BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their joint meeting on December 16, the Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Commission failed to reach an agreement on the City’s request to dissolve a longstanding agreement under which the City paid the County’s electric bills for streetlights in exchange for the use of the County’s rights-of-way.
Mayor Ward: “I would like to see us dissolve the agreement and start from scratch because… the City of Gainesville does not [deliver utility services] through the Gainesville City Commission.”
Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward began the discussion by saying, “We have an existing decades-old agreement between the Gainesville City Commission and the Board of County Commissioners for Alachua County that requires things of the City of Gainesville… [We] cannot deliver what you ask us to deliver… I would like to see us dissolve the agreement and start from scratch because… the City of Gainesville does not [deliver utility services] through the Gainesville City Commission.”