Jeff Burlew, and Jennifer Portman

CRAWFORDVILLE — A long-gestating plan by the Florida Department of Transportation to redo Crawfordville Highway at U.S. Highway 98 — the intersection Tallahasseeans drive through on the way to the coast — is finally moving forward, but not everyone is happy about it.

In Wakulla County, where political divisions run deep and conspiracy theories abound, some residents are harshly criticizing the $6.4-million project, which would move the intersection a short distance to the east in front of the high school.

One major sticking point for opponents is the fact that a sitting Wakulla County commissioner, Jerry Moore, was paid nearly $900,000 in January for 2.6 acres of right-of-way to realign the intersection before residents even knew the project was moving forward.

The property Moore sold to the state was appraised in 2011 at about $145,000 and reappraised last year for six times that amount.

Critics aren't just concerned about the land deal. They say moving the intersection will funnel more than 15,000 commuters and tourists a day in front of the high school. Right now, much of that traffic — drivers heading into Crawfordville from points west and drivers going to the coast from the north — is diverted away from the school.

Opponents launched a Facebook page in August called, "Stop Deadly Intersection at Wakulla High," which has roughly 375 likes. The page calls the project "Jerry Moore's intersection" and says it will ultimately cost taxpayers millions.

Public input has been minimal, critics say. FDOT held a public hearing in May — four months after Moore received his $885,520 check from the state of Florida. Before that, the last public hearing was held in 1996, 18 years ago.

"Nothing in this makes sense," said David Damon, a Crawfordville business owner who is among opponents circulating petitions calling for FDOT to reconsider the project. "They did not follow protocol. This has all been done under the table."

Moore, a longtime real-estate investor and Atlanta transplant, bought the property where the right-of-way is located in 2005, when he moved to Wakulla County and well before his election to the County Commission in 2010. Last year, he joined in a unanimous vote to include Highway 319 improvements in a state strategic plan, but he said he has been careful to abstain from votes specifically involving the project.

In an interview, he openly acknowledged transactions he made boosted the value of the land.

"I brought all of my investments from Atlanta to Wakulla County," he said. "I am invested in Wakulla County. I bought a lot of property. And it's worth 60 percent less today than it was when I bought it. So you win on some and you lose on some. But that's my business. That's what I do. That's how I pay taxes. There's nothing unethical about what I did."

Supporters of the plan — and FDOT officials — say the current alignment is outdated and the new T-intersection, which includes a traffic signal and crosswalks, will improve traffic flow and safety.

Students dodge traffic daily as they walk across Highway 98 going to and from school. In 2007, FDOT consultants were told by high-school officials that while there had been no accidents to date, they felt conditions were "very unsafe."

County Commission Chairman Randy Merritt, who chairs the Capital Region Transportation Planning Agency, said the need for a new intersection is clear. The CRTPA added the project to its transportation plan in June.

"DOT's job is to design safe interchanges — that is what they do," said Merritt, a civil engineer. "A kid running across the road without a crosswalk — you don't need a study to tell you that is not safe."

But County Commissioner Howard Kessler said an intersection in front of the high school will create its own safety problems for students and commuters.

Over the past five years, only two crashes, neither of them serious, have occurred at the current intersection, according to FDOT statistics. FDOT never conducted a safety study of the proposal, though it did examine the need for a traffic light.

"We're fixing something that wasn't broken," Kessler said.

Project got push from former officials

The project, which ties into decades-long efforts to widen Crawfordville Highway, has been on-again, off-again for years, mainly because of funding issues. FDOT gave advance notification of the project in 1993 and conducted a detailed study over the following few years, said Ian Satter, spokesman for FDOT's northwest district.

Two public hearings were held in April 1996, but the plans were shelved because of a lack of money.

In the mid-2000s, the project was revisited, and in 2006, FDOT decided to relocate the intersection rather than widen and improve it at its current location.

In 2012, local officials pushed hard for the project. Then-school Superintendent David Miller, then-Sheriff Donnie Crum and County Administrator David Edwards all wrote letters to transportation officials urging them to fund the realignment.

"This is an extremely high-traffic and unsafe intersection," Edwards wrote. "It is used heavily by residents, high-school students, school buses and non-residents alike. On behalf of Wakulla County, I am requesting your support and consideration of funding this critical project as soon as possible."

The letters went out starting Sept. 10, 2012, the same day Moore sold off a part of his property to an investor. The sale was later used by an appraiser to calculate Moore's eventual right-of-way payout by the state.

Money for the project became available last year. FDOT chose it over four other priority intersections, adding it to its work plan in November 2013, because it was the only one with designs already sitting on the shelf.

Kessler tried to pass a resolution in August calling for a halt to the project, but found no support among other commissioners. An effort to get it removed from the CRTPA work plan also failed. Construction is set to begin in the summer of 2016.

Moore buys acreage near highways

In 2005, Moore bought 10 acres on the north side of Highway 98 across from the high school for nearly $1.4 million. At the time, he said, he didn't know FDOT would decide to realign the road through his property.

He said he first learned of FDOT's plans in November 2006, several years before he was elected, when agency officials approached him about acquiring part of his property for right-of-way. He said at the time, he was working with developers to try to bring a Publix to that location, but the chain passed because there were no enough people nearby to support it.

Moore said if the people he bought the land from — including former longtime Sheriff David Harvey — knew about the possibility of the intersection they "wouldn't have sold it."

Sometime in 2007, Moore said he learned of another effort to move the planned intersection from his property to a different alignment west of its current location, which would have involved nine different property owners.

In a letter dated July 30, 2007, Moore wrote FDOT officials to say such a move would do nothing to alleviate the "traffic mess" that occurs during rush hours in front of the high school. In the letter, he offered to give the state his right-of-way for free.

"If it would expedite this intersection I would consider donating the right-of-way to the state," he wrote. "The other option for the state would be to purchase right-of-way from nine individual owners."

FDOT officials didn't take him up on the offer, Moore said, and when the real-estate market crashed, he had to mortgage the property, making it impossible for him to donate the land.

"I was mortgaged and cross-mortgaged and mortgaged another time," he said. "I couldn't do it."

'Sour grapes?'

Moore makes no apology for selling two portions of his parcel — one for $900,000 and one for $475,000 — which were used as comparables and resulted in his second appraisal coming in higher. He holds promissory notes from the buyers, JoeRock LLC and Derrick Walden, who Moore said are paying him monthly.

"These parcels were purchased with knowledge of the proposed right-of-way by the Department of Transportation," appraiser John Veasey wrote in his Oct. 25, 2013 report. "Since the knowledge of the project within the general community is well seasoned, these values (of the two parcels sold by Moore) are considered in direct comparison to the subject."

Moore, who's seeking a second term in the Nov. 4 general election, said his political opponents, chiefly Kessler, are creating the brouhaha for political purposes. Moore unseated Kessler in 2010; Kessler won another seat on the commission in 2012.

"This intersection controversy is just political and sour grapes because I won the election against Kessler in 2010," Moore said.

Kessler said he brought his concerns about the intersection to FDOT officials in 2009 or 2010, before he lost the race to Moore.

"How can that be sour grapes for anybody?" Kessler asked. "I hadn't lost an election. I was still in office."

Merritt doesn't blame Moore for taking the money and said much of the controversy is coming from a vocal group upset Moore benefited financially.

"He made a business investment many years ago and good for him, it paid off," Merritt said. "You aren't going to convince somebody the sky is green, and you aren't going to convince them you're not a crook."

'A stupid plan'

The petitions circulating in Wakulla County call for FDOT to put the project on hold. Among the first to sign it were Sheriff Charlie Creel, school Superintendent Bobby Pearce and Wakulla High Principal Michael Barwick.

Creel declined to be interviewed for this story but said through a spokesman he supports a traffic signal at the proposed intersection for safety reasons and that he signed the petition because he wanted further study.

Pearce said he couldn't give his opinion on whether the new intersection is needed. He said he wants a safe crosswalk across Highway 98 for students and "we've been told that that will only happen if the road is moved."

But Mike Morgan, who has owned Mike's Paint & Body just west of the current intersection for nearly 30 years, said FDOT's plan doesn't make sense.

Outside his business, a sign reads, "I don't care who you vote for!! Help me persuade D.O.T. to come up with a better plan."

Morgan, who is circulating petitions and speaking out on Facebook, is frustrated by FDOT's lack of public outreach. He also questions why the agency wants to put so much traffic in front of the high school.

"DOT's not going to build something that's deadly," he said. "But it is a stupid plan."