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After a decade of free city water, Cory Lake Isles will pay for meters |
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Article Courtesy of The St. Petersburg Times By Dong-Phuong Nguyen Published January 28, 2010 NEW TAMPA — The Cory Lake Isles taxing district is willing to pay a reasonable price to install water meters to irrigate portions of its common areas, but it will not foot a $36,000 bill to cap the lines, the board decided Wednesday night. Board members are trying to act quickly to resolve an issue involving the recent discovery of illegally installed sprinklers throughout the exclusive North Tampa community. If they don't act swiftly, the city has threatened to go in and disable the system. For years, perhaps more than a decade, free city water has been used to irrigate at least 36 spots that make up common areas in the gated enclave. Board chairwoman Kerri Ringhof and water department spokesman Eli Franco have gone back and forth in recent weeks over a major roadblock: responsibility. Cory Lake Isles was developed by Gene Thomason, who paid the irrigation bills through his company, Cory Lakes Limited. Residents paid Cory Lakes Limited thousands of dollars each year for operations and maintenance costs, which included watering. However, with the discovery last year of the illegal installation, it appears that the money residents paid never went toward the irrigation, Ringhof said. The city estimated that the labor cost to cap the lines or install meters, or a combination of both, would be at least $36,000. Meanwhile, the board got an independent estimate of $21,000, but the city refused to let anyone else do the work. In an e-mail to Ringhof, Franco asked whether the board acknowledged that it had the "responsibility for correcting the current situation." "In the absence of a clear written response from you on the questions that I have requested an answer on, we will have no alternative but to take the appropriate steps" to cap the lines, he wrote. Board members argued that they inherited the problem. In a unanimous vote, the board agreed that if the city wants to cap the lines at taxpayers' expense, then so be it. However, the board is willing to negotiate with the city to install meters. "Did the CDD (taxing district) do the illegal installation? The answer is no," said board member David Burman. "Once we say it's our responsibility, the whole world is going to cave in." Neither Franco nor Thomason returned calls for comment Wednesday evening. |