Good News for our N3 Neighborhood!

Public Hearing scheduled for March 24th

On Jan 8th 2020 a provision of Resolution 2109-205 took effect and increased our Wastewater Capacity Fee from $2,627.16 to $3,190.00. Our neighborhood responded with calls and emails to County Commissioners and other county officials. Our show of community interest was recognized and today we received this information:

Public Utilities is preparing a revision to the Utility Rate Resolution for Board consideration at a Public Hearing on March 24, 2020.  The revision will include reducing the wastewater capacity fee from current $3,190/EDU to the former $2,627.16/EDU for a period of six months.  If approved by the Board, the revised rate would take effect immediately.

What happens in the meantime?

It is still unclear what our options are between now and March 24th.   Paula Parsons Grubb has recently offered to field residents questions. Here is her contact info:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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N3 Sewers: County Resolution 2019-205

   A Short History

In all the meetings we attended over the life of this project the fee presented to us for connection our central sewer system has been $2,627.16.  Most recently this figure appeared in Resolution No. 2017-089, which was adopted in June 2017. This fee is charged to all customers in Sarasota County, not just residents of N3 (we refer to this as our “connection fee”…  the County calls it a “Capacity Fee”). I find this same $2,627.16 as far back as November 2013, so it probably was time for an increase.

Resolution 2019-205

A resolution was presented to the Board of County Commissioners on Oct 7, 2019.  The meeting was held at 1660 Ringling Blvd in Sarasota. This meeting was open to the public, so we could have all attended. There was some “tweaking” required, so the issue was carried over to Oct 8, 2019 (this is an important date, as we’ll see later).  The resolution was approved by a 5-0 vote and, among other things, it increased our Wastewater Capacity Fee to $3,190.

I encourage everyone to go to the County website and watch a video of the Oct 7 meeting (agenda item 5. PUBLIC UTILITIES).  Toward the end of the presentation you’ll see Utility Director Mike Mylett explain to the Board that the fee increases would not become effective until Jan 8, 2020, as a 90 window was required before the increase could take effect.  So now we see where the Jan 8, 2020 implementation date came from.

The 90 Day Window

So, what happened during that 90 days?  For N3, apparently nothing. As was noted, this increase applies to the entire county, not just us. Other areas that had received approval, or someone building a new house could have taken advantage of that period.  I don’t know about other areas, but I do know that we were not able to take advantage of those 90 days.

In the Jan 13 article I made the following statement: “if we had been given prior notice that the fee was going to go up on Jan 8th we could have gone to the county and paid the lesser amount, whether or not we had received a Notice of Availability letter… or a phone call.”

In a subsequent conversation with Mike Mylett, he pointed out to me that was not the case.  The only residents that had that option were those on the Emergency List and had received phone notification.  So, I was wrong and I stand corrected.

(read Mr. Mylett’s comments in the Jan 29 article)

2017 Budget Meeting

In March 2017 we got an “inside tip” to look at the agenda for an upcoming Budget Workshop.  The N3 committee took a look and, sure enough, we were being considered for being cut from the budget.  We got busy and with the support of Commissioners Maio and Hines we were not cut.  Our project commenced soon thereafter.

(look at the articles in the March 2017 archives) 

Resolution 2019-205

This time we received no “inside tip”, so we had no chance to contact Commissioners.  I believe they would have done things differently had they realized the disproportionate effect 2019-205 was going to have on our 216 residents.

Documents from the Oct 7, 2019 meeting state “a county must at minimum provide notice no less than 90 days before the effective date of the amended fee”. But it doesn’t say anything about a maximum notice.  If Commissioners will suspend this increase for 30-60 days I think we’ll all be happy.

 

 

 

N3 Sewers: What Took So Long?

Here’s the Plan

The official designation for the Area N3 sewer system is CIP #55909. The construction contract was awarded to Spectrum Underground on April 25, 2017 and the Notice to Proceed was given on May 23, 2017. The project was divided into four phases (N3 Phasing Plan June 2017) with the first phase being directional bored conduits at the two Seclusion Dr bridges.

When can we expect service?

The bid specifications for our system allowed 300 days for construction. On May 12, 2017  residents were mailed a “NOTICE OF INTENT TO PROVIDE CENTRAL SEWER SERVICE” letter, with service expected to be available in May 2018.

December 2017

I don’t remember when the first dirt was turned, but residents were happy to see construction activity in the neighborhood.  Phase 2 (actually the first phase of digging) seemed to go well, and a Dec 2017 post noted that “Tanglewood Dr. north of Fair Oaks is essentially complete and Rose St and Bougainvillea are almost finished , as is N. Seclusion Dr.”

July  2018

We are now well past the original “service expected” date and we get this message: “The estimated completion of Phase 3 is September of this year” with construction of Phase 4 to begin in October.  This update mailer also tells us that Spectrum Underground “is behind schedule with an estimated completion of the entire project in February 2019.  So, we are now 9 months behind schedule.

December 2018

The PCSSRP Status Report for fourth quarter 2018 tells us “The contractor [Spectrum Underground] failed to meet the Substantial Completion date of February 17, 2018″.  No reason is given for the delay, but “work has begun on Phase 4 (the final phase) and is scheduled to be completed in March 2019”.

April  2019

A Project Update postcard tells us “Construction of the PCSSRP Area N-3 Sewer Project will be finishing soon”.  It goes on to say that there’s six weeks of work on Tuttle Ave and then paving and sod restoration will begin in Phase 4.  We are now a full year behind schedule… and the estimated completion date  is “soon”. A March 2019 Project Status on the County website posted the estimated completion date as May 2019.

Where’s Spectrum?

I can’t remember the exact time frame, but somewhere along the way Spectrum stopped showing up.  There was still material at the staging areas, but the workmen and equipment were nowhere to be seen. County workers would occasionally be on site, and Windemuller Electric was working on the lift station electrical panels.  I asked one of the County workers what had happened to Spectrum.  He said “maybe they’re on another job somewhere”, but he didn’t know for sure.

December 2019

The Dec 2019 Project Update on the County website tells us that construction was complete in October 2019 and that “final project closeout is anticipated for late December 2019”.  Indeed,  Michael Mylett’s email said the system became available for use on December 31, 2019.

February 2020

So, here we are 1 year 8 months past the original “service available” date on a project that had a 9 month duration. I have never heard an official reason for this overrun, but it certainly seems due to subpar performance by the contractor, Spectrum Underground.  There were no catastrophic acts of nature, unknown construction obstacles, or other force majeure factors.  The leaking manholes in Phase 4 were most certainly not due to an act of God.

What happened to the inspector?

In April 2017 Jones Edmunds & Associates, Inc. was awarded the contract for Construction Inspection.  The duration of the inspection contract was presumably the same as the construction contract, 300 days. The not-to-exceed amount was $319,850, but 17 months later (Sept 11, 2018) the BCC increased that amount to $515, 850.

The Jones Edmunds inspector was not on the job for the last few months of construction. Apparently the county was unwilling to give them yet another increase.  So, we spent over a half million dollars, but didn’t have the oversight when we needed it.  If the inspector had been on site he might well have spotted the problem with the leaking manholes.

Bottom Line

If the project had been completed anywhere near the original May 2018 date we would not be in this situation.  Most, if not all, of N3 residents would have been connected. And we would have paid a fee of $2,627.16, not $3,190.00.

Monday’s post

Next week I’ll recap what we know about Resolution 2019-205, the action that authorized the $563 fee increase.

 

NOTE: All information in this article is from my personal knowledge or was sourced from Sarasota County documents. If I have misstated or misrepresented anything,  let me know and I’ll correct it immediately.