Why Do They Do It?

The Highlands County commissioners depend on advice from volunteers serving on 16 appointed committees and commissions.

The people serving on these committees and commissions put in long hours, often discussing contentious issues. They receive no pay and do it only because it makes their community and county a better place to live.

Here is a look at three of those advisory groups - for affordable housing, historic preservation, and natural resources protection - and the chairmen leading them.

Rick Ingler, Affordable Housing Committee

State budget cuts reduced the county's housing program by 20 percent this fiscal year.

But, Ingler said, with federal stimulus dollars and the reduced housing prices, the county may be able to help more moderate-income families become homeowners.

"We have a window of opportunity, and we've got to use it," he said. And, he said, with good entry-level homes dropping into the $100,000 range, "the time to act is now."

Many people in vital jobs - such as teachers, police and nurses - were priced out of the home market during the housing boom, when the median price of a house in Highlands County jumped to $183,000, he said.

"Those folks were out of the loop (for home ownership)," Ingler said. "That's why we're working really hard for that group to get some funding and get some help to get these people into houses."

With a zero-percent loan, the county housing department can help a moderate-income family (up to $55,320 annual income for a family of four) cover down payment and closing costs, one of the major hurdles many families face.

"Most of the time," Ingler said, that aid "gets a family into their own home for less than they were paying for rent."

Ingler said he's extremely hopeful federal stimulus money for housing programs will offset the cut in state funding.

"We know there is some coming, we just don't know how much Highlands County is going to get," he said. "We're hoping to find out any day."

If he were a congressman, Ingler wouldn't have voted for the stimulus legislation.

"I'm not happy about the stimulus plan," he said. "We're putting our grandchildren into debt, and rewarding bankers and CEOs for some very bad behavior.

"But," he added, "it is here and we might as well use it and use it the best we can."

Ingler describes the affordable housing committee as "11 people with different perspectives ... 22 more eyeballs looking at ways to do things better.

"We do a lot of that by gathering information from anywhere we can, looking at how other counties are doing it. The problem is, most of the time other people are saying, 'Look at what Highlands County is doing.'"

Ingler said committee members are increasing their efforts at spreading the word about affordable housing programs to potential home buyers and people in the banking, building and real estate industries.

"We're going to explore every possibility, talk to as many folks as we can, so we can get more people into homes," he said. "We will try to educate them on what they don't know, and we will learn from them."

Ingler, 61, an Air Force Vietnam veteran, retired six years ago as an analytical chemist with Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) in Evanston, Ind.

"Valerie (his wife) and I came down here less than a week after I retired," he recalled. "We planned to stay a winter, but we liked it so much that we bought a home before we went back to Indiana, and moved here full time in late 2003."

Ingler said the strength of the affordable housing committee is the passion of the members for promoting home ownership.

"They 'get it,'" he said. "They know how vital this is for the county."

Bill Swann, Historical Preservation Commission

Swann's deep interest in history and decades of work on historical preservation projects might have something to do with his bloodlines. He traces his father's family in America back to 1715, while his mother's ancestors are relative newcomers, arriving here in the 1880s.

No matter the reason, he said, "I love old buildings. And I like preservation and restoration, it's one of those things that always intrigued me."

Last year, the county commissioners, based on the commission's recommendations, designated the first 10 buildings in the unincorporated areas as historic structures.

"We're just getting started into this process, we're just at the very beginning of our work," Swann said. "I'm looking forward to getting more buildings, commercial and residential, designated."

Swann estimates that at least several hundred structures "are worthy of and capable of preservation," and the county just recently put into place a means of promoting that.

A new county ordinance waives, for 10 years, the increase in county property taxes resulting from the increased valuation due to restoration and preservation of an historic building.

To obtain that tax break, the owner must have renovation plans approved, and the work checked for compliance, by the historic preservation commission, which adopted the restoration/preservation standards of the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

"It gives people an incentive to rehabilitate (an historical building) and make it functional for use today, without losing the historic integrity," he said.

Historic status is open not only to places associated with famous people and events, but also to any building at least 50 years old. The designation can be obtained for homes "either humble or great," Swann said.

With the county's historic designation, owners can apply for state, federal and foundation grants for preservation and restoration work, Swann said.

Swann and the preservation committee can advise people on filling out grant applications, and go out to a potential historic home and advise the owners on what renovations are practical and affordable while getting and maintaining historic status.

"That is within the purview of our roles, that is the education part of it," Swann said. "We try to give as much advice as we can."

Swann, 61, was a carpenter when he joined the Marine Corps in 1966. Before a tour in Vietnam, he was stationed for two years in Beaufort, S.C., where he learned historic preservation firsthand by working weekends in nearby Savannah, Ga.

"I got involved when they started tearing the streets down to the cobble stones and rebuilding the old historic downtown from the 1700s," he said. "We worked rebuilding and modernizing timber-frame construction homes from the 18th century, and that is my main area of expertise."

A native of Hialeah, Swann settled in Broward County, where he worked his way up from carpenter to construction superintendent to state certification as a licensed contractor. In 1979 he came here as director of construction for Sun 'n Lakes, and he and wife Lorraine decided to make Highlands County home.

He is now coordinator of testing and assessment at South Florida Community College, where he also teaches as a professor of construction technologies and historic restoration and preservation.

Swann supervised restoration of the Hotel Jacaranda in Avon Park, and did much of the hands-on work, too. He was a founding member of the Sebring Historic Preservation Commission, and through the years has done consulting, management and labor on various historic restoration projects.

The commission is in the process of inviting 10 more building owners to apply for historic designation, and Swann predicts interest will snowball in future years as people learn of the benefits.

"In the future," he said, "we have a lot of great work to do."

Mike Waldron, Natural Resources Advisory Commission

Born and raised in Lorida as a self described "country boy," this Lake Placid resident said he accepted appointment to NRAC "pretty much just for my love of Highlands County.

"I have four kids," he added, "and I want to leave Highlands County as good for them and future generations as it was for me in the past."

NRAC gives a voice to the environmental community as the county government regulates development. Growth will continue to change the landscape, Waldron said, and he wants to see "managed growth."

"We want to make sure that it's structured growth, so that we're not just seeing urban sprawl," he said.

"It's a balancing act," Waldron added. "You've got to put one hand on the shoulder of property rights, and you've got to put your other hand on the shoulder of the environmentalists, and you have to find a balance."

What makes his volunteer work on NRAC worthwhile?

"A victory," he answered, "like the Carter Creek Scrub being fenced."

NRAC helped lobby for state money so that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission could fence in its 3,000-acre Carter Creek Wildlife and Environmental Area, which was plagued with illegal dumping. A year ago, more than 55 tons of refuse was hauled out before the fences went up.

Today, this patch of Lake Wales Ridge Scrub is recovering, and Fish and Wildlife is planning two parking lots to make it more accessible to hikers and horseback riders.

NRAC also had a hand in the county obtaining a $277,000 grant to develop, over the next two to three years, a Habitat Conservation Plan, which the commissioners could adopt. The goal is saving the best natural lands while making it easier and less expensive for developers to meet environmental regulations.

Waldron said one issue on the horizon is a 2/10ths of one mill property tax proposed by a citizens group. Last year, NRAC recommend that the county commissioners put it on the ballot. It would have generated about $1 million per year in local matching funds to obtain Florida Forever grants for acquisition of natural areas for parks and nature conservancies.

Waldron said he didn't disagree with the commissioners' decision not to put the issue on the November ballot last year because the economy was beginning to nose dive. But, he said, he expects the issue to come back for the 2010 election cycle.

Waldron said he would again endorse giving voters the decision on whether they want to, as he does, provide financial resources to save natural resources.

The issue could pass, he said, "as long as we get the message out to people of what this money will be used for and how it's going to positively affect them and their children and grandchildren."

At Wednesday's NRAC meeting, members discussed setting goals for this year. Member Jimmy Wohl read his two-page written submission, noting that developers and environmentalists were often at odds in the past.

"That was 15 years ago," Wohl said, "and today the business and environmental communities seem willing to work together to achieve some balance."

Waldron, 48, a buyer for Delray Plants, said Wohl's next sentence "put it best. I thought he hit it right on the head of what we're here for." That sentence reads:

"That balance will permit us to continue to experience the joys of mother nature which God created, and maintain a healthy biosphere to support our continued existence in a reasonably comfortable quality of life."

To that comment, Waldron said, "I would add, 'And continue to pass that along to our children and our grandchildren.'

"A lot of people say there's not a good definition of sustainability," he added. "But that is the definition to me, to leave behind today something better for tomorrow."