Lakewood Ranch CDD Wrap Up

IDA:
• Town Hall’s new maintenance facility is within budget and ahead of schedule, Operations Director Ryan Heise said. Heise expects the facility will be finished Dec. 29. A ribbon cutting will occur Jan. 9. Staff continues to work on leasing a half-acre of the property to Down to Earth, a landscaping contractor, as a new revenue source. To do that, staff must amend the final site plan to allow a permanent trailer on site.

• Since two signs at both entrances to Town Hall have been installed warning that illegal parkers will be towed, no tickets have been issued at the last two Main Street events — November’s Music on Main and Boo Fest, IDA staff reported.

• Town Hall employees Marie Thompson, a property management coordinator, and Joanne Burnham, an accountant, each were honored for five years of employment.

CDD 1:
• Staff successfully installed six light poles at Summerfield Park basketball courts. Staff is also looking into what it would cost to install similar lights at the tennis courts.

• Supervisors agreed to allow Lakewood Ranch Community Activities to use Summerfield Lake Feb. 22 for its annual fishing tournament.

CDD 2:
• Heise expressed disappointment in the performance of Down to Earth, the district’s new maintenance contractor, so far.

“It’s been a slow start for them,” Heise said. “They went to a biweekly mowing schedule as part of a company-wide protocol without telling us. There have been blatant errors. I’m confident they will take care of it.”
Heise said, at staff’s prodding, Down to Earth has since gone back to a weekly mowing schedule, “until they can afford not to.”

CDD 4:
• Kennedy said erosion-related repairs along a trail behind Greenbrook Adventure Park will begin in early 2014.

CDD 5:
• District Engineer Michael Kennedy and Heise created a list of potential inlet repairs for the board to consider. Suggested repairs include structures in the Ashland, Dominion, SandHills and Twin Hills neighborhoods. Estimated costs for the seven suggested repairs total $108,000. “Let’s put them out to bid and see what happens,” Kennedy said. “This is not a commitment to do repairs. We will just go out and look and go from there.”

CDD 6:
• Discussion about the gate at Balmoral Woods and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard continued.
CDDs 2, 5 and 6 continue to hold monthly workshops, at which they discuss the gate’s fate. The CDDs have promised to delay a decision until after fiscal year 2014.
Supervisors want to find a more efficient way to run the gate and are debating sharing the costs of running the gate.

CDD 6 has the final say on the Balmoral gate because the gate is within CDD 6’s boundaries. Supervisor James Hill suggested the board hire a special counsel to advise the board on the gate issue.
CDD 6 Supervisor Richard Williams disagreed.

“This is a simplistic situation,” Williams said. “We know what the issues are. You only hire a lawyer when you have a dispute. It’s premature to go forward in that manner.”

Currently, the Balmoral gate has transponder-only access from 10:30 p.m. until 6:30 a.m., and a security company mans it during the day.

During public comment, Tom Willson, of the Silverwood community, expressed concern about recent burglaries in Lakewood Ranch — and how the management of the gate issue might contribute to them.
He said making the gate transponder-only access 24/7 would help deter criminals.

“If you don’t have a transponder, you can’t get in,” Willson said. “With a manned gate, people can say anything they want and get in. Times have changed, and you should pay attention to what’s happening in the community.”

All CDDs:
• The Department of Environmental Protection will walk the Braden River sometime next year because it has been declared an “impaired body of water.” Kennedy said as part of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permitting process, the DEP will inspect the water to ensure the discharge that runs off into the river is appropriate.

The DEP wanted the districts pay for the inspections, but Kennedy and Heise declined. Manatee County also was not receptive to doing so. The inspection will come at no cost to the districts.

“This is no big deal,” Kennedy said. “The DEP will make sure lift stations are working; dog park protocols are being followed; and that grease traps at shopping centers on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard are functioning.”

• Town Hall will host a Sunshine Law and Ethics Seminar 9 a.m. Dec. 12.

• Town Hall is closed Nov. 28 and Nov. 29 for Thanksgiving.

• Staff prepared its phase one quarterly irrigation report.

The report looked at the progress of the soil moisture-sensor rebate program and the efficiency of a three-day-per-week watering variance for common areas granted by the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

The amount of water usage districtwide went down in October, even though it was a primarily rain-free month.

“This was about looking at the low-hanging fruit, the things we could tackle now, so to speak,” said Eva Rey, Town Hall executive director. “There’s been a lot of progress. We’re right on target.”

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected]