County commissioners to take up paving payment plan

PANAMA CITY Mike Guyne has lived in a home on Kirkwell Avenue for 27 years, and he said the dirt road in front of his home has kept getting worse and worse until the county paved it a couple of months ago.

When the county took over the area that was formerly Cedar Grove, Guyne said, officials promised to pave the street, but when that never came to fruition, the residents got the votes among themselves to pay for it.

The bill is now due, and the County Commission on Tuesday is scheduled to discuss a plan to levy the assessments.

They just put clay and dirt up on top of it so the road kept getting higher and higher, and the last couple of years every time we got a storm, my garage would fill with water, Guyne said.

Guyne is among the 44 property owners who soon will be billed for the paving work if the County Commission approves the plan Tuesday. The proposal calls for billing the residents of Alamo Street, Kirkwell Avenue, Syracuse Avenue, Marlboro Avenue, Sequoia Avenue and North Kirkwell Avenue for the $229,041 project. The bills would range from $1,207 for a single lot up to $13,499 for the owner of multiple lots.

Guyne, who paid a little extra to the paving company to pave his driveway as part of the project, said he is pleased it is finished and that it will increase property values. Hes a motorcycle rider, and when the dirt road was not paved, he had trouble driving his bike along the road.

It was horrible, Guyne said. If it rained several days, I couldnt even ride my bike up and down the road because it was so nasty.

Mike Pearson, Guynes neighbor on Kirkwell Avenue, said he thought the $1,207 bill he will be getting for the paving was worth it.

I thought they did an excellent job of paving, Pearson said. It was a clay road. When it rained, it got pretty rough.

Shannon Chamberlain, the assessment coordinator for Bay County, said if the board approves the plan, property owners have the option of paying it in one lump sum within 60 days or over five years in equal monthly payments with the first payment being due in 60 days at a 4.25 percent interest rate.

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County commissioners to take up paving payment plan