Water district faces elimination in 2011
City officials favor continue district to help pay for future projects
By THOMAS MICHALSKI
| Article published on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008 |
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PINELLAS PARK - A state agency has recommended the elimination of the Pinellas Park Water Management District when its responsibilities of eliminating flooding zones expires in 2011.
Terminating the district is actually one of two recommendations made in the so-called Oppaga Report that is named after the state’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability.
The second recommendation is to allow the district to continue operating and act as a maintenance body to the city’s storm water drains and other facilities.
City officials for the most part endorse keeping the district despite talk that some would like to see the city’s public works division take over the district’s maintenance programs.
Councilman Ed Taylor, a member of the three-person water district board, said the work the district has accomplished since its inception is “legendary.
“But now we must probably redefine its mission from a construction phase to one of maintenance,” Taylor said.
Councilman Rock Butler also is a supporter in keeping the district in place.
“The water district always has been a pay as you go proposition,” Butler said. “If government ran that way we would be in much better shape.”
By eliminating the water district, Butler said, the city would lose a taxing venue for future projects. In this day and age of state-mandated reductions the city could not afford to allow a successful tax district to cease operation, Butler said.
There still are sections of the city that need work to resolve flooding issues. Storm drains, for example, need to be replaced or relined due to age. With a water district millage already in place the city could still get that work done without strapping property owners.
“Essentially,” Butler said, “we would use an existing tax district to pay for those projects.”
In either case, however, the final decision is up to residents who will vote on the water district future during a referendum.
The Oppaga Report said the water district has made considerable progress toward eliminating flooding within its boundaries that includes Pinellas Park and portions of St. Petersburg, Kenneth City, Lealman and unincorporated Pinellas County.
It is expected that the district’s programs will be accomplished by 2011. At that point the district could be eliminated or allowed to continue on in a maintenance capacity. Ongoing still is the Park Boulevard Storm Water Project that is presently in the second of three phases. That project alone has done much to eliminate flooding along Park Boulevard and its surrounding neighborhoods.
The district was created in 1975 by the state legislature. A year later voters approved a public referendum that established the independent district and gave it the authority to levy an ad valorem tax of up to three mills.
It has since spent approximately $47 million on capital improvements.
The district is responsible for managing and maintaining the primary drainage systems while the county and cities handle secondary systems.
Has it accomplished its goals to eliminate flooding? Yes, says the Oppaga Report. It cites statistics that say in May 1979, before most of today’s drainage improvements existed, Pinellas Park and the county experienced enough rainfall to cause $33 million in damages to homes and businesses.
In February 2006 a similar amount of rain fell and damage was limited to only about $3.2 million, partly because water receded much quicker due to the storm drain improvements.
Those improvements also allow changes in flood zone maps that are used by insurance companies and mortgage holders to determine premiums, thus saving property owners thousands of dollars.
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Article published on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008
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