The Citrus County Commission on Jan. 11 covered a number of topics of interest to county residents.

The commission created the structure for a 17-member task force to examine the possibility of consolidating Public Safety services under the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office to save taxpayers’ dollars.

The concept is that Fire Rescue, the sheriff’s office, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) would be brought under one umbrella to save money.

Citrus Sheriff Jeff Dawsy told the commission that the task force could make a recommendation as early as April. In November, he and county commission officials visited Broward County, where the departments have been consolidated for 10 years.

The task force would be co-chaired by Dawsy and County Commissioner Joe Meek. They would each pick a member, and then each commissioner would pick a member from his or her district. Other members would come from the county builders’ association, the Realtors’ association, the chamber of commerce, the Citrus County Council, the medical community, the cities and EMS.

The task force would also look at methods for funding services, including special tax districts.

In other commission business:

Special impact fee meeting set for Feb. 1

A special county commission meeting on revised impact fees will be help on Tuesday, Feb. 1 beginning at 5:01 p.m.

Commissioners set the meeting at their Jan. 11 regular meeting so that if the commission chooses to do so, new fees on new development could be adopted by the summer.

There is a 90-day time period between them being adopted and going into effect and the commission wants to beat the deadline it set in the transportation fee suspension -- the largest fee -- while it revised the fee schedule.

Commission declares 2011 ‘Year of Elvis’ in Citrus

The county commission voted unanimously on Jan. 11 to declare 2011 “the Year of Elvis” in Citrus County.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of when Elvis Presley filmed segments of the movie Follow that Dream at the Historic Old Courthouse in Inverness.

There will be an Elvis weekend event April 15-17, which will feature a play, When Elvis Came to Town, co-written by Citrus resident Wendy Stillwell. An influx of Elvis fans are expected in Inverness for the event.

Commission saves $250K on repair of pipes that remove leachate under landfill

The county commission was told by solid Waste Director Casey Stephens on Jan. 11 that repair of pipes that removes leachate from the bottom of the landfill came in significantly under budget and ahead of schedule, saving the county about a quarter of a million dollars.

The leachate trickles down and is trapped under the garbage on a liner at the bottom of the landfill and is then pumped out and treated as wastewater.

The landfill officials had noticed in 2007 that the pipes had become severely deformed, though pumps at the bottom of them were still functioning. Once the pumps quit working in 2009, however, there was no way to retrieve them to repair or replace them. That not only could have jeopardized the landfill permit but cost millions of dollars to dig up.

The Williams Excavating company of Ohio, however, was successful in reforming the pipes and allowing the pump problem to be solved without having to dig them out from under 80 feet of garbage, which would have been a major undertaking because of regulations and safety requirements.

The commission had authorized up to $1 million to fix the problem and about $723,000 had been budgeted. Stephens said he was happy to report that not only was the operation a success and ahead of schedule, it was 35 percent under budget for the work and engineering and consulting needed to complete the project. The final report has been sent to the state, which regulates the landfill.

Commission puts off adding to artificial reef, but approves replacing pilings in Gulf Region rivers

The county commission unanimously approved putting off spending $60,000 to expand the county’s artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico off the county’s coast.

The county’s portion in the ongoing project was going to be matched with a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission grant of not more than $111,750 to deploy more, concrete the county has stored, on the county Fish Haven No. 1, Phase 4 and 5 location offshore.

Commissioners reasoned that in such a difficult budget year, the money was needed elsewhere. Administrator Brad Thorpe said that kind of postponing wasn’t uncommon in government budgets this year and that the Fish and Wildlife Commission would be notified. He said he felt they would understand the circumstances.

In another ongoing agreement with Fish and Wildlife, commissioners voted to execute a grant agreement between the county and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to replace the existing signage and pilings with Halls River, the Lower Withlacoocheee River, Prices Creek and Ozello in an amount not to exceed $48,774.

The commissioners said that unlike the artificial reef project, the pilings were a matter of public safety and needed to be done this year.

County saves money in C.R. 486 widening project

Commissioners were told Jan. 11 that due to several field adjustments to the new utility system being installed in the County Road 486 widening project, the county was saving $237,158.

That money will be reallocated to the project contingency account.

Commission approves substantial increase in wastewater resuse capacity at Black Diamond

The county commission approved a cooperative funding agreement for the Citrus County Reclaimed Water System Black Diamond Transmission Line Extension between the county and the regional water district.

The $300,000 project is being split equally between the county and the Southwest Florida Water Management District and will increase the reuse capacity for the Black Diamond golf course from a little more than 200,000 gallons a day to about 1 million gallons a day.

Not only will that reuse water replace water that would have been pumped from the aquifer, but the golf course will pay the county for the reuse water, commissioners were told.