Century looking to fill Nickels’ shoes
The Century Council Monday night approved to advertise for two positions, coordinator and town planner, to fill in a position left vacant by Town Planner Debbie Nickles, as she retires from working with the town after more than 30 years.
Nickles became a Senior Planner III with the West Florida Regional Planning Council in Pensacola and started working with the town in October of 1989. From 1989 to 1991, she worked on Land Use Planning and Community Development. From 1991 to 2007, she worked in the housing program administration and implementation. She worked implementing and administering several programs in Escambia County (Fla.), Holmes, Santa Rosa, Walton counties and in the implementation of emergency repair initiative for Escambia County (Fla.).
She opened Nickles Consulting Group in 2007, which provides land use planning, community and economic development services, technical assistance, grant writing and grant administration services to the town of Century. Nickles had 20 years' experience when she opened the business.
Nickles has provided technical assistance to local governments in preparing developmental guides, manuals and their implementations. She has assisted in reviewing, recommending approval or denial to the Century council to maintain alignment with the adopted Local Government Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code.
According to Town Clerk Leslie Howington, town officials estimate Nickles has brought as much as $20 to $30 million to the town of Century since she began in 1989.
Council President Luis Gomez said he is open to any ideas from council members of who would be a good fit for the position filled by Nickles.
“We need to think real long and hard about who we will hire for that,” said Gomez. “We still have the issue of city manager or utility worker, that's still on the table also. It's going to be imperative we get a good start on this year and get all these positions filled so we can move Century forward.”
Howington told the council the positions will be advertised for two weeks starting today, Feb. 3, and will run for two weeks, until Thursday, Feb. 17. The deadline for potential applicants to submit is Friday, Feb. 18 at 12 p.m.
In other business, Howington announced the town had recently received a check for $13,434.62 from the Capital Trust Agency (CTA). The town has received more than $150,000 this fiscal year, according to Howington.
In recent months, the town council reconsidered the fees that CTA had been paying the town in its interlocal agreement with the City of Gulf Breeze to approve issuance of bonds for projects CTA was involved with. Research indicated the fees were much lower than comparable municipalities receive. Following recommendations by Town Attorney Matt Dannheiser, the council was able to approve increased fee amounts the town will receive from CTA.
The next meeting will be at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 15, at town hall.
