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Highlands Today

School Board Holds Off On Reclaimed Water Line

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: November 29, 2007

AVON PARK — The Highlands County School Board will not have to pay for a reclaimed "gray water" pipe hook-up at Memorial Elementary School until the city's reclaimed water lines reach within 500 feet of the school.

In a split 3-2 vote, the council accepted the compromise in the agreement. Council members Doug Eason and Brenda Gray cast the two dissenting votes.

School board attorney John McClure proposed amending the original utility agreement between the city and the elementary school so that the school board would hook up to the gray water system when it was "reasonably available." By "reasonably available," the altered agreement means the school would wait until development came up next to the school, bringing the line within 500 feet.

Initially, the school board was asked to pay for 9,000 feet of "purple pipe" to hook into the city's proposed reused water system. The estimated cost for that was $180,000, and the water would not have been available for years after the school's opening date in August.

City Manager C.B. Shirey said the city anticipated "having the capability for gray water by 2010."

McClure and the school board argued that the school board was paying for a water line where the water may not be available for several years. McClure also opined that the original agreement would ave effectively forced the school board to buy a water line for future, private development between the new elementary school and the rest of the city.

"We don't have any problems paying our pro rata share," McClure said. "But ... we're being required to pay for the up-sizing costs for development that isn't even scheduled to begin until 2014."

Councilman Joe Wright, who supported the agreement, sympathized with McClure's argument and also thought a long reuse line into the south of the city would be a risky project.

"It's almost as if we're asking the school board to pay for the line to Memorial Gardens, and the same city taxpayers pay school taxes," he said. "It just seems a little speculative, and if this is our start, it's hard to justify 9,000 feet of pipe for this."

Gray, however, questioned how much of the water line's cost would then be dumped on Avon Park's taxpayers under the agreement.

Avon Park has been planning a new gray water system that would use treated, reclaimed water from the sewers for irrigation and lawn-watering purposes.

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