DADE CITY - The county on Tuesday put the brakes on spending any money to aid Sysco Food Services until the company green-lights construction of a food distribution center in Zephyrhills.

To lure the company, Pasco agreed last year to spend $400,000 to improve roads and give $1.5-million over 10 years to the company for building the project, which would employ about 250 people. The payments were to start a year after jobs were filled.

Lacking a firm date for construction on the 393,000-square-foot facility to begin, however, the County Commission voted 5-0 Tuesday to stop any money from being spent on the project.

The commission says it will release the money after the company's board approves money for construction and the final design of the offices and warehouse. The total cost of the project is $60-million.

County and Zephyrhills officials say the project has not been abandoned. County Commissioner Michael Cox and Mary Jane Stanley, president of the county's economic development council, said company officials say they could begin construction in another six months.

"They're moving ahead with the purchases of the property. They're moving ahead with the design of the project," Cox said. "What they have not funded is the construction of the project."

Zephyrhills also is putting off spending nearly $3-million more on utility lines and job incentives.

Zephyrhills City Manager Steve Spina said the city wasn't planning to start extending water and sewer lines until it can apply for grant awards to help pay for the work.

"We're hoping they come," he said. "We're on their schedule."

Toni Spigelmyer, spokeswoman for Sysco, on Tuesday refused to say whether the Houston company is committed to the Zephyrhills project. But she said the project is not dead, either.

"We just need the time to make sure all the right decisions have been made. We just need to make sure we've crossed all our T's and dotted all our I's," she said.

The drooping economy has caused Sysco to slow its expansion in Pasco and three or four other places, said Cox, who helped recruit the company with the economic development council.

Spina said Sysco officials have blamed rising fuel prices.

"The market has changed for them. The restaurant business is down," Stanley said.

Delays caused by environmental reviews also created hassles for designing the project, prompting a Dec. 19 meeting during which the county and Sysco agreed to hold off spending money, county officials said.

In July, Sysco chose 64 acres near Chancey Road and Sixth Street in Zephyrhills for the distribution center, where the average wage would be about $55,000 a year.

About 130 jobs would be relocated from other Sysco sites.

David DeCamp can be reached at ddecamp@sptimes.com or 727 869-6232.