Hi all,
As you are aware one of the duties of a UCO VP is to work with CV Unit Owners who come to the UCO Office with issues. You will not be surprised that a key subject of concern in my first two days at the Office is the ghastly condition of the Lakes, Canals and Lagoons.
The principal problem is the Reclaimed Water Agreement. It states, among other things, that the County will provide UP TO 750 thousand gallons per day. This means obviously that virtually any amount they deign to provide is contractually acceptable this includes zero gallons up to a cap of 750K gallons.
The actual amount provided in the 328 days of delivery from inception on Feb. 7, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2008 is 86,888,000 Gallons. This averages out to 264,902 Gallons per day. However it is not so simple; because they provide virtually nothing during some days in the rain season, following is the monthly totals of Reclaimed Water provided to CV in 2008 by month, in Gallons:
FEBRUARY: 3,345,000-----MARCH: 832,000-----APRIL: 26,000-----MAY: 27,651,000.
JUNE: 38,468,000-----JULY: 1,149,000-----AUGUST: 187,000-----SEPTEMBER: 0-----OCTOBER: 0-----NOVEMBER: 15,230,000.
DECEMBER: 0.
Thus if you cast out the rain season days in which we got nothing, and if you assume that the water company does not issue "rain-checks" for days that no water is provided, the numbers start to approach the contractual cap, for those days that it is actually delivered. In short, we have been weaseled!
If you are interested in the Contract, which is hardly friendly to our CV Unit Owners, see:
http://oris.co.palm-beach.fl.us/or_web1/details.asp?doc_id=13489450&file_num=20030515561
Finally, I believe Sal and Pat are writing an article on this problem for the UCO Reporter, which will further explain the situation we find ourselves in.
Dave Israel
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
WATER AGAIN - A CONTRACT
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
Another weasely contract!! I looked, it sez we are toast, dry toast, PBC can do pretty much whatever they want, while escalating charges.
On a lighter note, page 7 appears to say UCO is a Hot-for-profit corporation. If only.
Have you noticed the emerald lawns of the water co facility in the NW corner of CV, go wistfully press your nose against the fence. You will probably be hit by a sprinkler.
Dave: Are we now using ALL the reclaimed water made available to us each day by PBC--not some lesser amount determined by Sal and/or UCO?
Hi Plcruise
Mar 17, 2009 5:11:00 PM,
The problem is that we do not control the turn on valve.
I think we are taking all that the County is willing to give; but the precise answer to your question is, thus far, hard to come by.
In other words; at this point, I do not know!!
Dave Israel
Thanks Dave. I am confident you will let us all know what's what with the reclaimed water and lake/canal situation.
After signing off on that crock contract, the commissioners probably bought some Crocs for their kids, made with real crocodile hide, no doubt.
David, thank you for the info but I have a problem with the interpretation of the Agreement ( That's why we have lawyers and Courts ).
It is all about clause 7 (Responsabilities of County ) and 8 ( Water Supply )
Clause 7 says:....County SHALL provide UCO with a peak instantaneous flow rate of Reclaimed Water not to exceed 750,000 gallons per day....
The agreement says SHALL not will, may, should, would or other similar word.
SHALL is imperative, an obligation, a committment...See Webster definition: used in laws, regulations, or directives to express what is mandatory.
Therefore unless there is a contingency as stipulated in clause 8, the County shall provide water daily...
Clause 8 start with this sentence: This agreement is contingent on the County's access to sufficient quantities of Reclaimed Water to provide UCO with the amount of reclaimed Water provided for in this agreement.
Did the County had access to sufficient quantities of water on a daily basis? That is the question hat UCO must ask?
There is a corrective measure in clause 8 for the County if it failed to provide us with sufficient water.i.e. the Monthly Base Fee ( $3257.) will be adjusted by an amount proportionate to the reduction in service
It seems to me that the County almost meeting its annual complement is not an appropriate justification. The Agreement deals with DAILY and MONTHLY. That is when the corrective measure should apply.
Furthermore the Agreement main caveat is that UCO will use this water for landscape irrigation. This is a daily chore in a Village like ours and it support the main argument that the County SHALL provide the daily peak etc...
Anyway let the lawyers debate that. Andre
Dave Andre is the person who besides others saw a problem asked for solutios continuosly, now in printing this he should be on your committee for water canal restoration if he is ask to by you . AGAIN thank you for getting
info out************************8
I could not read the contract as there was a problem but it appears that again UCO got screwed. I think we need to get a good lawyer at UCO because the one we pay advises UCO into bad contrcts and our UCO people are not smart enough not to allow us to be taken.
Hi Andre
Mar 18, 2009 8:25:00 AM,
Where we are probably cooked is that phrase; "not to exceed".
Reductio-Ad-Absurdum, zero gallons on a given day clearly does not exceed 750K gallons.
It's just a bad contract. It should have read that the County Shall provide 750K Gallons per day, unless CV requests otherwise.
There should also be a specific statement that if we fail to take our full allotment of 750K gallons on any particular day that we get a "Rain Check" for the difference to be taken at a future time by CV request.
Dave Israel
Good point David,
1)Is there someone at UCO speaking on a continuous basis with our supplier to let them know that we are not satisfied.
2)The contract being the problem let's negociate a new one with County. We don't have to live 20 years with a bad contract. Let's use our lobbyist and the Commissionner office if we have to. ( The Washington Way
3) I do not trust the lake
level tool installed by the County. As described in a previous post, it works like a flush toilet bowl mechanism within a plactic tube, the bottom of which is full of sand and weeds and the whole thing is rusted. Let's make sure we are not the victim of a simple element like this one.
I will send a picture if I can on a follow up post.
Thanks Mother Nature we now have water in our canal. Andre
Oh boy what a project! Bring in the FBI
In case any of you haven't notice we were in the midst of a DROUGHT!
With the rain coming I doubt whether the water levels will return to the lows of just a few days ago . The rainy season I believe is coming!!!
Perhaps all of you can now turn your attention to the real problem at hand which is the many foreclosures and empty units in the village which need monitoring.
Health, new people (tenants etc.)and abandonment are the coming scourge.
To Anon Mar 19, 2009 10:39:00 AM; if Century Village looks like a DUMP, we will only get worse with the scourages you mention. People WILL buy here if they think we have half a brain, look clean, and don;t continually fight each other!
Did I say looks like a dump?
What I did say is that there are many problems most of which are not the appearance of the village but do effect the resale values.
However since you did bring up the problem of appearance the Village has not changed in appearance very much since I arrived here approx. 6 yrs ago. The major change has been the planting (by the town or county) of shrubs along the front fencing on Haverhill.
Painting the individual communities has helped to reduce the appearance of a Fort Dix.
Dressing up the 1970's vintage front entrance would also help. Perhaps hiring the same land scape architect who worked on the plantings at the main entrance in front of the club house is the answer.
Post a Comment