Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Presented with three scenarios by the consultant engineer for the grant-funded sewer extension project into Montivilla, city officials recently chose the least expensive option, which excludes from the project eight of the 36 houses in the subdivision.
Felicity Appel, of Kimley-Horn Consultant Engineering, informed the Monticello City Council on Tuesday evening, May 2, that the design of the gravity sewer system extension into Montivilla had run into a problem because of elevation issues on the west side of the subdivision. The problem, she said, specifically affected eight houses.
Unless the city were willing to undertake extra and more costly measures, the eight affected houses would not be able to be tied to the system, she said.
Appel presented the council with three design options to consider, along with a cost estimate for each.
The first option, she said, was to proceed with the design of the system absent the eight houses. The cost of this option, she said, would be $1.5 million, keeping in mind that the grant was for
$1.65 million. Then at a later day, she said, additional grant money could possibly be sought for the connection of the eight houses.
The second option, Appel said, entailed the city acquiring easement from four of the property owners on the west side of the subdivision to run another line that would connect to the main one and ultimately connect to the line at the Crooked Creek subdivision on U.S. 90.
This option, of course, would cost extra and would be dependent on the willingness of the four property owners to grant or sell an easement to the city, she said. Appel put the cost of this option at $2.1 million.
The third option, she said, was to install three small lift stations on the west side of the subdivision that the city would own and maintain. She put the cost of this option at $2.8 million.
It didn’t take the council long to go with the first option, the thinking being that additional funding could be sought in future to connect the eight houses being left out. In fairness, city officials have said from day one that they would not invest more in the project than what the grant afforded.
City officials formally committed to the extension and a $1,615,000 million septic-to-sewer grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) last December, after months of going back-and-forth on the issue.
Kimley Horn and Associates, one of the city’s two contracted engineers, was then given the job of overseeing the project.
The process, however, had actually begun in August, when the council had given Kimley-Horn the green light to proceed with the last three of five tasks, despite the then expressed concerns of two council members and former County Commissioner Betsy Barfield, whose district encompassed Montivilla.
Tasks three, four and five entailed the project’s design and permitting, bidding and contractor selection, and the actual construction phase, respectively.
Mayor Julie Conley and Councilman Troy Avera’s concerns at the time aligned with Barfield’s, whose argument was that the subdivision’s homeowners had not been given adequate notice or asked if they wanted the city service.
Avera additionally objected that the grant had been sought without the council members’ knowledge or consent. He furthermore had an issue, he said, with providing city service to residents who refused to be annexed.
Notwithstanding the two’s expressed concerns, a majority of the council voted to proceed with the project.
The FDEP septic-to-sewer-grant is part of a statewide push by the agency to improve Florida’s water quality and establish benchmarks for drainage basins.
Which initiative accounted for the earlier creation of Basin Management Action Plans (BMPAs) across the state. The BMPAs identify environmentally sensitive areas where septic tanks should be eliminated, such as are identified in the Wacissa River and Wacissa Spring Group BMPA.
Montivilla, located just outside the city limits on the west side, consists of 36 homes. From an environmental standpoint, the justification for the extension of sewer service to the subdivision is that it will remove an estimated 10,800 gallons of wastewater that daily go into septic tanks and ultimately can affect the Wacissa River Basin and Springhead.