MINUTES OF MEETING

PINE TREE WATER CONTROL DISTRICT

 

            A meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the Pine Tree Water Control District was held on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at the Parkland City Hall, 6600 North University Drive, Parkland, Florida.

 

            Present and constituting a quorum were:

           

            Paul Brewer                                                    Vice President

            Donna McCann Benckenstein                        Assistant Secretary

            Neil Study                                                       Supervisor

            Mark Weissman                                              Supervisor

 

            Also present were:

           

            Kenneth Cassel                                               Manager

            Warren Craven                                                Engineer

            Warren Craven, Jr.                                          Engineer

            Randy Frederick                                             Drainage Supervisor

                                                                                                                                                           

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS                             Roll Call

            Mr. Cassel called the meeting to order and called the roll. 

 

SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS                        Approval of the Minutes of the August 5, 2009 Meeting

            Mr. Brewer stated each Board member received a copy of the minutes of the August 5, 2009 meeting and requested any corrections, additions or deletions.

            There not being any,

 

On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Ms. Benckenstein with all in favor the minutes of the August 5, 2009 meeting were approved.

 

THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS                            Consideration of Bids for the Purchase of Chemicals for Aquatic Weed Control

             Mr. Cassel stated this is our annual bid for chemicals.  We are recommending we use Helena Chemical and Pro-Source One.  I believe these are the same two companies which were the lowest bidders last year.  Is this correct Mr. Frederick?

            Mr. Frederick responded no.  Pro-Source One was not, but I think they were the year before that.  We have dealt with both of them over the years. 

On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Ms. Benckenstein with all in favor the bids for aquatic weed control chemicals were awarded to Helena Chemical and Pro-Source One as recommended by staff.

 

FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS                        Manager’s Report

             Mr. Cassel stated I have the final documentation for Tract K.  It came back from the city.  I will send a copy to Mr. Doody for his files and it is in the District’s records.  Tract K has been officially transferred to the District.  The other item I have is we approved the Interlocal Agreement between CSID and PTWCD for services five or six months ago.  It circulated through everything, it was finally executed by CSID and is ready to be executed by you tonight.  It was already approved by the Board.  These are the only two items I have. 

            Mr. Craven, Sr. asked in the discussion regarding the acquirement of Tract K, was there any reference made to the parcel that is so overgrown?

            Mr. Cassel responded they mowed Tract K before we picked it up from them.  Mr. Frederick was out there with them.  The city did go through and mowed the area. 

            Mr. Frederick stated there was only one issue left and I had someone from the city out there.  A homeowner was complaining about the canal bank where there is a little jog at the north end.  He said he mows it and it is not maintainable.  He wanted something done about it.  There were some trees from Hurricane Wilma which were taken out and when they took them out they left the stubs there.  He wanted something done about it.  The city was supposed to look into doing something about it.  I have not seen that they have done anything yet.  We have been going there so this man does not have to do it.  It is our property and not his property so I do not think he has an issue with it.  I might still work with the city on it.  It is not a major issue.

            Mr. Brewer asked is there any reason we should think about letting the residents know it is not their property, but we appreciate their maintenance there?

            Mr. Frederick responded no.  They know it is not theirs. 

            Mr. Weissman stated I think we should make it a point of going out there and doing maintenance on there regardless. 

            Mr. Cassel stated I agree.

            Mr. Frederick stated basically they are mowing the flat areas and my guys are going up there to weed eat the banks. 

            Mr. Weissman stated I think we should make sure we are doing something along the perimeter of all of our property.

            Mr. Frederick stated I agree.

            Mr. Weissman stated let us not do any assumptions because those homeowners change and the next homeowner could assume it is theirs. 

            Mr. Frederick stated there are certain areas we check every month.  This one we took over is going to be our biggest area.

 

FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS                             Attorney’s Report

            There not being any, the next item followed.

 

SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS                             Engineer’s Report  

            A.        Executive Summary

            Mr. Craven, Sr. stated we provided in the agenda package a short report of where we are and what we have done. 

            Mr. Craven, Jr. stated this is a list of items we still need to do to complete the project and this is where we are cost wise through the end of last fiscal year.  The executive summary summarizes what are findings are so far and it points out the items we put on the “to do” list.  We gave a draft copy of the books to Mr. Doody about a month and a half ago.  We are waiting for some feedback from him.  We would also like to get any input from you if there is anything in addition to what we have outlined here that you think needs to be included in the project. 

            Mr. Brewer asked what is your estimation to complete the project?

            Mr. Craven, Jr. responded I think we can wrap it up in about three months or maybe less.  When you look at the breakdown our costs have been under $30,000 so far.  A good portion of it will be eaten up by the survey and we are going to have some additional surveys for the property easements.  I think it may cost $25,000 total to finish the project and more than half of that will be for surveys and drafting time.  We definitely need to get Mr. Doody’s opinion on whether he can stand behind what we provided or if we need to get some kind of title commitment to back it up. 

            Mr. Weissman asked do we expect any problems with any of the easements?

            Mr. Craven, Jr. responded I do not know.  Two of them we are looking for are easements that were already negotiated, but they were never recorded.  I think that is a follow up matter.  The flowage easements are all across public roadways so it is dealing with your city, Coral Springs or possibly the county.  I do not think there is an issue there.  We have a clean title to the north/south canal.  The biggest thing is still the Sawgrass Expressway canal.  That is the question mark and whether Mr. Doody can stand behind it.  The other major issue is maintenance and access to the Sawgrass Expressway canal with the construction of the sound wall and the fact that people are assuming more of the property is theirs than it really is.  We have some maintenance issues there and we will probably need some help from the city to be able to go in and maintain.  We all went out in the field about two months ago.  Everything else is being maintained pretty well, but it is difficult to get to that canal to maintain it. 

            Mr. Cassel asked how do we stand on ironing out all the issues with accesses?

            Mr. Craven, Sr. responded we need to get Mr. Doody on board with regard to the agreement we worked on in 2006 and decide what direction we are going to take.  We think the original draft put too much potential liability on the District for maintaining the culverts underneath the Sawgrass Expressway.  We need to address this and get this agreement in place before we can really go further with the acquisition of all those easements and transfer of properties.

            Mr. Craven, Jr. stated the original agreement was started when the Sawgrass Expressway was still under construction.  It is too broad for what we need right now.  I agree with my father that it puts too much burden on the District.  It is their culvert and all we need is flowage across it; so as part of maintenance of those culverts, that should be their issue.

            Mr. Brewer asked how many culverts do you have?

            Mr. Craven, Jr. responded seven.

            Mr. Frederick stated I believe there are five.

            Mr. Craven, Sr. stated we just never counted them.

            Mr. Brewer stated I was just curious.  It is somewhere between five and seven. 

            Mr. Craven, Jr. stated if you all want to move forward with this and wrap this thing up, we can give you a not to exceed cost once I talk to the surveyor.

            Mr. Cassel stated this finishes wrapping up all the loose ends to make sure we have everything as we originally began to make sure we know exactly what the District owned and make sure we actually had documentation for it. 

            Mr. Craven, Jr. stated the only outstanding issue is making sure the attorney is comfortable with what we have.

            Mr. Craven, Sr. stated we only had one initial meeting with Mr. Doody and he seemed very pleased with the format.

            Mr. Weissman asked do we need to wait until we have another meeting to authorize this expenditure?

            Mr. Cassel responded it is a budgeted item out of the engineering fee.  Based upon prior discussions that this was an additional fund put in the engineering fees to take care of this issue, we can go ahead without having a special authorization.  Because it is a budgeted item we can continue to make it happen and bring the information back to you at the next meeting.  I will follow up with Mr. Doody and Mr. Craven.

            Mr. Brewer asked so by the time we have another meeting we should be able to bring this thing to closure?

            Mr. Cassel responded we should be able to report back to you that we are squared away and we are down to the final negotiations with FDOT.  This way we are good before we hit the next hurricane season. 

            Mr. Study asked what is happening with the problem with BJ’s?  It says there was interference on flow.

            Mr. Craven, Sr. responded when they originally constructed BJ’s there was an open ditch on the north property line that carried irrigation water for us and the FDOT outfall.  It was ultimately piped.  Then they modified the buildings out in front and they had to provide retention in the back.  They changed the piping where it went into the lake crossed it and went into our canal.  They were going to abandon the easement that was on the north property line and give us an easement across the two lakes.  That is where the thing died.  They did not execute the documents providing the easement. 

            Mr. Study asked are we pursuing them or is somebody pursuing them?

            Mr. Craven, Sr. responded since you told us to go ahead we wrote them a letter.

            Mr. Craven, Jr. stated on this subject we are working with Cocomar Water Control District and FDOT.  It is more of an issue for FDOT.

            Mr. Study asked with FDOT and the Sawgrass Expressway, are they maintaining those culverts at this time?

            Mr. Craven, Sr. responded no.  I am really not concerned about “maintenance” as far as keeping them clean.  I am concerned about ultimate collapse at some time.  That would be a cost I do not think the District could digest. 

            Mr. Study asked are we going to pursue this item also?

            Mr. Craven, Sr. responded we are going to talk to Mr. Doody about it.  There is no sign of an imminent collapse. 

            Mr. Study stated I would hope not.

 

SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS                      Supervisors’ Requests

            There not being any, the next item followed. 

 

EIGHTH ORDER OF BUSINESS                         Approval of Financials and Check Registers

            There being no questions or comments,

 

On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Mr. Study with all in favor the financials and check registers were approved.

 

NINTH ORDER OF BUSINESS                            Adjournment

            There being no further business,

 

On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Ms. Benckenstein with all in favor the meeting was adjourned. 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

Kenneth Cassel                                                           Paul Brewer

Assistant Secretary                                                     Vice President