February 10, 2012
DAVENPORT - The City Commission has passed on first reading the city's revised water rates, allowing those residential and commercial customers with larger meters to receive more water for their money.

After checking with the Florida Rural Water Association, City Manager Amy Arrington learned that while the city passed a multiplier rate on rates for larger meters, the same multiplier was not applied to the quantity of water used.
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February 10, 2012
WEST PALM BEACH — City officials assured the public Friday that a spill at its sewage plant posed no threat to groundwater or public water supplies.

"There is no effect on the groundwater," Utilities Director David Hanks said.

He said the spill, which occurred Monday at the East Central Regional Water Reclamation Facility never unleashed torrents of treated sewage into the ground. The city put the spill amount at 8,500 gallons.

Workers from Whiting-Turner, replacing two aging valves on 48-inch pipes deep underground, had containment measures in place and captured the effluent immediately, Hanks said.
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February 10, 2012
OCALA - The Marion County Commission and Ocala City Council on Tuesday directed their staffs to present a draft agreement Feb. 21 to begin working together on sewer projects that could save the county millions by buying bulk services from the city.

Most everyone who had a stake — officials, environmentalists, developers and citizen watchdogs — seemed to like what they heard during a workshop meeting.

Instead of the county spending roughly $5.5 million to upgrade its Silver Springs sewer plant to help reduce nitrates going to the springs, continue to serve 540 customers and bring sewer lines to a new development north of the city, the city suggested the county connect to its system. The county would then pay the city a bulk wholesale rate to use the capacity in two of the city’s under-utilized sewer plants.
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February 10, 2012
TRYON — Town Council members are discussing the possibility of selling the town's water system in hopes of improving its infrastructure while reducing rates.

Selling the system is one of three options the council will consider, along with keeping the system and continuing with maintenance and rehabilitation, or joining an interlocal water system involving Polk County and its municipalities.
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Dec. 28, 2011
Opponents of the Dunnellon City Council’s plan to buy two additional utility systems are trying to block the move, saying the city is paying too much, will use revenues to fund other city ventures struggling financially, and will hike rates for those brought into Dunnellon’s utility fold.
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Dec. 28, 2011
The next time you go to your kitchen faucet for a drink, think about who owns that water.

Because for every expert who says it belongs to you, others counter you merely have Florida's permission to use it, and you pay only for having water sanitized and pumped into your home.
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Oct. 13, 2011
States facing shrinking revenues approved $23.9 billion in new taxes and fees in 2010. They imposed a further $6.2 billion in taxes in 2011 and proposed $13.8 billion in new taxes for 2012, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers. "Many jurisdictions, many states, many counties, are broke," said Carol Kokinis-Graves, senior writer analyst at Riverwoods (Ill.)-based tax and accounting firm CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business. Along with cutting services, states are getting creative in finding additional revenues.
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Oct. 13, 2011
"Overall, the adjustments to the forecast indicate an economy that is still in the throes of an abnormally slow recovery," said Baker, part of the state's Revenue Estimating Conference, which made Tuesday's forecast.

Budget reserves topping $1 billion will cover the gap in current year spending. But when lawmakers open the 2012 session in January, more cuts appear certain from a Republican-led Legislature that, in concert with Scott, has ruled out talk of tax hikes.

"Today's projections confirm that Florida faces yet another challenging budget year," said House budget chair Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, adding, "I remain confident we can reach our goal without raising taxes on Floridians while also incentivizing the creation of more jobs."

Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said he was "disappointed" in the revenue findings but that the Republican majority "remain committed to our pledge of not raising taxes or fees for hard-working Floridians."

Undaunted by news of the darkening budget picture, Scott plans to begin rolling out portions of his legislative wish-list today in Orlando.

On Tuesday, though, he talked of the need to reduce government regulations, cut taxes, accelerate transportation projects and toughen oversight of Workforce Florida boards, criticized in a state inspector general report for wasteful spending and doing little to connect jobless workers with potential employers.

Scott said he will push for more road-building to spark jobs. Major new roadways would likely be financed heavily by tolls, while Scott also wants to expand "managed lanes," sometimes dubbed Lexus lanes, which have proved generally popular on Interstate 95 in Miami-Dade County.
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Oct. 13, 2011
FORT LAUDERDALE— The spectacle in front of Willene Brockington's front yard last week is why cities are scrambling to spend millions to fix miles of aging water and sewer pipes throughout South Florida.

Water high enough to reach her knees gushed out for hours after an eight-inch water pipe busted last week at the 73-year-old widow's home, at the corner of Powerline Road and Northwest 16th Street. The pipe was first installed there during the 1970s.

Emergency repairs for the leaky pipe called for shutting off Brockington's water for about a day, installing sandbags along her front door, digging a ditch across half her yard and warning her to boil her water. Construction trucks and tall mounds of mud served as yard ornaments for several days.

"The place looked sick," Brockington said on Monday. "I thought they had fixed those pipes."
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Oct. 13, 2011
The former plant operator at a niota, tennessee, municipal sewage treatment plant has pleaded guilty to falsifying discharge reports filed with the tennessee Department of environment and conservation. United States v. Clark, No. 11-63 (E.D. Tenn. filed 9/27/11). According to court records, from february 2008 until January 2011, the defendant routinely failed to treat sewage at the plant with chlorine before discharging it into little north mouse creek in niota. he then created false discharge monitoring reports in which he claimed that the sewage had been treated with chlorine, de-chlorinated and tested for total residual chlorine before being discharged. the defendant faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 minimum fine for each of 12 clean water Act felony counts to which he pleaded guilty. sentencing is scheduled for January 9, 2012.
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Oct. 13, 2011
Tax Increment Finance (“TIF”) has been much in the news recently and, albeit delayed, may well be a way forward for UK regeneration projects that need a little help to make them happen. The potential of TIF to assist is clearly shown by the experience in the United States where it has served as a tool to address funding for redevelopment activities for 60 years. All but one of the 50 states has enacted enabling legislation permitting the use of TIF. As federal moneys to support redevelopment decreased, states and local government turned to the TIF model to invest in infrastructure and to pay the related costs by capturing the increase in property and other tax revenues generated by the improvements.

TIF is used to accomplish a range of public purposes such as elimination of blight, the construction and repair of infrastructure and environmental remediation. In the United States, blight is an important element to the use of TIF. Blight typically means that there are structures in significant disrepair, inadequate street layouts, unsanitary or unsafe conditions or public realm, inadequate public facilities and often environmental contamination. The TIF model may also be used to encourage development by financing basic public infrastructure, including public streets, water and wastewater facilities, car park facilities, storm and sanitary sewer systems and parks and green spaces. TIF usually represents “gap funding” for the private sector, particularly for “brownfield” projects throughout the United States.
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Oct. 13, 2011
In an interview with Brown and Caldwell’s “Water News” e-newsletter, Destin Water Users General Manager Richard Griswold says that a set of federally mandated water pollution standards for the state of Florida have gone “from strange to real strange” and are “woefully short” of being scientifically defensible.

The EPA’s “numeric nutrient criteria,” which will restrict pollution in state estuaries, lakes and streams, have been hotly debated.

“EPA has no guidelines for permitting, compliance or enforcement and has steadfastly refused to develop any,” Griswold says. “Although EPA has said that it is up to [the Florida Department of Environmental Protection] to develop compliance and enforcement regulations, FDEP cannot do that. Under the Florida Administrative Procedures Act, a standard must be scientifically defensible. The EPA standards fall woefully short of that. Now FDEP is hurrying to develop something meaningful and in the short time they have, we all fear FDEP falling short.”
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Sep. 22, 2011
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is among a group of lenders that may face a wave of new lawsuits claiming the system they’ve used for more than a decade to register mortgages cheated cash-strapped counties out of millions of dollars.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said state attorneys general and county officials across the U.S. have expressed interest in his lawsuit against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. and Bank of America, filed in Texas state court on Sept. 21. Dallas County could be owed as much as $100 million in filing fees, he said.

“This is a big new front,” said Christopher L. Peterson, associate dean and professor at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. “This case is scary because if Dallas wins then there are a lot of other counties around the country that are going to follow.”
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Sep. 14, 2011
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (WSVN) -- Voters in one South Florida city voted in favor of modifying the pension plans of city employees, in a move that would help balance the city's budget.
In a special election held on Tuesday, about 56 percent of voters in the City of Hollywood voted in favor of changing pension payouts for police officers, firefighters and other city employees. Roughly 44 percent voted against the pension cuts, in support of the unions.
According to Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, Hollywood's interim city manager, the pension plans take a huge chunk out of the city's budget, and the city can no longer afford them. "We were over 25, 26 percent," said Swanson-Rivenbark, "so if you look at cities around Florida and you also look nationally, we were way higher than what is recommended."
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Sep. 12, 2011
Cape Coral shifted its search Monday for overcharges by its utilities expansion manager to a $96 million water production plant built in north Cape Coral.

City councilmen voted 8-0 to spend $60,000 on a construction audit of change orders related to the water plant instead of using the money to audit three projects that extended utility lines into new neighborhoods.

Auditor R.L. Townsend has told the city it is not unusual to recover 1 percent or more of the costs on major projects. The water plant offers more opportunity for recovery, according to Mayor John Sullivan.
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Sep. 11, 2011
The governing board of the St. Johns River Water Management District meets Tuesday in Palatka to discuss the district's budget and future, grappling with the sea change continuing to ripple down from Tallahassee.

When Gov. Rick Scott and new legislators took office in January, it quickly became apparent that years of complaints by some local governments and development interests that the state's five water management districts were arrogant and imperious had finally fallen on fertile ground.
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Sep. 8, 2011
WEST PALM BEACH — The governing board of the South Florida Water Management District is considering selling Palm Beach Downs, the 85-acre equestrian center west of Delray Beach where Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos trained.

The district bought the land in 2000, at the corner of U.S. 441 and West Atlantic Avenue, for a future reservoir and coastal buffer, as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. As part of the acquisition, Palm Beach Downs retained the right to continue operations on the site rent-free through July 2005.

Under an agreement, Wolf and Siemens, operator of the training center, has been allowed to operate the facility until 2013, after which construction of the reservoir was scheduled to begin. In exchange, the District receives annual rent of $55,000. However, the reservoir is no longer part of the district's restoration program and will not be built.
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Sep. 7, 2011
CAPE CORAL - Do you know how much you're spending on water usage? Numbers show people in Cape Coral pay nearly double compared to others in Lee County. We investigated why Cape water rates are so high and what the city is now looking at that could help customers conserve.

Cape homeowner Ted Leskiewicz says he can't get his water bill under $100.

"My last water bill was $130," he said.

And he says he's tried everything, short of moving.

"We cut down on clothing wash, flushing and stuff like that and it's still extremely high," said Leskiewicz.

Leskiewicz isn't the only Cape Coral resident upset with his water bill.

Cape Coral has the fourth highest utilities rates in Southwest Florida.

And most residents don't even know why, because it isn't on their bill.

"The intent is to enforce economies in people," said Cape Coral Councilman Bill Deile.
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Sep. 7, 2011
PUNTA GORDA, Fla.- Punta Gorda Police Detectives arrested three people today on charges related to the recent thefts reported a loss of water service on September 2nd. It was then discovered that the water meters had been stolen. The stolen meters are made of brass and are valued at more than $2,000.

Those arrested on charges of grand theft, dealing in stolen property and providing false information to a metal detector include:

• Mario W. Miller, 26, of 21475 Gilbralter Drive, Port Charlotte.
• Emily L. Smith, 23, of 21475 Gilbralter Drive, Port Charlotte.
• Keith E. Sadowski, 27, transient.
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Sep. 6, 2011
TALLAHASSEE | Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he will continue on his quest to lower Florida taxes in order to bring more jobs to the state.

"My goal is to make taxes as low as possible because my belief is that lower taxes means we will have more businesses, which means we'll have more jobs," Scott told The Economic Club of Florida.

In his first year in office, Scott backed a $210 million cut in property taxes for the state's water management districts as well as a $30 million reduction in the state corporate income tax, which Scott has vowed to eliminate.
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