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Highlands Today

Sewer Plant Solution: Give It To The City

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: November 21, 2007

Here's the upshot of Tuesday's Highlands County Commission meeting: the Thunderbird Hills South wastewater treatment plant has operated without a Department of Environmental Protection permit since 2001, it needs hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of repairs, and by January, Highlands County may be forced by state law to take over.

So, after a year of talking about what to do with the plant, located in a subdivision west of Home Depot, county commissioners voted 4-1 to close the plant, connect it with the city of Sebring's sewer system, and apply for a state grant to help pay for the $2.2 million cost.

The plant is owned by Landmark Enterprises, but David Plank has operated it without a Florida DEP permit for the past six years, said County Engineer Ramon Gavarrete.

Because the sewer plant is so close to the mobile homes in the park, it will never be re-permitted by DEP, County Administrator Carl Cool said.

State law requires the county to take over any abandoned sewage plant, and Plank is willing to give up this one if the county will pay off the $100,000 mortgage, and if the DEP is willing to drop its fines, Plank's attorney said at Tuesday's county commissioner meeting.

City utilities director Marty Roepstorff has been studying the feasibility of the city taking over the system. Cool said the estimated cost of shutting down the plant and connecting to the city is about $2.2 million.

Last year, when the issue first came up, County Attorney Ross Macbeth said the good news is that sewer revenues total about $111,000 a year. The plant has about 400 customers in Thunderbird Hills, Vantage Point, Brae Lock Villas, Red Pine Apartments and commercial businesses like Badcock Furniture and Home Depot.

To defray the county's costs, Cool said last year, the county may have to assess the customers more than $30 a month. The average residential customer has been paying $11 a month.

Bob Diefendorf, a county transportation and utilities project manager, presented four options to the commissioners:

- Do nothing and let the private sector purchase the plant. Plank said no one wants to buy it.

- Abandon the plant and connect it to the city of Sebring.

- Purchase the Western Boulevard plant, and tie the Thunderbird Hills customers to it.

- Redesign the Thunderbird Hills plant or build a new plant.

Commissioner Guy Maxcy voted against Barbara Stewart's motion to pursue the second option, thinking the third option might be cheaper.

Other Business

- Edgar Stokes was elected chairman of the board. Andrew Jackson is the new vice chairman.

- The board voted to pay $193,295 to Tindale-Oliver & Associates for the coming year. The firm, which devised the impact fee schedule, will continue to work with the engineering and planning departments to determine future strategies for funding transportation departments.

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