The idea of opening a medical facility of some sort in East Milton so appeals to Santa Rosa County commissioners they were more than willing to give up valuable city sewage capacity to help make it happen.
Commissioners acted at their May 5 Committee of the Whole meeting to move a proposal to allot 8,000 gallons per day of sewage capacity it retains at the city of Milton’s aging wastewater treatment plant to its May 8 consent agenda for a vote.
Providing the capacity is an economic development incentive to lure an as yet unnamed health care provider to open a facility at a location on State Road 87 north of Interstate 10.
Such a facility would bring health care services to a fast growing area sorely in need of it.
“It has been a medical desert out there in East Milton,” County Commissioner Colten Wright said in lending his support to approving the company’s request for sewage capacity.
Commission Chairman Kerry Smith was credited with doing the legwork needed to lure the health care provider to the east side of the U.S. Highway 90 bridge into Milton, which becomes a traffic nightmare most afternoons.
“This makes it easier for me to cut my finger off at 3:30 in the afternoon and not have to go over that bridge into Milton,” Smith quipped. “The struggle is real. The struggle is real in East Milton.”
Wright pointed out that with the number of manufacturing and distribution plants now being constructed along SR 87 in East Milton, the need for medical facilities is great.
“A number of companies have made a significant investment in East Milton,” he said. “God forbid there be an accident at three or four in the afternoon. They’d have to go to Crestview to get medical attention or take I-10 to Pensacola. You simply cannot make it across the bridge into Milton to Santa Rosa Medical Center or any of the ERs in Santa Rosa County.”
Commissioner Bobby Burkett said he had personally spent 42 minutes in traffic trying to get from SR 87 into the city of Milton.
“If you have a heart attack or some other kind of emergency you don’t have 42 minutes,” Burkett said.
East Milton Holdings LLC was designated on the county’s committee meeting agenda as the group requesting the county release its sewage capacity. No East Milton Holdings LLC appears in a search conducted on the Florida Division of Corporations website.
County Administrator Brad Baker said providing sewage capacity to a medical provider corresponds with the county’s economic development plans.
“The (county) administration has reviewed the economic development capacity allocations and has confirmed that there is an availability of 8,000 gallons to allot for the project,” the agenda item states.
Smith, whose District 2 encompasses fast growing East Milton, said before the meeting he is thrilled by the proposition of bringing a facility to the area.
“That’s been one of my big pushes since I took office,” Smith said.
He could not, however, divulge the name of the medical group that is considering opening in East Milton. He could say only that a company is doing its due diligence.
Kyle Holley, who acts as a community development liaison for Santa Rosa County, has been lobbying for several years with companies that might consider locating medical facilities in East Milton, and he has said a lack of sewer capacity at the city of Milton treatment plant has long been a stumbling block.
Holley said he has spoken to all of the four medical health services that operate in Northwest Florida − Baptist, Ascension Sacred Heart (HCA), West Florida and Community Health Systems, which owns the Santa Rosa County Medical Center.
“We’ve been talking for over a year to three of them and more recently conversations with the fourth have picked up,” Holley said.
He said he was not sure which of the companies had made the inquiry about sewage capacity with the county.
“I think a couple may have made acquisitions (of property in East Milton),” he said. “We’re just very excited we stimulated the conversation. I could not be happier.”
East Milton is developing at break neck speed. Construction is underway on at least four new distribution centers within the Northwest Florida Industrial Park at I-10, which are expected to lure hundreds of new residents to the area.
With the city of Milton experiencing delays in getting underway on construction of a planned wastewater treatment plant that when built out will be able to treat 8 million gallons of raw sewage per day, the county has decided to go into the sewer business as well.
Commissioners have already expended $610,250 to design a treatment plant with capacity to handle 250,000 gallons of sewage a day and spent another $1.85 million on equipment. It is anticipated the county will be able to begin taking on its first sewage treatment customers by late 2026.
Phase two of the project, adding capacity to allow for another 250,000 gallons to be processed per day, will commence soon after completion of Phase 1. The expansion was estimated to cost an additional $5 million.
It is expected the 500,000 gallon capacity will give the county a couple of years of leeway before embarking on a Phase 3, which at this time is an expansion by another 500,000 gallons per day treatment capability to bring the total capacity to 1 million.
The county plant will be built inside its Milton Interchange Park industrial park, which is located next to the Northwest Florida Industrial Park at I-10.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Could East Milton “medical desert” finally be getting a health care facility of its own?
Reporting by Tom McLaughlin, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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