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Highlands Today

T-Bird Hill South Owners Happy

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Martin Flux, owner of Thunderbird Hill South Adult Manufactured Home Park, opens a Highlands County Property Appraiser map of an aerial photo taken in 2002 that shows the area of his property in relation to the Landmark Sewer System.

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: October 11, 2008

SEBRING - Residents who are hooked up to the Landmark Utilities Sewer System may wonder what it will cost for sewer service, assuming the city of Sebring moves forward with its efforts to buy it along with a second wastewater treatment system.

There will be charges for use, but there won't be assessments, according to city officials.

As it was previously reported, the city council unanimously approved Tuesday night a contract to buy the Landmark system for $100,000, from its owner David Plank along with the Highlands Utilities wastewater treatment system from Dixon Pugh for $1.55 million.

The city's plans include tying in Landmark's package plant with the Highlands Utilities system, which is located at Cougar Boulevard and Thunderbird Road.

The Landmark system is located on an acre in the middle of the Thunderbird Hill South Adult Manufactured Home Park.

The system reportedly serves about 513 customers, including about 79 homes in the Thunderbird Hill South Adult Manufactured Home Park.

Carol and Martin Flux said Thursday that they bought the Thunderbird Hill South Adult Manufactured Home Park on June 30, 2001.

"This goes back obviously a long time," said Carol Flux, referring to the sewer problems.

"My immediate reaction is it's a great thing," said Martin Flux. "It's been ongoing for 20 years. It took a lot of persuasion. Dave Plank has suffered being in the position that the plant was never engineered properly."

There was originally a concrete wastewater treatment plant that served the park but a package plant was added to aid development at Vantage Point, The Manors and The Villas, he said.

The plant is located directly behind the park's swimming pool and clubhouse and when the wind is right it's not pleasant.

"Everybody who is on the system is responsible for the odor coming from the plant," he said. "It's unpleasant and a deterrent to our business."

There were 44 lots rented when they bought and they have only rented 35 more since they bought the park. There are currently nine empty lots in the park, he said.

Dennis L. Schebig, of New Haven, Ind., said Thursday in an e-mail to Highlands Today that he is presently a property owner in Thunderbird Hill South.

"I own one of the vacant lots," he said. "I hope to retire in a few years and put a home on that lot. I have a vested interest in what has been happening with the sewer for our community."

Schebig said he was curious what costs, fees or assessments were going to be placed on the individual property owners as a result of the sale.

According to City Administrator Scott Noethlich, on Thursday, the answer is none, other than what would appear on customers' sewer and water bills from the city. There will not be tap-in fees for existing customers.

"They're going to pay some form of city rates," he said. "Whether it will be inside rates or outside rates is yet to be determined; that's up to the council."

Maybe it would be a combination of both, inside and later outside of the city rates. Residents used to pay $11 for sewer but many have stopped paying.

"Some currently don't pay anything because they haven't been getting invoiced," Noethlich said. "That's going to change because they get a water bill from the city. Wastewater treatment charges, sewer, will go on their bills."

If they don't want their water shut off, they will have to pay it, he said.

"I would think that all of the residents in Landmark and Highlands utilities are going to be elated," he said, referring to the city's taking over those sewage treatment plants.

The package plant inside of Thunderbird Hill South will never be used again, he said. It will be demolished.

"The users of the system, over time, will pay for that," he said. "There will be no surcharge."

Eventually the revenue generated by the system will pay for itself, he said.

"We used to pay $11 per month," said David Watkins, a resident in the park since 1996. "The guy never did send a bill. We just paid. Maybe that's why he (had problems). As far as the city taking over I have no idea what's going on."

The waste water system has operated without a state permit for about six years, and has been the subject of a lawsuit with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

One reader who identified himself as (dolittle258) said in the reader comment forum of a previous story on the possible purchase said the story was superficial.

"For over five years, I had read in this newspaper that the county would pay the city $2 million to provide service. Now, the city has opted to buy the sewer to the trailer park.

"This is a major shift in strategy, yet the newspaper lacks the fortitude to ask: How do you go from asking for $2 million to service versus actually paying $100,000 to acquire? A theory is that there is petroleum under the sewer plant, so the city can recoup the losses.

Assistant City Administrator Bob Hoffman said Friday the $2 million was a "wild guess" of what it would cost the city to construct a force main from U.S. 27 to the Landmark plant. "The county never indicated it would pay that," he said.

"There was discussion of assessing a non-ad valorem assessment on the of the customer base of the Landmark system to pay that back."

Now with this deal there will be no assessment, he said.

Hoffman said he does not expect to find black gold under the plant.

There are plans to ask the county to help pay half of the $250,000 to $300,000 it is estimated to cost to build the lift stations and construct a force main to the Highlands Utilities system located to the south of the plant, which is about 1,000 to 1,300 feet away, Hoffman said.

The plan, as explained by Noethlich, is to then pump the wastewater west to the Highlands Utilities plant.

Landmark's purchase price includes the property upon which the plant is built, all infrastructure and easements and 23 undeveloped lots included in the deal with Plank that, according to Martin Flux, are in the Thunderbird Hill South II unit.

The deal would also include approval to operate the system "as is" for 200 days, during which the city would ask for a permit to connect the system to the Highlands Utilities system.

As previously reported, the sale price for Highlands Utilities included two sewer treatment plants, and all other infrastructure, territory and a 1,286 customer base, as well as the $150,000 in property upon which the system is built, belonging to Pugh Septic Tank.

"It won't be a burden on the existing city of Sebring utility customers," said Utility Director Marty Roepstorff late Wednesday. "It is in the best interest of the city of Sebring."

Roepstorff said he has seen a movement to move away from the use of septic systems by restricting development in favor of wastewater treatment systems.

"We have to plan 20 years in advance," he said. "We have to be able to provide the services before (the new residents and businesses) come. We need to make sure we are prepared for that growth. We have to be proactive for property owners and customers of the future."

City staff has been instructed to schedule a public hearing on the deal by Oct. 21. A second public hearing would be held two weeks after. If approved, the closing is scheduled for Nov. 20.

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