The city’s big annual festival is set for April 12

By LEGION TAYLOR
Reporter

The recent Sopchoppy City Commission meeting on Monday, March 11, saw citizens addressing the commissioners, with the exception of an absent Lara Edwards, about the Worm Gruntin’ Festival, which is to be held on April 12th.


Winky Jenkins-Rice and Nancy Paul presented a brief overview of the plans for the event, including who would be named Worm Gruntin’ Queen and about the fun run planned for that morning.
Rice and Paul said that Wilhelmina Morrison would be named Worm Gruntin’ Queen, in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of Sopchoppy High School, as Morrison graduated from there.
The fun run is 1.4 miles and will be taking place at 8 a.m. on the 12th, with signup available starting at 7 a.m. that morning.
Callie Quigg attended to tell the commissioners that there would be an open house at Sopchoppy High from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., also on April 12th.
In other matter:

  • Two ordinances having to do with capacity fees and monthly service fees on the Sopchoppy water system, had their first reading. These issues had been discussed at earlier meetings, and were mostly worked out, but because legislation that would have forced a change to monthly service fees did not pass, the attending city commissioners decided to break the rate increase up so as to lighten the burden on users of their water system.
  • A resolution regarding the application for a state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission grant for a boating improvement plan was discussed, and then approved 4-0.
  • Jeff Jones, with the engineering firm of Baskerville-Donavan, came to the meeting to discuss developments and the impacts on the Sopchoppy water system.
    Mainly this focused on how water pressure dropped off rapidly once a certain distance from a well site, as well as how the planned Phase 1 improvements would deal with these problems.
    The city commissioners and staff were adamant that developers needed to pay for the recommended improvements to the pipe system, but also that the pipe improvements are necessary so that the water system can keep up with the population growth in the county.