On March 26, the Hernando County Chamber of Commerce held its monthly members’ breakfast meeting at the VFW Post on Edward R. Noll Drive. After everyone finished their meals, Wednesday morning’s guest speaker, County Administrator Jeff Rogers, presented updates about goings-on around Hernando. The meeting sponsor was Hernando County government.
Rogers’ first area of focus was on the damage from last year’s pair of hurricanes. Not only are the damages from Milton and Helene still all too real for some of the county’s residents, but so are the costs to the county.
Rogers noted that the Board of County Commissioners spent $18 million to address the devastation of the storms, but they were able to “absorb this blow to the county financially” through reserves. The board is requesting funds back from FEMA to cover these costs as well.
The county administrator credited the commissioners’ foresight for creating a disaster fund roughly five years ago that they have been depositing money into for such an occasion. These extra funds also allowed the county to quickly dispose of the waste caused by the hurricanes into landfills.
On top of the thousands of monthly permitting inspections the county conducts per month, they added another 4,800 in response to the hurricanes. Rogers displayed the official countywide numbers of damaged properties at Wednesday’s meeting.
• Damage assessments completed: 4,839
• 35 destroyed
• 362 affected
• 624 major cases
• 358 minor cases
• Demo permits: 40
• Contractor licensing citations: 195
• Travel trailer donations: 17
• 67 days until this year’s hurricane season
As citizens of the county are doubtless aware, Hernando is growing rapidly. That is why the board and Administrator Rogers are currently crafting a five-year strategic plan and 2040 Comprehensive Plan for the future of Hernando.
In conjunction with USF, the county has even conducted community engagement sessions over previous months to discern “what we are doing well in our community, what things we should prioritize in the future, what things are important for your community,” Rogers continued.
The county will hold a similar session on April 4 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Eastside Elementary.
Interested citizens can also visit engagehernando.com for more information and updates on these meetings.
The county is also looking into infrastructure improvements, including water and sewer expansions on the north and east sides of Hernando, removing old plants and upgrading the technology, expanding the landfill, and better bus infrastructure on the east side.
As previously reported, the county is also in the midst of building a new tax collector building on Forest Oaks Boulevard, and they are looking at expanding the jail and buying more land for such projects. Beyond that, county leaders are even looking into addressing homelessness and mental health concerns (by partnering with organizations such as NAMI and Life Stream).
On the more extracurricular end of projects, Rogers and company are also working on providing more for citizens regarding flag football and pickleball. More courts are being converted at Delta Woods to compensate for the pickleball craze.
Other developments going on around the county include 2025 being the Chamber of Commerce’s 100-year anniversary. The organization is planning to hold a “chamber week” in October as part of its celebration. The grand opening of the new Wilton Simpson Technical.
College was far nearer on the horizon, with the ribbon cutting taking place on Wednesday, April 2, at 10 a.m.
