Callaway top choice for new state highway // DOCUMENT, MAP

CALLAWAY — With a new highway to possibly come to the area, Callaway officials are hopeful the past five years of financial chaos are coming to a close.

Representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) announced at Tuesday’s commissioners’ meeting that Gulf Coast Parkway, which will run largely through Callaway, was the preferred route selected from other FDOT proposed alternative routes.

Two public meetings will be held in May at which FDOT plans for Gulf Coast Parkway will be presented. A route will not be officially selected until after the public hearings, FDOT officials said. The official construction date has not been set.

“Them selecting Alternative 17, it was the best thing they could’ve done for the future of the city of Callaway,” Mayor Thomas Abbott said in an interview Wednesday. “It virtually parallels the water and sewer extension that we ran to Allanton Point.”

If selected, the parkway will extend from U.S. 98 in Mexico Beach near Pine Street and Auger Avenue, over Walker Bayou and into Allanton Point. From there, the highway will follow Allanton Road at Sandy Creek to Old Allanton Road, cross State 22 and Tram Road and connect to North Tyndall Parkway adjacent from East 12th Street.

SEE MAP, SELECT ALTERNATIVE 17

The water and sewer extension the mayor mentioned cost the city about $20 million.

At the time, the deal was seen by some people as a too expensive; however, if selected, development is almost guaranteed to follow the Gulf Coast Parkway.

And that news comes as commissioners learned the city is the most financially stable it’s been in five years, the city’s new financial audit report shows, having identified ways to pay off its $33.7 million debt without raising ad valorem taxes.

“It’s exciting to see the city moving forward with positive changes, and the audit reflects that,” said City Manager Marcus Collins. “However, the credit goes to the mayor, the commissioners, the staff, as well as the citizens; they are the driving forces behind the changes.”

By cutting expenses through job descriptions review and restructuring, recycling and instituting a hiring freeze, money was saved and expenses cut. 

“We have a plan in place to meet all of our debts from now until 2017,” Abbott said. “Once growth begins to occur, all that simply goes to pay all that back. But we’re doing it within the revenues that we have.”