Cedar Key Plantation: Albatross or Opportunity

Let's begin with a given. Cedar Key Plantation is not going away. People are buying the lots and eventually they are going to build houses and live there. And they're going to generate sewage. So let's skip over that part of the argument.

Everybody agrees that the sewer system for Plantation is the way to go, but no one wants to run it. How curious. What is it about the waste material from seventy-five houses that seems so monstrous to everyone? The developer is willing to build a state-of-the-art plant to state specifications. The residents there would pay for a crew to operate it. Mr. Stuart I. Cullen, Vice-President of Brown and Cullen, Inc., has stated that, "it will be a state-of-the-art installation that either the City of Cedar Key, the Cedar Key Water and Sewage District, or Levy County would love to own, operate, and benefit from..." Where's the downside? Something seems to be wrong here. Apparently the issue runs much deeper and may have little to do with honey buckets.

The City turned down the annexation flat. Levy County doesn't want to get into the sewer business. The Suwannee River Water Management people are sidling away from the project like a fiddler crab seeing Big Bird. The Cedar Key Water and Sewer District isn't leaping at the idea of expanding its boundaries and taking responsibility for the plant. Nobody wants any part of the Plantation's sewer and water system. If it's such a good deal and nobody wants it—but won't say why—that makes me nervous. I don't think we are getting the whole story. Until all the facts become known, I think that we should closely monitor the standoff, just to see who flinches. This is a very important issue in more ways than one.

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