Council appoints ECHO and Volusia Forever advisory committees

Posted On: March 2, 2021

Just a few months after winning voter renewal, Volusia County’s highly-popular initiatives to fund land preservation and environmental, recreational, cultural and historic facilities have new advisory boards to help guide the programs into the future.

Originally created by Volusia County voters in 2000, ECHO and Volusia Forever were scheduled to sunset this year. But in November, Volusia County residents overwhelmingly voted to renew the programs and the small property taxes that fund them for another 20 years. Resolutions passed last year require the council to appoint an oversight, or advisory committee for each program. While the ECHO Advisory Committee has remained in existence, the terms of all nine members expire on March 31. On Tuesday, the council re-appointed Patricia Northey, Gerard Pendergast, Reggie Santilli and Jack Surrette and also appointed five new members to round out the board – Jeffrey Ault, Saralee Morrissey, Pat Patterson, David Romeo and Stacey Simmons.

The Volusia Forever advisory board, meanwhile, was suspended in 2011 after the bulk of the program’s funds were expended. On Tuesday, the council appointed the following nine people to the committee: Mary Anne Connors, Steven Crump, Gerald Fieser, John Gamble, Jessica Gow, Derek LaMontagne, Derrick Orberg, Suzanne Scheiber and Stony Sixma.

Members for both boards were appointed to two-year terms.

Volusia Forever finances the acquisition and improvement of environmentally sensitive, water resource protection and outdoor recreation lands that are managed by the county as conservation stewards in perpetuity. Since its inception, Volusia Forever has resulted in the acquisition of more than 38,000 acres through purchase and conservation easements. The ballot language renewing the program added forest and farmlands to the list of preservation goals. The ECHO program provides grant funds to finance acquisition, restoration, construction or improvement of facilities for environmental, cultural, historical and outdoor recreational purposes.

With the advisory committees now in place, the county is planning to schedule listening sessions to get citizen input before the County Council adopts operating policies and procedures for both programs. Once the programs get back up and running, the advisory committees will review proposed land acquisitions and ECHO projects and make recommendations to the County Council.