Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The Monticello City Council voted recently to proceed with the septic-to-sewer project into the Montivilla subdivision, come what may.
Notwithstanding Commissioner Betsy Barfield’s appeal that the city first hear from the affected property owners before making a decision, the council voted 3-2 on Tuesday evening, Aug. 2, to authorize the Kimley-Horn and Associates engineer to go ahead with the last three of five tasks.
Tasks three, four and five entail the project’s design and permitting, bidding and contractor selection, and actual construction, respectively.
The composition of Tuesday’s vote was the same as the one that authorized tasks one and two last month. Task one entails the engineers writing a Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) letter to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), the agency that awarded the city the $1.6 million grant for the project. Task 2 authorized the engineers to prepare a presentation to explain the basis of the project to the affected property owners in Montivilla.
Barfield, whose District 4 encompasses Montivilla, came to the council meeting accompanied with legal muscle in the form of Attorney Elizabeth Ellis, of Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson, the county’s new attorney firm.
Barfield said she was willing to work with the city to move the project forward, but she wanted to ensure that the Montivilla homeowners were aware of the extension and onboard with it before the city proceeded.
“We are open to working on this with the city,” Barfield said. “But let’s work together.”
Ellis reminded the council that state law required that the city follow certain steps and procedures in conjunction with the county to make connections mandatory. It was a point that City Attorney Bruce Leinback affirmed, adding that the city now had no provision for providing service to non-city residents who didn’t want the service.
Engineer Debra Preble, of Kimley-Horn, who has been in conversations with the FDEP, tried to shed some light on the issue.
Preble explained that for the last five to six years, the FDEP has been pushing to improve the state’s water quality and establish benchmarks for drainage basins, which is how the BMPAs came about. These plans, she said, identify sensitive areas where septic tanks should be eliminated, such as the Wacissa River and Wacissa Spring Group Basin.
Preble noted that not only was the FDEP scheduled to take over the regulation of septic tanks from the Florida Department of Health, but it also was already writing new requirements that would change the criteria for septic tanks.
The new rules, she said, would disallow septic tanks in less than an acre unless they were enhanced septic tanks. The new rules also would expand drainage fields and setbacks, among other changes, she said. And for subdivisions platted prior to 1972, no new septic tanks would be permitted once a system failed, she said.
Moreover, Preble said, per the FDEP folks, septic tanks on quarter lots would not be exempt from the new setback, tank size and drainage field requirements.
Bottom line, she said, it behooved the Montivilla residents to connect now, as the grant would pay for the construction and connection costs. Down the line, she said, if a property owner’s septic tank failed and they were required to connect, the cost would be on the property owner.
She further reminded the officials that as a publicly owned utility, per state law, the city had the authority, if it chose to exercise it, to require connection to the sewer system within a year of its construction.
Preble encouraged the city and county jointly to seek available state funding that would allow for the development of a master plan designating countywide where the focus should be on eliminating septic tanks.
After more discussion of other alternatives and the possibility of dropping out of the project if the grant funding should prove insufficient to cover the full cost, etc., the council voted to green light tasks three, four and five. The one concession made to Barfield’s request was that the council instructed the engineer not to proceed with the last three tasks until the presentation had been made to the Montivilla residents.
Regardless the resident’s reaction, however, the project would proceed, was the council’s underlying message.
“Sounds like you’re shoving it down people’s throats,” Barfield said.
Avera, who with Mayor Julie Conley voted against the motion, agreed.
“I’m in favor of the project, but not like this,” he said. “It sounds like we’re going to do it come hell or high water.”
The council set the presentation to the Montivilla residents for 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, in the courthouse annex on Walnut Street.