MINUTES OF MEETING
NORTH SPRINGS IMPROVEMENT
DISTRICT
The regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the North Springs
Improvement District was held on
Present and constituting a quorum were:
Salvatore J. Mendolia
President
Steve Mendelson
Secretary
Also present were:
John Petty
Manager
Dennis Lyles
Attorney
Jane Early
Engineer
Brenda Schurz
Representative of TOUSA Homes
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS
Roll Call
Mr. Mendolia
called the meeting to order and called the roll.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS
Approval of the Minutes of the January 11, 2007
Meeting
Mr. Petty stated each Board member received a copy of the minutes of the
There not being any,
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr.
Mendelson with all in favor the minutes of the
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Permit for
Ms. Early stated this is one of our standard surface water management
permits. We already issued a permit
for the majority of
Mr. Mendolia asked are there any problems with
funding?
Ms. Early responded no.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by
Mr. Mendolia with all in favor the permit for the Village Green Development in
FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Change Orders
A.
Change Order No. 3 & Final with Triple R. Paving for Heron Bay North
Two Drainageways for a Net Increase of $355,459.65
Ms. Early stated on the last page of the change order is the split with
WCI paying $249,612.05 and NSID paying $105,847.60 for the lake excavation in
Heron Bay North Plat 2.
Mr. Petty stated I provided a monthly bond report to the
Board.
Ms. Early stated the overage comes out of the
Mr. Mendelson stated this is a done deal.
Mr. Petty stated correct.
According to page two, as of February, we have $1,000,000 remaining. We have enough money to cover this work
without going into a deficit.
Correct?
Ms. Early responded yes.
Mr. Petty stated we are within the engineer’s
estimates.
Mr. Mendelson asked are we in the black?
Mr. Petty responded yes. We
do not have anything to bring to your attention, with this change
order.
Mr. Mendolia asked what are we paying $687,376 for?
Ms. Early responded this was the original split of what the District pays
out of the bond issue for digging the lakes and removing unsuitable
material. We also have the
installation of some interconnect pipes.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by
Mr. Mendolia with all in favor Change Order No. 3 & final with Triple R.
Paving for the Heron Bay North Two Drainageways for a net increase of
$355,459.65 was approved.
B.
Change Order No. 3 & Final with Weekly Asphalt Paving, Inc. for
Holmberg Road Overlay and Bike Lane, University Drive and Trails End Final Lift
and Modifications for a Net Increase of $107,288.50
Ms. Early stated this is the WCI project to put the final lift of asphalt
on
Mr. Mendelson asked is this where the paver problem came
from?
Ms. Early responded yes. It
was a WCI cost.
Mr. Petty asked which bond are the funds coming out
of?
Ms. Early responded Parkland Golf and Country Club (Area A) and
supplement three.
Mr. Petty stated we have an overage. For the past six to nine months, all of
our contractors have been coming in high for asphalt. We have the funds available to pay but we
are $200,000 over our estimate.
This change order puts us further over. You are starting to see the tabulation
and the impact of what you have been hearing for the last nine months, which is
contract costs are increasing, particularly for asphalt. We are hoping the prices will decrease
since construction has slowed but we have not seen this
happen.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by
Mr. Mendolia with all in favor Change Order No. 3 & final with Weekly
Asphalt Paving, Inc. for
C.
Change Order No. 10 & Final with Florida Sewer and Water, Inc. for
Heron Bay North Plat 1, Phase 1, Access Roadway Plan and Lift Station TPC #9
(Cypress Point) for a Net Decrease of $511,988.95
Ms. Early stated this project is for Cypress Point, Phase 1, which is
located north of
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by
Mr. Mendolia with all in favor Change Order No. 10 & final with Florida
Sewer and Water, Inc. for the Heron Bay North Plat 1, Phase 1, access roadway
plan and Lift Station TPC #9 (Cypress Point) for a net decrease of $511,988.95
was approved.
FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Work Authorization No. 172 for SFWMD Permit Modification
– BMP Requirements
Mr. Petty stated
staff requests this Work Authorization be tabled. This is the item we spoke to the Board
about several meetings ago where we are starting to get a PR campaign from SFWMD
based on the
Ms. Early stated Mr. McKune and I met with SFWMD yesterday and they gave
us a deadline of March 4th to make a permit submittal for a
modification. If you want us to
proceed, it involves a great deal of work to get the permit modification
submitted. They want a $7,500
permit fee.
Mr. Petty stated I do not know what to tell you. I cannot recommend this work
authorization to the Board without seeing it.
Ms. Early stated there was a letter from SFWMD about being in compliance
and having 90 days to submit the permit.
Mr. Petty stated this issue is similar to what we brought to the Board’s
attention in the past. We have not
had a chance to discuss the details of the meeting you had the other day. I understand they have a timely response
issue and I wish to comply with due diligence. I do not want the Board to be pushed to
take action on an agreement they have not had a chance to
review.
Ms. Early stated I will do whatever you wish. I am concerned about what will happen if
we do not submit something to SFWMD.
Mr. McKune asked can a permit submittal be made without all the backup
documentation and indicate to them the documentation will be submitted under
separate cover? I have done this
before for other permits. This
allows them to say we met a deadline but does not commit the District to a
course of action.
Ms. Early responded we can call and ask. My understanding is they want this
submittal stating the items we are working towards to increase our water
quality.
Mr. Petty stated let’s do it.
We have been asked by SFWMD to respond within 90 days. However, since we have not discussed any
policy or program, my request for the Board to wait until the next meeting still
stands. We should never respond to
any government agency without determining the District’s position. It will be difficult for us to protect
the District without going through the material. I suggest we contact SFWMD and request
an extension and work with them to the best of our ability.
Mr. Mendolia asked do you think they will give us an
extension?
Mr. Petty responded I think due diligence requires us to ask for an
extension and not approve the work authorization at this
time.
Mr. Lyles stated it is wise to be cautious and not file something without
sufficient information. I am
hearing about this for the first time and concerned about the possibility of
missing a deadline. I wonder if
there is some middle ground such as authorization for the Board to grant the
submittal pending staff review and approval. If staff cannot make a determination by
the deadline, you can ask for an extension. Ms. Early deals with this agency on a
regular basis and is concerned about the deadline. I am trying to find a way to get the
most flexibility.
Ms. Early stated I can request an extension.
Mr. Lyles asked what happens if we do nothing today but authorize the
extension and you call tomorrow and they say “no”? We will need to call a special meeting
and I do not know if we want to.
Mr. Mendolia asked can we wait until the next
meeting?
Mr. Lyles responded yes, since we meet early in the month. The extension will give us a couple of
extra weeks.
Mr. Petty stated this issue came up routinely as part of our existing
permit k. If we did not know by now
what was going on, then it was our fault.
This is something they brought up where we must respond within 90 days or
submit reasons why. This means they
are open to discussing the issues.
As a government agency, you need to be given the opportunity for due
diligence. How do you protect the
interest of the residents, by being rushed to fill out a
form?
Ms. Early responded the reason they want us to submit this modification
is because of Pump Station No. 1 pumping into the C-11 Canal. They are concerned once the water level
reaches a certain elevation our pumps will pump the water into the
Mr. Petty stated the other canals are full. The
Mr. Mendolia stated the next meeting is at the beginning of next month,
which is not far away. Maybe we can
stretch it out.
Mr. Lyles stated if the Board wants to authorize an extension, let’s go
forward on this basis. We can
always call a special meeting at the end of the month.
Mr. Mendolia stated this is what we should do.
Mr. Petty stated I think this serves our purpose.
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Staff reports
A.
Manager’s Report
i.
Short Term Financing
Mr. Petty stated
the District is currently building some tennis courts and re-piping Pump Station
No. 1. Not only is the piping
facing towards the
Mr. Mendolia asked do they put swivels on them?
Mr. Petty responded they put pipes on the manifolds so the valves direct
the water. For these projects, we
may not have enough money in our renewal and replacement account and are looking
at some short-term financing. Ms.
Larned has been working diligently with willful lenders who do short-term
financing. However, we did not
receive the material in a timely enough fashion to include in your agenda
package and will provide it to you in the next couple of weeks. This will be a commitment letter from
those agencies. It will be a
short-term note; $5 million or less for less than five years but will not be
bank qualified because we are issuing bonds. The interest rate will be 5.5%. We have plenty of revenue coming in but
may not have enough in one year to pay for these projects.
It is time to look at not only the final phase of our water and sewer
plant but rebuilding some of the original plant, which is now 20 years old. This is as complicated as it gets with
the best management practices issue as SFWMD will say this is what caused the
trouble. They are now saying the
Biscayne Aquifer gets its water from underneath the
ii.
Capital Improvement Program
Mr. Petty stated
at this time, we will present what staff has been working on with our Capital
Improvement Coordinator and what the vision is. It is our intention at the next meeting
to have our Engineer, CH2M-Hill provide a work authorization to start a capital
improvement program, if this vision is something the Board can buy into.
The objections are:
1.
Each
item filling a 10 to 20 year window
2.
Meeting
future regulations
3.
Capability
of adaptation
4.
Reliability
The capital improvement program is broken out into separate
items:
1.
Water
Supply Well
2.
Nano
Filtration Plant to control contaminants – (Comparable to lime
softening)
3.
Reclaimed
Water
4.
High
Service Pumps
5.
Liquid
Chlorine Conversion from Gaseous Chlorine
6.
Miscellaneous
– Immediate renewal & replacement, including maintenance facilities for
field staff.
Mr. Petty stated the
NSID plant is well built with solid concrete support structures. We are looking at the next 10 to 20
years and what is going to be required.
SFWMD is trying to push us to use a less quality water aquifer. The Biscayne water is hard and all we
are trying to do is to soften it.
There are a large number of unregulated contaminants we must have our
water analyzed for. We may not be
required to remove them now but each year we receive at least two more
contaminants. The lime softening
treatment process addresses softening; not the removal of certain
contaminants. The question is
whether to change processes now because we are built out. Since we cannot tell for certain what
the future will bring, the system should be adaptable to change from time to
time.
The capital improvement program envisions more water supply wells. A Nano Filtration Plant is a membrane
plant removing contaminants based on its molecular weight and the amount of
pressure applied. It is recommended
nano filtration be considered since it can control contaminants lime softening
cannot. These membranes sit inside
a metal building and are compact.
The cost is comparable to lime softening. Lime softening used to be inexpensive
but over the years, these membrane processes have become more competitive. It is time for us to look at nano
filtration, particularly with SFWMD pushing us towards a poorer quality aquifer
like Fordan and its brackish water.
You have to operate a membrane plant at much higher levels than a Nano
Filtration Plant. It will be a
reverse osmosis plant, which is the next level in membranes. The costs for operating will skyrocket
with the high energy costs but we think this addresses the best use of our water
supply and gives us the most options.
We know they are going to push for the reclaimed water system in our
Consumptive Use Permit. We are a
large user with
We plan to get more pumps as we have more residents and pump more
water. This was already
planned. We currently use gaseous
chlorine. The new regulations say
with chlorine gas you need to have a scrubber so in case it leaks, the scrubber
can pull out the chlorine before it escapes. This is a huge cost. The more obvious answer is to go with
liquid chlorine. Whereas, if you
have a liquid leak, all you kill is the grass. You just have to put higher volumes of
it into your water but it is the same amount of chlorine. We have done this for CSID and it worked
out well. For operator safety, it
is a big benefit. The costs for
immediate renewal and replacement will go into the miscellaneous
category.
Mr. Petty stated these prices are high conservative estimates as Mr.
McKune did not want to come in under value. He wanted to make sure we value his
ability to get the engineer’s estimates below budget. At this time I will defer to Mr. McKune
on the water supply in the Biscayne Aquifer.
Mr. McKune stated SFWMD is currently pursuing their “Everglades Forever”
restoration program, which they have been spending billions of dollars on. Now they want to spend more of your
dollars to clean up the local area. We currently get our water from 120’ deep
wells, which is good water. SFWMD
put out their most recent update of the lower east coast water supply plant
telling every utility in the county what they are going to do. They are telling NSID to pull water from
the Florida Aquifer, which is 1,700’ down and salty. When you are done treating it, you have
to build an injection well, similar to the one for the wastewater to inject the
brine waste from the RO Plant back underground. This is an expensive well to build and
operate.
Mr. Petty was discussing the Nano Filtration Plant. The membrane used to treat the water are
stainless steel cylinders, which we put a fine mesh filter inside of and
increase the pressure. As the water
flows through, it is treated. This
process is fairly reliable.
Operators love it once they learn how to operate it. It is also adaptable. If the water quality standards change in
the future, all we have to do is open up the end of the cylinder and replace the
membrane.
Reclaimed water is the treated wastewater we use to irrigate the
grass. Twenty years ago, a client
on the east coast used reclaimed water to irrigate the front yards of their
subdivision but they did not notify the residents who allowed their kids to play
in the water. It did not bother the
residents until they were finally told it was reclaimed water. It is fairly innocuous and can be
readily used on golf courses. This
will allow some negotiations with SFWMD but they are telling us we must take 1
million gallons of water from the lower aquifer because they do not have enough
of the good water we are now taking.
If we can put some reclaimed water into NSID and replenish the aquifer
with a gallon of reclaimed water, they may give us a gallon more of what we are
using today. One of the selling
points is on the west boundary of the District we have a dike. Beyond the dike is the
Mr. Petty stated you can see it from the Sawgrass
Expressway.
Mr. McKune stated SFWMD is concerned when we pump our wells; we lower the
ground water table, which is going to cause underflow under the dike to the
Mr. Petty stated your sister district, CSID, has the same incentive to
implement this program. They have a
Consumptive Use Permit and are going to be pushed for effluent reuse. They built this into their capital
program. However, they do not have
a customer to use the effluent/reclaimed water. If CSID has a use for it, they will have
the first shot at it.
Mr. McKune stated in regards to the high service pump, we need to put
more water out at acceptable pressures in the District. Therefore, we need two more pumps at the
water plant and two pumps at the north end pumping station. This will improve the service throughout
the entire District.
Mr. Mendolia asked is this in the plan?
Mr. McKune responded yes.
This is one of those short-term projects.
Mr. Mendelson stated whatever we decide on has to be cost
prohibitive. We do not want to keep
shelling out money.
Mr. McKune stated it is intricate.
One of the constraints we currently have is the site of the water plant
is fairly small. Parking is hard to
find because of the equipment, buildings and lime disposable pods. It is a mess in the summertime with lime
all over the place.
Mr. Mendolia asked can we fix it?
Mr. McKune responded we can fix it by going to a membrane plant and
filling in the ponds. The plant is
compact and will give you room to put additional facilities on the plant
site.
Mr. Petty stated it is a by-product of our current treatment
process. When you go to a membrane
process, there is a by-product called the “reject screen”, which is the
concentrate. In this particular
scenario, we will pull out the fully dissolved solids from the Biscayne water in
a condensed stream. This condensed
stream is considered to be eminent to the Biscayne Aquifer because it has more
material. Our process will put the
reject screen in with our irrigation water where it is perfectly
acceptable. Irrigation water will
dilute it so it is a meaningless increase in calcium or any other mineral. We do not have to treat it as a waste
steam discharging down a deep well or put into special buckets. We can use it for
irrigation.
Mr. McKune stated the liquid chlorine is a less hazardous way of doing
the required chlorination or disinfecting of the water. We put it in fairly large size
Polyethylene tanks and meter it out.
Mr. Mendelson stated in order to work with those tanks; you have to wear
safety suits because it can be hazardous.
Mr. Petty stated it is the same 10% chlorine solution used in pools. We do not have any trouble other than
having exposed metal nearby. The
operators do not have to wear special equipment. If there is a small spill, you hose it
down.
Continuing through the water plant, we show the field workers working on
different projects with Mr. McKune.
The field workers maintain all the water meters, water distribution
systems, fire hydrants, booster stations, chlorine booster facilities and line
breaks. We have a mechanics area
but it has to stay open to get equipment in for repair.
Mr. Mendolia asked do we have room for expansion?
Mr. Petty responded if we get rid of the lime ponds, we have plenty of
room. The lime ponds take up a
quarter of the site.
Mr. Mendolia asked is it possible to have a second
level?
Mr. McKune responded at the south end of the plant, there is a berm,
which can be removed and a 6’ fence can be installed. This area will be perfect for
storage.
Mr. Petty stated keep in mind this berm separates us from the
residents.
Mr. Mendolia stated you will have a fight with those
residents.
Mr. McKune stated we went to every resident living around the plant and
had them sign off on removal of the berm and installation of a fence. The city signed off on
it.
Mr. Mendolia stated I am shocked.
Mr. Petty stated we are looking at a 10 to 20 year window in our capital
improvement program, not just in the short-term. We are keeping an eye on future
regulations with SFWMD’s pressure to do things now as we are getting a great
deal of pressure to make some changes.
The cost for making these changes is huge. What we consider to be the most
economical way to address this issue is still costly.
Mr. Mendelson stated it is costly now. Can you imagine what the cost will be in
another 10 years? If changes have
to be made and we have the ability to do it, we should start making those
changes now.
Mr. Petty stated the membrane process is more adaptable than any other
process. Of course, we look to the
engineers to validate this. We have
good operators in NSID, better than CSID.
They are conscientious and have done some innovative things. You want the process to be reliable so
they can make the best use of it.
We are looking at a cost between $40 to $42 million.
Mr. Mendolia asked on the high side?
Mr. Petty responded this is one of the reasons why we hired Mr. McKune as
your Capital Improvement Coordinator.
He will make sure when you are spending this amount of money, it is the
most efficient use of your funds.
Occasionally a large corporate engineering firm can take an item off of
the shelf and say, “Here is what we are doing today”. It works and the engineering is
impeccable. Having the local talent
Mr. McKune represents knowing what is in the ground and being on your payroll
helps us. It certainly cannot hurt
us. We want to have a home team
member when we are spending $40 million.
In the budget the Board approved last summer, we talked about keeping our
documents in a database so they are retrievable from the internet. The system is now up and running. This will be a four district databases,
which the core districts will participate in. It is like Google® but
with all of your documents. We
included all the minutes, resolutions and agreements in the database. It will also include all correspondence
written by me and any previous manager.
We will even have the NSID logo.
In this way, if we are gone tomorrow, the next team can find their way
around. We have the hardware, which
is the computer. The database is
currently being loaded and has been tested on the intranet, meaning it is
internal to this building. Anyone
on their computer can access the database.
Mr. Mendelson asked can you do a search?
Mr. Petty responded yes, by word or phrase.
Mr. Mendolia asked is the system secure?
Mr. Petty responded yes. The
benefit is it is a standalone system.
You do not touch or remove a document from the database. You can only make a copy. This means no one can damage the
database from the outside or internally.
It is a secure system. The
backup is the same backup we have for our utility billing onsite and our
mainframe. We have a terabyte
server because the blueprints will take up a great deal of space.
Next I will discuss the bonds.
The first one is for the Parkland Golf and Country Club. We already spoke about the deficit we
have on the roadways. This is due
to our increasing construction costs.
We have $2 million remaining to spend on the amount NSID anticipated to
spend. We have enough money left
for lakes and culverts but not the roads.
The percentages shown for NSID include interest income while the funds
are in the bank. The last item is
the NSID share and WCI share.
Lakes, culverts and roadways are shared by both but a portion is to be
contributed by the developer to make the development feasible. The 2006 A and B bonds are for the Heron
Bay North assessment area. Under
this bond issue are the lakes and culverts, roadways, landscape buffers and
sidewalks.
I spoke to Ms. Early about this issue. She likes to put our money first and
foremost into lakes and culverts, secondarily into roadways and any remaining
funds into the landscape buffers and sidewalks. We put in “x” number of dollars and WCI
puts in “x” number of facilities and we are supposed to have a viable product at
the end. In the graph for the
percentage share, NSID was responsible for more than half of the cost and WCI is
expected to contribute less than half.
For Parkland Golf and Country Club assessment areas A1 and B1, we have
landscape, sidewalks and lights. In
this case, NSID was supposed to contribute all the funds, with WCI only expected
to contribute $2 million worth out of a $22 million issue. Not only are we watching our
construction projects, but we are also watching those contributed facilities WCI
is responsible for turning over to the District. The last set of bonds are the water
management refunding bonds A and B, which NSID is solely responsible for with no
WCI share. We thank Ms. Early and
District staff for assisting us in putting this document together. This is something we will provide
monthly in order to track all our bonds.
With the document management system, we are finding the amount of
documents and data we have on-site is intimidating. We have a fairly large bond program out
there where we are acquiring assets at a fast past. We have past capital programs where we
built water and sewer facilities.
Our asset management program has been overly burdened by all this
work. We are working to address
this and have programs designed in-house but we cannot do it with existing
staff. Therefore, I am asking for
authorization to hire two additional employees to work on fixed assets, contract
administration and accounting. We
have the funds available. The fixed
assets relate to what Ms. Early and Ms. Susan Walker have been during the
year. Ms. Walker will be in charge
of this on our end working with Ms. Early.
We want to track all the water and sewer lines acquired and all the
easements and rights-of-way along with it; as well as the lakes, culverts,
landscaping and lighting.
Everything should be in a complete package.
In regards to the database, we are looking for something graphic where
you can click on an area showing the water and sewer lines and when they were
constructed. What precipitated this
was an event occurring at CSID where a woman fell in a meter box at the mall and
they could not find the instrument giving them the right to have a meter there
or an agreement saying they can put it on private lines or where it was their
responsibility to maintain it. This
was before Mr. Lyles came on board.
I have been working with Mr. Lyles to come up with a solution and this is
what we came up with. We need to
track our assets and have the data available. I have the funds available for the two
employees.
Mr. Mendolia asked how many people have we hired in the last
year?
Mr. Petty responded only one person was hired at CSID. This was an accounts payable person to
help our singular accountant, Ms. Walker.
Ms. Walker has always had someone helping her in the past but it did not
work out. We tried to offer people
from Severn Trent Services but they need to be District employees as these
districts are unique. It seems to
work better when they are District employees. Severn Trent Services is not interested
in expanding its contract but we are asking you to look at hiring additional
personnel to fill this role. Part
of this is due to GASB-34, which is a new accounting regulation enforcing an
already existing rule stating a government must count their fixed assets. It has always been difficult for these
districts to do so. When you grow
as fast and as large as NSID has grown in the last four to five years, it gets
tough. Staff is doing a good job
keeping track of our assets but we need to clear up quite a bit of growth, which
accumulated over the past years.
These employees are subject to budget reviews each year. As we go through the budget process, you
can evaluate this again.
Mr. Mendolia asked will they be in a permanent or temporary
status?
Mr. Petty responded we think the work is going to be for a long enough
time to not be temporary work but you never can tell. There is enough work for these two
people to be utilized.
Mr. Mendolia asked can you hire internally?
Mr. Petty responded we looked at the same thing; however the
administration being handled by CSID is fairly thin. You have one HR person and one utility
billing, IT and customer service person rolled into one person. The person who handles this position is
Mr. Dan Daly and Mr. Jan Zilmer is the HR person. Severn Trent Services is supposed to
provide backup but it is more of a redundancy in case something happens to Ms.
Walker and we can pay the bills in a reasonable amount of time. We did a special audit through CSID on
this position in the last year and their recommendation was we had too much
reliance on this one person. The
diligence Ms. Walker is able to apply to each of these matters is fairly
short. She only has 15 minutes and
then has to move on. We were trying
to get Ms. Walker promoted to a position where she could work with Ms. Early
directly on the fixed assets for the current bond issues, which is probably the
easiest and best ones to start with and then move backwards to try to get all
the documents together and put them in a database so we can find out what is
going on with a certain amount of confidence.
The last five years are probably going to be the easiest other than the
contributed portion. This is why we
have it on our schedule. The
contributed portion by WCI is going to be more difficult. The roads go through us but we do not
own them. We turn them over to
Mr. Mendolia stated I think we need to do
something.
Mr. Petty stated I do not need a motion. I only need consensus from the
Board.
The record will reflect there was consensus from the Board for Mr. Petty
to hire two District employees to provide fixed asset, contract administration
and accounting services.
Mr. Petty stated
as you know, there has been construction on the Sawgrass Expressway to widen the
road and install noise barrier walls.
One worker installing a fiber optic cable next to the road hit one of our
pipes. Some time ago they came to
us for a permit, which Ms. Early reviewed where they agreed to fix anything
broken by them. We were checking
for something else at one of their walls where we had six 72” lines. We wondered how they missed our lines
and sent in a diver to check all of the pipes in all three Districts. They hit pipes in every district.
Mr. Mendolia stated they did not care.
Mr. Petty stated when they installed the pilings; they evidently sized
them to fit in between the pipes.
Now we have a wall over our pipes, which is something we will have to
work around.
Mr. Mendolia asked do we have any legal problems?
Mr. Petty responded we are in good shape. Ms. Early has been dealing with the
contractor and they made the repairs.
There is only cleaning out the pipes left.
Ms. Early stated I am going to get an update on when the cleaning is
going to be scheduled.
Mr. Petty stated we will send in our divers after the pipes are
cleaned.
Mr. Mendolia stated someone should warn other
towns.
Ms. Early stated the sub-contractor for the fiber optics said he was
never given all the information but we had sheets of tabulations showing where
our pipes were located. Apparently
this sub-contractor never received this information and trenched through
everything. From where he stopped,
we gave him information to continue on.
Mr. Mendolia stated when we build a house; we call all the utilities and
get maps showing where the lines are.
Someone should have done this.
iii. Rate
Sufficiency Study
Mr. Petty stated
this is for an in-house analysis we are going to be doing regarding whether your
rates are sufficient to give you what you intended to get before. We did this for CSID who has not
adjusted their rates in 15 years.
We are going to look at your rates on the monthly water and sewer bills
along with connection fees to see whether we are getting what we are supposed to
fund what we are supposed to. It
has been five years since there has been an adjustment in connection fees and
eight or nine years for the user rates.
We think this study is overdue.
Staff will be working on this study and will provide to you at the next
meeting. Since we are looking at a
capital improvement program, this is the time to start evaluating your
rates. If we are sufficient, we
recommend doing a rate study for the capital improvement program. If we are deficient, we may recommend
you doing one sooner.
Mr. Mendolia stated in
Ms. Early asked who is?
Mr. Mendolia responded there are big machines.
Ms. Early asked north of the pump station?
Mr. Mendolia responded yes.
Ms. Early stated WCI is doing the earthwork for a new mitigation
area.
B.
Attorney’s Report
Mr. Lyles stated
today I received an information package from the attorneys representing Royal
Utility, across from
Mr. Mendolia stated if the annexation goes through, those residents are
going to need water service.
Mr. Petty stated the property is outside of the current District
boundaries. The City of
Mr. Mendelson stated the District can make money out of
this.
Mr. Lyles stated the more consumers you spread your costs over; the
better it is for all your existing consumers. It could be an expensive proposition to
serve this new area and if it is, the residents will have to pay their fair
share. Sixteen residents should not
have to pay a premium to bring new residents into the District. It is not supposed to work this
way. However, we received a serious
proposition and I wanted the Board to know it had been received and turned over
to Mr. Petty for his review and recommendation.
Our Special Act is proceeding along the timeline it is supposed to. We are being asked some follow-up
questions by one member of the Legislative Delegation who had trouble with this
and asked negative questions. She
did not like the idea of us by-passing the petition, referendum and special
election process to make the Board elected at a General Election. She thought this process was in the
original act and this was taking something away from the voters. They may not want it to be changed on
the discretion of the three elected Board members. The rest of the delegation saw it a
different way. She ultimately voted
in favor of our bill, however, her aide is now coming back and asking for
further information. Keep in mind,
while at the Broward County Legislative Delegation, we are dealing with a bunch
of Democrats and a couple of Republicans, now it is going to
C.
Engineer’s Report – Consideration of Bids for Parkland Village Paving,
Drainage, Water and Sewer and Related Funding
Agreement
Ms. Early stated
the reason why the bids were not included in your agenda package was because we
just took bids on Tuesday. We
actually had 12 people pick up bid packages. This is the water, sewer and drainage
for the entire project and the paving and drainage of the East/West roadway,
which will ultimately belong to North Springs as well as drainage along all the
buffer areas. One bid was received
from Florida Storm and Water in the amount of $4,330,436.57. The engineer’s estimate was
$4,673,038.20. At the bottom of the
bid tabulation is the actual cost split.
This will be done through funding agreements with TOUSA Homes. TOUSA Homes will also pay directly for a
portion of the drainage in the subdivisions. We are recommending award to Florida
Storm and Water.
Mr. Lyles asked do we still need to have the closing on this bond
issue?
Mr. Petty responded yes. We
have a meeting with Tousa Homes next Wednesday.
Mr. Lyles stated technically, we do not have this money on hand to enter
into this contract.
Mr. Petty stated correct.
Ms. Early stated we have funding agreements, which are prepared. I reviewed them.
Mr. Petty stated we believe it is proper to bring this to the Board’s
attention. We certainly do not want
to hold up TOUSA Homes. We suggest
you consider this contract subject to further review by staff and District
Counsel of the funding agreements in order to revise them and make them
applicable to the current bonding.
We want to look at our water and sewer subdivision funding agreements and
may ask TOUSA Homes to consider an alternative.
Mr. Lyles stated I recommend approval of the award of the contract to the
single bidder who is the responsible and responsive bidder, subject to funding
being in place, either by a funding agreement or the closing of the bond
issue. We cannot enter into a
contract if we do not have the funds to pay for it.
Mr. Petty stated true. I did
not want the Board to approve the funding agreements if we were going to change
them.
Ms. Early stated not all of the funds are going to come out of the bond
issue. The water and sewer portion
is not.
Mr. Lyles stated I understand but a portion is.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr.
Mendelson with all in favor the contract for the Parkland Village Paving,
Drainage, Water and Sewer was awarded to Florida Storm and Water in the amount
of $4,330,436.57, subject to funding being in place, either by a funding
agreement or the closing of the bond issue.
Ms. Early stated I will issue a notice of award but not give them
contracts to sign.
SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Approval of Requisitions and Invoices
Mr. Petty asked
can CH2M-Hill send their bills in increments of $1,000 instead of small
amounts?
Ms. Early responded some of those jobs are closings. I do not typically submit bills if they
are for small amounts. I will hold
them until the next month.
Mr. Mendolia asked can you submit them monthly?
Mr. Petty responded they submit many invoices in a month. Part of this is our fault because we
request they keep their jobs separated and be accountable for each job. We should be thankful for the hard work
Ms. Walker has performed over the last several years in keeping this
together.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by
Mr. Mendolia with all in favor the requisitions and invoices for the month of
January were approved.
EIGHTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Supervisor’s Requests and Audience Comments
A representative of TOUSA agreed with modification of the funding
agreements.
Mr. Petty stated we very much want to work with Ms. Early, TOUSA Homes
and WCI. We are mainly looking at
the water and sewer and the connection fee revenue. I am troubled with asking you for the
connection fee, you paying us and then turning around and giving you the money
back. Maybe we can cut out some of
the paperwork. The bond financing
is straightforward and all we need to do is clean up some
language.
The representative stated TOUSA is interested in starting as soon as
possible. I wanted to make sure we
could move forward with the contractor getting his submittals completed. We figure this will be a 30 day process
at a minimum to get to the point where they can start. Is the Board awarding the contract but
not issuing a Notice to Proceed until those issues are
resolved?
Ms. Early responded the District cannot sign a contract without the funds
being available.
The representative stated once the funding agreements are tweaked and
signed by TOUSA Homes, the District can sign the contract. Is it reasonable to think this process
can happen in 30 to 45 days?
Mr. Petty responded very easily.
NINTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting was
adjourned.
Steve Mendelson
Salvatore J. Mendolia
Secretary
President