The Project Wide Advisory Committee got great news Monday when members learned their budgeted expenditures for the 2018-19 fiscal year will be $900,000 lower than originally anticipated.
“This is great news,” said Supervisor Dennis Hayes, who represents Community Development District 8 on PWAC.
PWAC had braced earlier this year for an expected $1.9 million increase in the budget.
PWAC shares maintenance costs for 290 retention ponds, 27 miles of multi-modal trails, 700 acres of preserves, 387 acres of wetlands and 19 entry pond fountains. Sharing the costs acts as a type of insurance policy.
You can see the complete document discussed at the PWAC meeting at this link:
http://www.districtgov.org/committees/PWAC%20Fund%20Overview.pdf
District Manager Richard Baier reminded PWAC that CDDs north of County Road 466 “go it alone” and in some cases, such as CDD 4’s $560,000 initial bill for sinkhole repairs, that can be a daunting challenge.
The $900,000 savings includes $195,000 in electricity in the Village of Fenney and elsewhere in Community Development District 12 because the City of Wildwood will be responsible for street lighting. The bulk of the $900,000 reduction came from $670,000 in savings in landscaping, including some costs which were removed from PWAC and transferred to the CDD 12 budget.
None of the CDDs participating in PWAC have proposed increases for next year in the maintenance assessment rates. However, some supervisors have expressed concern about the growing costs for PWAC.
PWAC has $3.9 million in working capital and some of that money will be used to soften the blow of the remaining $1 million increase.
There was a split on how to react to the good news.
CDD 7 Supervisor Jerry Vicenti favored giving “the money back to the residents.”
However, CDD 10 Supervisor Don Wiley reminded fellow PWAC members about the looming expense of the rock revetment project at the island that supports the Morse Boulevard Bridge.
“We should keep this roll of bills in our pocket for an expense we know is coming,” Wiley said.
The revetment project has been estimated to cost $1.7 million, but that estimate is already a couple of years old. Nothing is happening at the moment as the water level at Lake Sumter needs to come down so the status of the erosion at the island can be examined.
The PWAC budget called for using $280,642 from working capital to hold down the costs to the CDDs. PWAC voted to tap into an additional $180,000 in working capital for that purpose.
Final approval of the PWAC budget is expected in September. Several of the south-of-County-Road-466 CDD boards will be meeting this week and will likely share in the joy of the news about the PWAC budget reduction.
