton. "It's a win-win," he added, noting that the bill will save the county money, give it some degree of energy independence and help prevent waste cooking oil from clogging up drains.

A single machine at the Hazardous Waste Collection Center converts the waste into fuel. Mike Keim, environmental specialist at the Hazardous Waste Collection Center estimated that making 50 gallons of biodiesel requires 50 gallons of waste vegetable oil, 50 gallons of water, about 10 gallons of methanol and around 2,300 grams of potassium hydroxide as a catalyst.

There was little to no opposition to the bill, said state Rep. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville. It passed through each committee unanimously and had widespread support, Sexton added. The county worked with the Florida Department of Revenue to ensure that the bill would not decrease the money the state collects from Alachua County. It only reduces the paperwork and extra bureaucratic steps, Sexton said.

In addition to Perry, state Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island and state Rep. Clovis Watson Jr., D-Alachua supported the bill.

"The paperwork was so onerous," Perry said, "it just made it not worthwhile" for the county to continue making fuel. He said this bill has no subsidies, but lets the rules of the economy prevail. If the county is successful in making biodiesel, he hopes private companies will follow suit and new technology will come as a result.

The county expects biodiesel production to resume July 15, Bird said. There will be a sort of reopening ceremony at the Hazardous Waste Collection Center to commemorate the occasion. The county plans to invest in a public education campaign to get more people to drop off household waste such as used vegetable oil.                

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ALACHUA – Can’t visit Walt Disney World for Fourth of July fireworks? The City of Alachua has you covered.

Alachua’s 14^th Annual Fourth of July Celebration is set for Thursday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Hal Brady Recreation Complex.

The main event – fireworks – begin at 9:30 p.m.

Charmagne Manning, co-chair of the event, updated the city commission Monday evening with the activities being held.

They range from bingo in the gym, entertainment, including a performance by the Senior Cha-Cha’s and a free kids corner complete with pony rides, waterslides and rock climbing, she said.

There is free parking and no entrance fee, Manning said.

There will also be the annual rib-eating contest for contenders with healthy appetites.

For everyone else, the event will feature 38 food vendors selling a variety of edibles and beverages.

Safety will be enforced by the City of Alachua Police, police from other municipalities and the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, she said.

Manning said there are over 17 sponsors that along with the community have contributed $27,000 toward the event.

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County workers spent much of Wednesday taking care of last minute tasks prior to the reopening of Poe Springs Park July 4. The park has been closed since late in 2011.

HIGH SPRINGS – Aside from fireworks, barbecue and music, there is now another way to spend the Fourth of July.

Poe Springs is reopening today, after being closed since late 2011 for repairs.

Entry is free and open to the public. The hours will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.

The renovations included replacing the spring's retaining wall and steps, as well as installing new roofs on the buildings, new air conditioning units and doing some landscaping. A new lodge was built that is available for the public to rent. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection also made the county remove beach sand from the springs to prevent it from getting washed into the water. The cost of the makeover totaled $146,730.

Although the county owns Poe Springs, it has only directly managed the park since late 2011, when the private company Nature Quest's contract to run the day-to-day operations ended. Nature Quest's contract began in 2009. Prior to that, the YMCA ran Poe Springs since it was opened as a county park in 1992.

The future of the park's management was unclear when negotiations between the City of High Springs and the county fell through, mainly due to budget issues and delays caused by the renovations. City Commissioner Bob Barnas came to the county with the idea of High Springs taking over administrative duties. At least for now, it will continue to be run by the county.

“We're prepared to operate the park as part of the county park system," said Mark Sexton, Alachua County spokesperson in an earlier interview.

The county would still be willing to resume a dialogue with the city if it ever decided to reopen the issue, but that is unlikely in the near future, said Ed Booth, city manager for High Springs in an earlier interview. The city's financial situation won't allow it, and it will probably be about two years before the issue is considered again.

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Vulcan Materials, located in Newberry on County Road 235, successfully appealed its 2012 tax assessment, leaving the City of Newberry in a financial bind.

NEWBERRY – The City of Newberry must deal with a $312,297 loss in tax revenue as the budget year comes to an end in September. The blow came when the taxable value of a major industrial taxpayer, Vulcan Materials Co., formerly known as Florida Rock, was cut nearly in half.

“The difficult part for the city is the timing,” said City Manager Keith Ashby.

“The money is important, and we will have to consider how we make up the amount of money that we have lost, but if we had known at the beginning of the tax year we could just adjust.

“When I’m told three quarters of the way through the budget year, there’s no way to recover.”

While the tax collector mails tax bills at the end of November, that bill represents the year that was just completed, said John Power, the chief deputy tax collector. Newberry, like all other cities, creates its budget months before they receive this bill, acting upon a summer-time preliminary tax roll calculation.

But the devaluation of the Florida Rock property came late in the budget year because it was the result of an appeal by the owner, not the initial valuation by Alachua County Property Appraiser Ed Crapo. The lower value came down from the value adjustment board, a third party that can adjust the property appraiser’s taxable values for properties.

“It’s not that the date is so important,” Power said, but the county’s value adjustment board changed the taxable value of one of Newberry’s largest tax contributors from nearly $174 million to $88.35 million, and Newberry found out in June that it lost about 20 percent of its tax revenues on which it was already operating.

“You know, they say not to put your eggs all in one basket?” Power said. “This is a big egg for Newbery, and it just got cut in half.”

Vulcan Materials approached the county’s value adjustment board because it believed the facility’s taxes were too high, said Crapo.

The major devalue came from how the value adjustment board evaluated the Florida Rock property and the board’s magistrate will present the reasons behind the devaluation.

Crapo believes the magistrate’s recommendation to devalue Florida Rock was “misapplying both the law and appraisal theory.”

Crapo said as an example, the law requires pollution control equipment to be valued a certain way and believes that in 2011 and possibly in 2012 as well, the magistrate misapplied the process.

“The magistrate called such equipment an exemption, and it’s not,” said Crapo.

The appraisers have access to a list of equipment that is appraised differently from the facility, he said. “I think it was done wrong.”

Another aspect involves a tax representative hired by the company who works with the board, and is the same person who approached the same magistrate to lower the 2011 value, said Crapo.

“There are a number of different errors that have been made in their arrival at this evaluation,” he said.

“It’s not right that the rest of us have to pay their share of the taxes, because they are unwilling to do so,” said Crapo.

Crapo has already filed litigation against the company, Vulcan Materials Co., for the year 2011 when the property was devalued by $47.7 million.

He promises to file suit for 2012 because the property was devalued $85.38 million.

It will begin a “huge two year process of working through the court system,” he said.

“I’m asking the courts to determine what’s right and what’s wrong because I believe what the value adjustment board is doing is grossly wrong.”

Further complicating the situation, the city isn’t usually involved in filing suit for tax values, so the appraiser must support the set tax values in front of the board to give taxing authorities, like Newberry, “some bit of stability,” he said.

Crapo had discussions with the city last summer when the 2011 devaluation occurred referencing the possibility that it may occur again in the future.

A refund of tax revenues is problematic for a municipality because of the timing of the appraisal appeals process.

“It’s a hardship; it’s a very difficult place to be in.

“But the litigation would solve the question for many years going forward,” said Crapo.

Ashby says he wishes the appraisal appeals process could be pushed back so that municipalities could be informed as soon as possible after budgets have been set.

“Then I would have 10 months to recover,” said Ashby.

Now the only viable option is the city’s reserves, he said.

“The truth of the matter is Newberry’s reserves are in good shape – probably in the best shape of any city in the area.

“But the fact of the matter of is, that is where the money will come from.”

Losing more than $300,000 is about 21 percent of the city’s $1.3 million in ad valorem tax revenue, and the city won’t know the full picture of consequences until the end of the year.

“When I build a budget for the next year I’m going to put a delta in the budget that says ‘I think I’m going to take another hit.

“And at least that way even if I get bad news at least I am prepared,” said Ashby.

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