MINUTES OF MEETING
CORAL SPRINGS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
The regular meeting of the Board of
Supervisors of the Coral Springs Improvement District was held
Present and constituting a quorum
were:
Robert Fennell President
Karl Miller Vice President
William Eissler Secretary
Also present were:
Gary L. Moyer Manager
Donna Holiday Recording Secretary
Dennis Lyles Attorney
John McKune Engineer
Roger Moore Engineer
Stephen Read Resident
Robin Wyckoff Resident
Joe Schwartz Resident
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll Call
Mr. Fennell called the meeting to
order and Mr. Moyer called the roll.
THIRD
ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of
the Minutes of the June 24, 2002 Meeting
Mr. Fennell stated that each Board
member had received a copy of the minutes of the
There not being any,
On
MOTION by Mr. Miller seconded by Mr. Fennell with all in favor the minutes of
the
SECOND
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration of
Appointment of a Supervisor to Fill the Unexpired Term of Office and Election
of Officers
Each of the four persons interested
in the position of Supervisor gave a summary of their background and interests
after which there was a brief discussion and,
On
MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Mr. Miller with all in favor Mr. William
Eissler was appointed as Supervisor to fill the unexpired term of office.
Mr. Moyer being a Notary Public of
the State of
Mr. Moyer outlined the sunshine law
and the public records law.
On
MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Mr. Miller with all in favor Mr. Eissler was
elected Secretary.
FOURTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Public Hearing to
Consider the Adoption of the General Fund Budget for Fiscal Year 2003 and Levy
of Non Ad Valorem Assessments
Mr. Moyer stated this is the same
budget that was in your agenda package with one change and that is in the
2001/2002 column which is what we are currently operating under. Under the revenue section the 2002/2202 was
shown as the 1999/2000 amounts. This
handout changes that to show you the correct number. The budget is broken down into the same
categories that you are used to, revenues and under expense is administrative
and field operations. Without getting
into a lot of detail you can see the total levy last year was $895,867 and this
year we propose $858,992 which brings the per unit assessment down from $83.71
to $80.27. We are reducing the
assessment by a little over 4%.
Mr. Miller stated insurance rates
are going up about 30% and I don't know that you have enough in the insurance
category to cover that.
Mr. Fennell stated it is only $5,000
and we can probably handle that out of contingencies.
Mr. Fennell opened the public
hearing and there being no comments or questions on the budget, the public
hearing was closed.
On
MOTION by Mr. Miller seconded by Mr. Eissler with all in favor the general fund
budget for fiscal year 2003 was approved and the Resolution 2002-3 levying the
assessments was approved.
FIFTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Award of Contracts
A. Water
Supply Wells 8, 9, 10 and 11
Mr.
McKune stated two issues were raised at the last meeting on this contract, the
dollar amount of the bid and the number of wells needed. I will first cover the amount of flow that we
need from the wells and why I am recommending four new wells.
At
the top of page one of the handout I show the installed capacities of all the
existing wells. We have seven existing
wells. When they were initially drilled
anywhere from 5 years ago to 25 years ago depending on which well we are
talking about, you can see the original capacities in the first column add up
to 9.64 MGD and if we were to take the largest of those wells out of service
which is 1,400 gallons per minute, we would end up with what I call the
"firm wellfield capacity" of 5,300 gpm which is equal to 7.63
mgd. That is slightly in excess of the
build-out need for this system.
Consequently the system was nicely sized at that time based upon the
original output of all of the existing wells.
Over time the yield from any individual well will degrade because of
iron bacteria that grows back into the formation and it tends to restrict the
passage of water into the wells. After a
number of years it usually reduces down by 20% to 30%. This can be postponed and delayed by having a
regular maintenance program but it cannot be eliminated. That is inherent in well operation. As you see on the right side, the current
installed capacity is 3,600 gpm which is equivalent to approximately 5.2
mgd. That is less than the build-out
capacity. consequently, we need to add
supply. That is one issue, the actual
installed capacity. The more important
issue is how much of this water supply is available to you on an emergency basis
which is basically when Florida Power & Light goes down, during a hurricane
and during which time we need to run our engine generators on site to provide
power to the wells. Currently, we only
have three wells, the original wells 1, 2, and 3. As you look at the bottom of the page, the
installed capacity is 2,100 gpm for the first three wells, originally. To that amount we can add flows that we can
receive on an emergency basis from the City of
This
will give us a total emergency supply capability of 6.47 mgd and if I allow for
one of those to be out of service, I end up with 5.4 mgd which is in excess of
our total average daily flow which is a good reliable system.
Mr.
Miller asked wells 4 through 7 are not connected to our emergency power?
Mr.
McKune responded that is correct. They
are too far from the plant. Wells 6 and
7 are on the other side of the park on
Mr.
Miller asked why do you have two wells subtracted from the total?
Mr.
McKune responded when you look at the total installed capacity, you add up all
the wells. When you consider what is
known as the firm capacity, as you add wells, you need to take a certain fixed
percentage of that capacity out of service for maintenance. By the time you get over 10 wells, I prefer
to take 2 wells out of service. We have
well 4 totally out of service at this time which was unexpected. The operators are having trouble getting a
good water quality clearance from the well.
We are going to have to rehabilitate that particular well and we have to
do that right away. That is the kind of
thing that can happen and the more wells you have in service, the more likely
it is that it will happen to more than one well at a time. That addresses the water quantity issue.
I
believe you had a problem last month with the cost of new wells. We have reviewed these costs. The low bid was $1,425,270.00 for four
wells.
Mr.
Miller asked is you worst case scenario that two wells may go down at once?
Mr.
McKune responded yes.
Mr.
Miller asked could another engineer use one?
Mr.
McKune responded yes.
Mr.
Miller asked how much would it save us to go with two wells?
Mr.
McKune responded each well, based on the bids that we received represent
approximately $220,000 out of the $1.4 million.
The reason you don't get one fourth of the total cost reduced is because
the $1.4 million includes not only the wells but all the piping from the plant
going to the wells, all the power going to all of the wells, modifications on
site to the emergency transfer switches and all the connections required on
site. We have electrical controls,
piping and the wells. If we were to
install less than four at this time, there are certain components of the four
wells that I highly recommend that we leave in.
For example, don't downsize the piping, run the piping as far as you
can. The power should go in now because
at some future date you want to put in the wells, you will want to simply plug
in the one site. One other consideration
is the location of all four wells within the city park. The city has been very cooperative in
allowing us to put these in the park now.
We have an easement that has been agreed to. We have received a permit from the Broward
County Health Department for all four wells.
Strike while the iron is hot because two or four years from now the city
may not want two additional wells if we only put in two now.
Mr.
Eissler asked how far apart are the wells?
Mr.
McKune responded 800 to 1,000 feet.
Mr.
Eissler asked can the aquifer sustain that?
Mr.
McKune responded yes. One thing that we
try to do to minimize the impact when we have two wells in close proximity is
to rotate the wells. Normally when you have
average flows with average rainfall, you don't need to run all the wells at the
same time. We put groups of wells in
rotation. That allows the aquifer to
rest.
Mr.
Miller stated you have made the case for the need of the number of wells.
Mr.
McKune stated the low bidder has very reasonable prices, most of them below our
estimates for all of the line items with one exception and that is a big
one. The production wells. Our estimate was a unit price of
$70,000. The low bidders amount is
$123,000. I blew the estimate. We put in six wells almost identical to these
in North Springs about four years ago and they were $65,000 each. We raised it for the estimate to
$70,000. In talking with other
hydrogeologists around the state after we received these bids, they were not
surprised at the number even as you read across the bid tabulation, the numbers
range from $72,000 up to $110,000. There
was quite a range from the bidders. The
hydrogeologists tell me that over the past five years what we could get for
$65,000 is now being obtained from anywhere from $110,000 to $140,000. That is how much well prices have gone
up. There are two reasons for that. All of the drillers are busy. That may not last for a long period of
time. The second reason is because of
general escalation and the cost of the materials and labor involved in drilling
wells. Mr. Moyer and I discussed the
possibility of deferring the construction of one or two of these wells. I do not recommend doing that because there
is no guarantee that a rebidding will result in a cost reduction. There is no guarantee that in a rebid
situation that we will have cooperation from the city to come back into their
park. The prices are high but
unfortunately that is the going cost.
Mr.
Eissler asked when would you award the bid?
Mr.
McKune responded I will award the contract the day after the Board approves it.
Mr.
Eissler asked if we choose MGI who sits down with them and goes over the
bid? Do you do that?
Mr.
McKune responded the bid is a firm price that will be entered into with the
contractor. It is not subject to
negotiation.
Mr.
Moyer stated once we award the contract we can sit down with a contractor and
do what is called value engineering and that is to try to negotiate but because
this is a government and this is a sealed bid process you have to award the
contract for the bid price.
Mr.
Eissler stated in private industry you don't always go with the low bid and you
sit down with the contractor and negotiate.
Mr.
Lyles stated we essentially are not permitted to do that. We are following some well established
state-wide statutes and rules that apply to competitive bids for public works
projects. You are not allowed to
disregard the low bid and take the one in the middle that is often done in the
private sector. We are required absent
some evidence of inability to do the job or some compelling factor, to take the
low bid. Once you award the low bid,
there are provisions for change orders to add to or delete costs from the job
and that sometimes happens. In terms of
the award of the bid, the stage you are at now, you are at a point where you
need to award it to the low, responsive and responsible bidder.
Mr.
Eissler asked who oversees this project?
Mr.
Lyles responded a combination of the consulting engineer and the in-house
engineer.
Mr.
Moore stated this project is unique in that we are working in the middle of
four soccer fields and we have worked out extensive usage with the parks
department of the City of Coral Springs.
Mr.
Fennell asked are you familiar with MGI?
Mr.
McKune responded I know their project manager and the driller they are going to
use, we have used in the past.
On
MOTION by Mr. Miller seconded by Mr. Eissler with all in favor the contract for
the water supply wells 8, 9, 10 and 11 was awarded to MGI in the amount of
their low bid of $1,425,270.00.
B. Rehabilitation
of Three Water Treatment Units
Mr.
Moyer stated we had hoped to have bids to submit to the Board for rehabbing the
accelators in the water plant. We
currently have three. That bid is
currently on the street. We postponed
taking those bids so that the engineer can add certain items to be included in
the bid that we found to be necessary.
We anticipate the rehab of all three accelators will be about
$150,000.
Mr.
Fennell stated we did some work not long ago.
Mr.
McKune responded we are in the process of completing the improvements to the
high service pump station. This work is
basically rehabilitation of the interior portions of the wells.
Mr.
Moyer stated it includes sandblasting, painting, rewelding, adding new steel
where necessary. We did that recently in
North Springs and we think the $150,000 for the three is a little overstated. We want to be on the conservative side because
we want to get that work done during the rainy season because the demand on our
water system is lowest during the rainy period.
There are two ways to do this. We
can call you back in and have a special meeting to award that bid or given the
parameter that it will be not more than $150,000, we can ask the Board to
delegate to either me or your President the right to award that bid if it falls
within the parameter of less than $150,000 and if there are no bid protests or
any discrepancies in the bidding process.
We do want to get it going as quickly as possible. It is your choice. We will be glad to have you back.
Mr.
Fennell stated we need more of an explanation.
Mr.
McKune responded we have three water treatment units and the work to be done is
the same on each. These are big steel
tanks and we have what is known as lime softening process going on within the
tank and over time the lime cakes on the side of the steel and builds up to the
extent that the moving parts get out of balance and freeze up and can't work
properly and the treatment degrades.
Periodically you need to take the plant out of service totally, let it
dry out and get in with chipping hammers and clean off the inside. It is very labor intensive and will take
weeks to clean it out. You then
sandblast it at which time you can determine what metal repairs are
needed. You may have corroded or eroded
metal in the rotating portions or at what is called the splash zone at the
water surface, you may have rust that has almost gone through the plants, the
steel shelves and effluent trays on the top.
After it is sandblasted we will get in there with the contractor and
determine what repairs are necessary inside.
Since we can't predict what that is going to be what we have done in the
bid specification is put in an allowance number for miscellaneous metals
repairs. When we identify what needs to
be repaired we will draw against that numerical allowance. We feel that is high enough to do the repairs
we anticipate.
Mr.
Fennell asked how often do you think each tank needs to have this done?
Mr.
McKune responded normally about every five years will be sufficient.
Mr.
Miller stated I thought we did that.
Mr.
Moyer stated we rehabbed the filters and we took down one tank.
Mr.
Moore stated we cleaned that one. Once a
year or so you can take a tank down and take some of the lime off. This is extensive rehab that we have
bid.
Mr.
Fennell asked how long does it take to do the work?
Mr.
McKune responded by the time we are done, it will be at least a month on each
one. After you clean it and sandblast it
and prepare the metal, you have to paint it.
The painting by itself is a big job.
On
MOTION by Mr. Miller seconded by Mr. Eissler with all in favor staff was
authorized to award the contract for the rehabilitation of three treatment
units to the lowest, responsive and responsible bidder in an amount not to
exceed $150,000.
C. Underwater
Diving Services
Mr. Moyer stated each year we employ
a diver to go through our culverts to check to see if they are damaged or in
any way obstructed with debris or material that washes into the culverts. We received three bids, the low bidder is S.
G. Pinney & Associates for $7,400.
Mr. Moore stated Mr. Schooley
mentioned that this company bid on all of the Districts and he was concerned
that they would not honor their bid because they were low bidder on one
District only. He asked if we could
award the bid to the low bidder and if they did not honor their bid, that we
could go with the second low bid.
Mr. Lyles stated the bid specs don't
say that you are bidding on three jobs.
It says you are bidding on one job.
It is not unusual to go to the second low bidder when you have a problem
with the lowest bidder but usually that is done after the low bidder tells you
that he is withdrawing his bid.
Mr. Moyer stated let's get the
answer on whether the company will honor their bid before we go any further.
After a brief discussion this item
was deferred until the next meeting.
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Staff Reports
A. Attorney
Mr.
Lyles stated as you know from last month and reviewing the minutes there was an
extensive discussion with representatives of Eagle Trace and you authorized
staff to go forward and work with Eagle Trace and their representatives to
develop a plan for dealing with some of the canal bank maintenance issues
between Eagle Trace and the Sawgrass Expressway, property that is under the
jurisdiction of this Board and owned by the District. We haven't gotten anything new from the representatives
of Eagle Trace. I believe they were
going to put together a plan that contemplates upgraded landscape materials and
upgraded maintenance expenses and they may not have those numbers put together
yet. Because it is an important item I
wanted to let you know that we are not dragging our feet and no one is refusing
to meet, it is just that I think they are getting their numbers and their plan
put together. They will come to us and
we will try to reach that compromise that you authorized us to work on with
their representatives and we will have that in front of you as soon as we
can. As of this month, we have nothing
new and we don't have hard numbers to give you.
I expect it to be forthcoming. It
should not be anything that would effect your budget process. It will be a modest figure that can be
handled under the figures already approved in the public hearing you had a few
minutes ago.
Mr.
Eissler stated although I have never attended an Eagle Trace Homeowners
Association meeting, I live on the canal you just talked about. When it comes up as an issue before this
Board, I know you can't serve two masters.
Mr.
Moyer stated we had a very good discussion that outlined all the issues at the
last meeting and the minutes of that meeting are in the agenda package that you
have. You will want to review those
minutes. The conclusion was that we are
all going to try to work together to get something done that will be beneficial
for everyone.
B. Engineer
1. Monthly Water & Sewer Charts
2. Update on Construction
There
being no further report or discussion, the next item followed.
C. Superintendent
There
not being any, the next item followed.
D. Complaints
There not being any, the next item
followed.
SEVENTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Supervisors Requests
and Audience Comments
Mr. Miller stated it was nice to see
the response to the ad about the vacancy and I would like to put a display ad
in the paper in the future whenever there is a vacancy on the Board.
EIGHTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of Invoices
On
MOTION by Mr. Miller seconded by Mr. Eissler with all in favor the invoices
were approved.
Meeting adjourned at 6:05 p.m.
William Eissler Robert D.
Fennell
Secretary President