In addition to spraying pesticides to keep the bugs at bay, the Anastasia Mosquito Control District also operates the Vector Education Center and Science Museum. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today.
Published on October 16, 2024 at 10:34 am
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St. Johns County mailboxes and TV stations have been awash with ads for the St. Johns County Commission and other races in the Statehouse and Washington, D.C. But what about smaller races?
This election, St. Johns County voters will also select who will represent them in the Anastasia Mosquito Control District and the St. Augustine Port, Waterway and Beach District.
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These races may be less glamorous than their big ticket counterparts — none of the candidates have spent a dime in the races for the Beach District — but the candidates selected for these roles will still make important decisions that will affect the entire county and beyond.
RELATED: Compare candidates in our St. Johns Voter Guide
The Anastasia Mosquito Control District
In Duval County, mosquito control is a function of the county, but St. Johns County’s mosquito control is operated by a special taxing district. This district is overseen by a board of five elected commissioners who decide on how to spend the ad valorem taxes and other funds the board receives as well as the employment of a number of staff including the district’s director.
While the key function of the district is to control the local mosquito population through spraying pesticides, Assistant Director Whitney Qualls says the district’s involvement in research means it’s both more effective at the local level but also helping mosquito control all over.
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“We do what’s called applied research,” Qualls tells Jacksonville Today. “What we want to ensure is that the products and the tools and the technology we use to control mosquitoes, to prevent public health disease transmission from mosquitoes, works.”
Research conducted by the district’s scientists is published and shared, meaning they’re not conducting research in a vacuum.
The district is also in the business of educating young people about mosquito control at its education center and museum of disease vectors, which opened earlier this year.
During this election, three seats on the district’s board are up for grabs.
T.J. Mazzotta and Ed Slavin are running for Seat 1, currently occupied by Commissioner Catherine Brandhorst. Meanwhile, Seat 3 and 5 incumbents Gina LeBlanc and Gayle Gardner are campaigning for another term. Tom Reynolds is challenging LeBlanc, while Martin Miller and Gary Howell are both challenging Gardner for her seat.
The St. Augustine Port, Waterway and Beach District
The commissioners of the St. Augustine Port, Waterway and Beach District call the shots when it comes to projects along the Matanzas Inlet. The district levies taxes to build dune walkovers at the beaches, identify problems with the seawall along the inlet and fund harbor patrol in the area along the waterway and beyond.
The five-member district board currently comprises Linda Thomson, Nicholas Binder, Matt Brown, Chris Way and Tom Rivers. Commissioners serve four-year terms, and commissioners Binder and Way are running for reelection, each with one opponent.
Way was elected in 2020, and Binder was appointed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis when Commissioner Jane West, who was elected in 2020, left her post for a job as the city attorney for Palatka.
Thomson, meanwhile, is running for a seat on the St. Johns County School Board and, if elected, will have to step down from the district’s board.
