South Walton Mosquito District - Performance Expectations

(FY 2024–2025)

Overall

The District met or exceeded the vast majority of performance measures across safety, health & environment, operations, administration/finance, public outreach, and training. Notable strengths include high equipment readiness, strong compliance activity, timely constituent response, and comprehensive surveillance. Improvement opportunities are targeted and manageable: a small shortfall in adult mosquito sampling, a missed safety committee meeting during the facility move, two OSHA‑recordable incidents (one lost‑day case), and gaps in event/website metrics.

Safety, Health & Environment

Safety: 11 of 12 monthly safety committee meetings held (one missed during the September building move); 27 safety briefings and 142 safety compliance inspections conducted; annual fire extinguisher inspections completed; two OSHA‑recordable incidents (two workers’ comp cases; one missed day), all documented/investigated.

Health: No human cases of mosquito‑borne disease in SWMD; neighboring counties showed WNV activity (Bay: 1; Escambia: 6; Santa Rosa: 1) for regional context.

Environment: No spills reported; all application equipment calibrated.

Operations — Surveillance & Service

Surveillance: Adult samples collected 2,174 (target 2,200, slightly below); larval samples 285 (target 200, achieved); sample identification within 1 business day achieved; 5 resistance tests performed (target 1); arboviral samples processed 2,496 (target 2,000, exceeded).

Service requests: 188 completed; response SLAs met (contact within 2 business hours, completion within 1 business day).

Operations — Control (Adulticide, Larvicide & Source Reduction)

Adulticide: Missions scheduled per F.S. 5E‑13.036 or heightened vector concern; >90% of scheduled missions completed; equipment operational readiness averaged 95%.

Larvicide: Equipment readiness averaged 85%; ditch/standing‑water treatments executed after >2″ rain and when justified by samples. Source sites: 6,302 inspected (goal 5,000, exceeded) with 2,980 treated (noted as a dry year); inaccessible habitats: 500 inspected (goal 300, exceeded) with 200 treated (dry‑year conditions).

Source reduction ditch system (44 ditches): Equipment readiness averaged 96.75%; 184.36 miles mowed (goal >30 miles); vegetation removal completed; post‑storm inspections conducted; minor and major repairs completed within required windows.

Administration & Finance

Five‑year Capital Improvement Plan updated; detailed and certified budgets submitted and posted; two TRIM meetings and two public workshops held; capital budget maintained and departmental needs assessed. Grants/appropriations tracking in place; a federal‑level pathway was rejected, so the District is pursuing alternative public‑health funding avenues, including AI‑assisted research.

Public Outreach

Board updates: 4 (quarterly). Events: HOA/state parks 3, community 3, schools 1. Social media presence has grown with weekly posts and monthly new content; YouTube has been reviewed for visibility. Assessment gaps: Monthly website traffic not measured (Fail) and event attendee counts not measured (Fail); QR surveys offered to attendees and to teachers to capture feedback.

Training

New‑hire training materials provided; one‑on‑one instruction delivered; classes/tests scheduled; all field employees licensed within one year of hire; continuing education maintained to keep licenses current.

Bottom Line

Operational readiness and compliance are strong, surveillance is robust, and administrative obligations were delivered on time. Focus the next cycle on: closing the small adult‑sample gap, building redundancy so safety meetings are never missed during transitions, formalizing outreach analytics (web and event attendance), and diversifying funding options after the federal‑level setback.