Rick Scott says City of Tallahassee declined state assistance with post-Hermine debris removal

After reportedly denying aid from the Florida Department of Transportation, the City of Tallahassee is accepting “cut-and-toss” assistance from the FDOT to clear debris such as downed trees and fallen tree limbs.

On Sunday afternoon, Gov. Rick Scott’s office sent a press release saying he had been “informed … this morning that the City of Tallahassee and Leon County have declined further ‘cut-and-toss’ assistance from FDOT…”

Not soon after, the Associated Press’ Gary Fineout reported Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum had accepted an offer from Scott to have the state pay for private contractors who can remove downed trees and fallen tree limbs as well as other debris that impacts downed power lines in Tallahassee.

Gillum’s office disputed Scott’s contention that the city turned down the state’s offer.

In a later tweet, Fineout reported Scott’s office said Leon County turned down FDOT on behalf of the city, “but that wasn’t supposed (to) happen. Fixed now.”

The laborious process of restoring electricity can involve replacing broken telephone poles and putting up new cutouts, insulators and cross-arms. That could all be just to restore one circuit. The circuit then needs to connect to the substation.

Scott had given Gillum an 8 p.m. deadline to respond to his offer.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this post, reprinted with permission