Is the FGUA a good thing????

"Our basis is the best interest of all the counties of Florida, not just our own counties," said FGUA board member Richard Wesch, who is also Citrus County Administrator. "This authority doesn't operate in a vacuum but operates clearly in the public interest."

"Do we want to have quasi-governments run by bureaucrats making decisions for rate payers?" Rep. Frank Attkisson asked after the meeting. "I don't think Florida wants that. I think it's really dangerous."

"There is nothing to stop members of the FGUA from taking advantage of non-participating counties when it comes to rate making, cost allocation or other factors of the like."
Attkisson also questioned claims that the FGUA has financed professional fees related to buying Florida Water with money taken from a utility it already owns in Osceola County, an area he represents.

Excert form St. Petersburg Times published May 17, 2002

FGUA in Lehigh Acres and the system

The Utility System service area is located entirely within the bounds of Lee County, and is situated 12 miles east of Fort Myers near 1-75 and Southwest Florida International Airport. The Utility System was developed to serve the Lehigh Acres community. A location map of the Utility System is included below. The Utility System covers approximately 60,000 acres of residential and light commercial property in Lee County. The majority of the developed property is single-family residential homes, condominiums, apartments, patio homes, golf course villas, and estates with the commercial development primarily for support of the surrounding residents. The Utility System includes a water treatment plant and a wastewater treatment plant and currently serves approximately 9.3 percent of the area authorized to be served by the Utility System.

Water System

General
The water facilities of the Utility System include one lime softening treatment plant consisting of water supply wells with associated lime softening, disinfection and chemical addition facilities, water storage tanks, and approximately 165 miles of water transmission and distribution lines ranging in size from 2 to 16 inches in diameter.

Water Supply
The Utility System has twelve raw water supply wells providing 2,200 gpm of raw water from the sandstone aquifer. The Utility System was permitted for twenty wells in 1996 and ten wells were constructed. Two wells were permitted in February 2000 and recently constructed. The Utility System operates under the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Water Use Permit (WUP) No. 36-00166W. The permit expires on November 14, 2006: The WUP allows an average daily withdrawal of 2.39 million gallons per day (MGD) and a maximum daily withdrawal of 3.11 MGD.

Water Treatment and Storage
The Utility System is served by one water treatment plant. The treatment train includes aeration, lime softening, pH adjustment, ammoniation, filtration, disinfection, storage and high service pumping. The Lehigh Acres Water System as of May 31, 2005 serves 12,224 connections. (Build out estimated at 153,800 ERCs).

Wastewater System

General

The wastewater facilities of the Utility System include a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), approximately 85 miles of gravity sewer lines, 52 lift stations, 35 miles of force main and 7.9 miles of reuse or effluent force mains.

Wastewater Treatment; Effluent Disposal; Wastewater and Transmission Facilities
The Wastewater Treatment. Plant operates under Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) operating permit number FLA014565. The permitted capacity on an annual average daily flow (AADF) basis is 2.1 MGD. The annual average daily flow to the facility, as of September 30, 2004, was 2.198 MGD AADF. Treated effluent from the facility is permitted to discharge to a 1.020 mgd AADF slow-rate public access reclaimed water irrigation system consisting of three golf courses and a 1 480 mgd on site evaporation/percolation pond. The Lehigh Acres Wastewater Treatment Plant served 9,883 connections as of May 31, 2005 (Build out estimated at 128,000 lots).

Wastewater System Regulatory Compliance
FDEP has recently considered issuing a draft consent order based upon effluent disposal concerns originally initiated with the previous owner of the facility, Florida Water Services. A consent order originally proposed to FWS required repairs and corrective actions to the percolation/evaporation ponds and full compliance with FDEP regulations by May 1, 2003. The repairs were completed and compliance with the scheduled date was achieved The consent order was closed on March 31, 2003, however, the consent order contained the following additional requirement concerning the ponds: “In the event that any discharge occurs from the percolation/evaporation ponds after May 1, 2003 the respondent shall within thirty (30): days submit an application to the Department for a Class I injection well shall be prepared and sealed by a professional engineer registered in the State of Florida. In the event the application is incomplete, within thirty (30) days of receipt of a request for additional information to complete the application, Respondent shall ensure that the information is submitted. Within three hundred sixty (360) days from issuance of the permit for the Class I injection well, Respondent shall complete the construction of the Class l injection well as authorized by the permit. Within thirty (30) days of completion of the Class 1 injection well as authorized by the construction permit, Respondent shall submit the appropriate Certification of Completion of Construction signed and sealed by the project engineer. If the Respondent is unable or unwilling to construct a Class I injection well as provided in this paragraph, the Department reserves the right to seek other relief to require the Respondent to comply with its rules and permits.”
By a letter dated March 31, 2003 FDEP notified Florida Water Services, Inc. that all of the conditions of the consent order were satisfactorily completed and that the case would be closed and put in the inactive file. Closing the case eliminated the condition cited above.

However, the ponds overflowed again, discharging treated wastewater effluent to adjacent canal from the site’s percolation ponds on September 6, 13 and 17, 2003. The un-permitted discharge from the percolation ponds was after significant abnormal rainfall during August and September 2003 (including two tropical storms). On November 17, 2003, the FDEP issued a draft consent order to Florida Water Services, Inc. The draft consent order would require Florida Water Services (and the FGUA upon acquisition of the Utility System) to modify the plant’s disposal system in such a way as to eliminate the discharge from the percolation/evaporation pond and develop a plan to reduce inflow and infiltration into the plant within one year by 50 percent. While it is expected that the consent order negotiations may extend for several months, the FGUA has already addressed both items. Additionally, the FGUA can apply for a limited wet weather discharge, to address abnormal rainfall events such as occurred in August and September 2003 and again in August of 2004. The impact of this permitting solution alternative may result in a reduction in capital improvement funding than currently budgeted.

The FDEP wastewater-operating permit expired on December 17, 2003 and was renewed. The permit contained several key dates requiring certain actions of the Authority to address the Department’s concerns. FDEP did not reintroduce the condition described in the 2002 consent order for a deep well during the permit renewal process, although it could reintroduced as part of the proposed draft consent order.

News that FGUA forget to tell its customers

Lehigh Acres Watchdog, Inc

News that FGUA forget to tell its customers

Lehigh Acres water and sewer customers will soon see regular rate increases,
despite earlier assurances that such rate increases had been capped until 2007.

Under the new plan, residential and commercial customers in Lehigh Acres will see automatic,
“cost of living” adjustments of 2.6% beginning Oct 1, 2005 and continuing until 2010.

2005 FGUA Board Meeting Schedule

Lehigh Acres -- You know have a chance to speak out ---------


October 21st 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Lee County East Regional Library, Meeting Room 1881 Gunnery RoadLehigh Acres, FL 33971


November 18th 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Golden Gate Community Center,Room C4701 Golden Gate ParkwayNaples, FL 34116-5901


December 16th 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Poinciana Community Center395 Marigold AvenueMain AuditoriumKissimmee, FL 34759-4033

Possible conflict of interest with US Water / Wade Trim and GSG ----------

From Bob Monette OPTECH --- FGUA have chosen to ignore the obvious conflict of interest which exists between your Executive Director, Mr. Robert Sheets and the selected firm US Water/Wade Trim. We understood in June that Mr. Sheets and his firm, GSG, have worked as a consultant on behalf of Wade Trim within the past twenty-four months.

Robert Sheets response ---The board of FGUA is aware that GSG prepared a Revenue Manual for Wade Trim to use with its clients in the State of Michigan two years ago. GSG was compensated for its work and has had no contractual relationships with Wade Trim in any proposal or other state since then.

FGUA is proposing to award this major contract to a firm that has priced their service over $ 21,000,000 million dollars higher than the lowest cost proposal of $ 58,000,000. The companies were each clearly told to give our most competitive price with our Proposal. You should not give them “high grades” for all their “promised services”, only to then let them bring their cost down to our price model after the selection. Their price is 36% higher than FUGA’s price for the project. You cannot possibly negotiate down from this price without a SIGNIFICANT reduction in customer service.

Request for Proposals for Utility Operations, Maintenance, Customer Service, and Billing

This RFP was reissued on July 22, 2005.

The procurement schedule is as follows: July 22, 2005 Issue RPF

August 5, 2005 Mandatory Pre-Bid Conference, 10:00 AM (Protegrity Plaza, Sweetwater Training Room, 280 Wekiva Springs Rd, Longwood FL 32779)

August 8-12, 2005 Mandatory On-Site Inspections

August 12, 2005 Last Day to Submit Written Questions

August 16, 2005 Last day the FGUA can issue addendums

August 23, 2005 Proposals due

September 15, 2005 Submittal of Recommendation to the FGUA Board

September 19, 2005 Commence contract negotiations

October 21, 2005 Submit Operations Agreements to the FGUA Board for approval

Oct. 24 – Dec. 5, 2005 Transition period (if required)

Dec. 5, 2005 Commencement date of the Operations Agreements


Request for Proposals for Utility Operations, Maintenance, Customer Service, and Billing
Proposal Ranking
The Request for Proposal (RFP) Evaluation Committee met at the Sweetwater Training Room, Protegrity Plaza, 280 Wechiva Springs Road, Longwood, FL 32779 at 9:00 a.m. on September 7, 2005.

At this meeting they heard oral presentations from the three proposing firms on the Request for Proposals for Utility Operations, Maintenance, Customer Service, and Billing for the Water and Wastewater Systems of the Florida Governmental Utility Authority, issued July 22, 2005.

Upon completion of the oral presentations, the Evaluation Committee ranked the proposals based on the Technical, Business Management, and Financial and Oral Presentation criteria as provided for in the RFP.

This ranking will be presented to the FGUA Board of Directors at their meeting on September 15, 2005 at 9:00 a.m. in the Citrus County Administration Building, Board Room 100, 110 North Apopka Avenue, Inverness, FL 34450 for consideration and final approval to open contract negotiations.

The order of ranking by the Evaluation Committee was as follows:

1. U.S. Water/ Wade Trim Joint Venture
2. Severn Trent Environmental Services
3. Southwest Water/OPTECH

David Orr of Government Services Group, the FGUA'S consultant

for Lehigh's sewer and water system, addressed a number of issues regarding the sewage treatment plant.

He said construction has begun on a project that will expand the plant's capacity from 2.5 to 3.5 million gallons by next year. Orr said this expansion should alleviate any existing problems with treated sewage leaks."Our goal and our focus is to rectify this situation," he said.

Resident Robert Anderson questioned whether this expansion would be sufficient to handle the community's continued growth.

Orr assured him that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection will not allow new developments to connect to the system unless the necessary capacity is available.

Source -- on July 20, 2005 Newstar

FGUA Issues Bonds for more improvements

FGUA Board on Sept 15, 2005 approved the budget for FY 2006 and will issue 25 Million dollars of improvement bonds for Lehigh Acres ---

Will the County be able to purchased since the price will increase by 25 million dollars ????

County asks utility to halt expansion

Commissioners want to buy system

Utility officials are proposing a $56,335,000 expansion project in Lehigh Acres, including lines to 4,100 more lots, more capacity at the sewage treatment plant and a new water treatment plant.

But Lee County Commissioners are asking the Florida Governmental Utility Authority to hold off on those plans to give the county time to purchase the system and make its own expansion plans.

County Commissioner John Albion

said he hopes the county can purchase Lehigh's utility system before the improvement projects get under way.

Ratepayer Alert --------

Ratepayer alert: The corrupted FGUA picks as new operations manager a company that came in with the highest bid by $16 million. Curiously, Citrus County Admistrator Richard Wesch will represent the shady FGUA and negotiate the final contract with the chosen company...

For the --

McIntosh Report dot Com

Water bid comes with higher price tag

The companies picked to operate water services in Citrus and three other counties propose a budget $15.3-million higher than the current operator's proposal.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET Published September 16, 2005 St Pete Times

INVERNESS - The Florida Governmental Utility Authority has used the same company to handle its operations since it took over Florida Water's systems in Citrus County nearly two years ago.

But when Severn Trent's contract with FGUA expires in December, those systems will likely change hands.

That means FGUA customers in Citrus will deal with different people for billing, maintenance and customer service. At a meeting of the FGUA governing board Thursday, several people asked whether the change also means customers will have to pay a higher price.

An FGUA evaluation committee has selected the joint venture of U.S. Water and Wade Trim to manage its 26 systems in four Florida counties - even though its proposed budget is $15.3-million more than the budget Severn Trent submitted.

FGUA systems manager Robert Sheets said the budget proposals made up just 30 percent of the factors committee members considered. More important, he said, were proposals for business management and technical and customer services issues. He emphasized that rates will not increase when the systems management changes.

"I struggle to think how you're going to do that with those numbers," Joe Graziose, Severn Trent's vice president of services, told the board.

Graziose said he was not happy that FGUA had ranked his company second out of the three proposals submitted.

The third company, Southwest Water/OPTECH, withdrew from the process after being ranked last. Last week, Optech president Robert Monette sent an e-mail criticizing the selection process, saying FGUA officials had "chosen to ignore the most responsible pricing for this contract."

His company's proposed five-year budget was $48.7-million. Severn Trent proposed $50.8-million. And Wade-Trim and U.S. Water proposed $66.2-million.

But FGUA officials say those numbers are not set in stone and will serve only as a jumping off point for negotiations.

County Administrator Richard Wesch, who will help negotiate the new FGUA systems management contract, said he was worried customers' costs would increase under the plan Wade Trim and U.S. Water originally proposed.

"I'm extremely concerned about going forward," he said.

Wesch and other FGUA negotiators will have 10 days to hammer out a contract with Wade Trim and U.S. Water. If they can't reach an agreement, FGUA will negotiate a new contract with Severn Trent.

In Citrus County, FGUA services about 11,300 water customers and 5,215 wastewater customers on 11 different systems.

At Thursday's meeting, the FGUA board also approved its 2006 budget, which includes $20.8-million in capital improvements for its Citrus systems.

During the meeting's public comment period, Bob Bennett, chairman of the Pine Ridge Civic Association's water committee, said FGUA officials should focus less on profit and more on improved services.

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com at 860-7309.

More Questions????? --------

Lehigh Acres Watchdog, Inc

After stating an investigation on FGUA and the past involvement of other utilities operators in Lehigh, we find something quite interesting that current Vice President / Director of Technical Services Division of Government Services Group and Director of Operations of FGUA Mr. Charles Sweat was the Vice President Lehigh Utilities and later Vice President of Southern States Utilities, Inc before Florida Water Services purchased the system.

Then my question would be, why hasn’t these issues capacity and future growth been address before and resolved??

Lehigh Acres Watchdog uncovered a document which has Charles Sweat signature on it which talks about a 5.2 million dollar escrow account earmarked for use to construct major water and sewer utility facilities in want is now refer as Woodridge Preserve (Official Record Book 2551 Page 833) Was the water and sewer installed in 1994?

In 2001, in the same development Woodridge Preserve -- First Home Builders of Florida paid Florida Water Services $476,646.88 in Connection, Plant Capacity & Line Extension Fees (Official Record Book 3556 Page 995)

In March 2005, First Home Builders of Florida sold Woodridge Preserve to TIP Land Holding II, LLC --- And now today, FGUA has issued assessment bonds totaling $7,538,000 million dollars for 414 lots – which equals to $1,639.71 per assessed lot on its tax bill each year for the next 20 years --- is this fair --- you tell me??????


Robert Anderson
President
Lehigh Acres Watchdog, Inc
239 369 6223

STOP FGUA

FGUA has issued 25 million dollars of more debt for the citizens of Lehigh Acres
&
7.5 million dollars of special assessment bonds for Woodridge Preserve


In FGUA 2006 approved budget has the following items

New Mirror Lakes Water Treatment Plant 2.5 Million dollars
Reuse Pipeline Expansion 2 Million dollars
Wastewater Collection System Improvements 1 Million dollars
Homestead Force Main Installation 844 Thousand dollars
&
6.6 Million dollars for a Deep Well Injection Plant

BUT THE WORSE OF IT ALL IS
Mr. Robert Sheets &
Government Services Group

Receives per contract a 3 to 4.5 % management fee on all projects

This means Government Services Group
for the fiscal year 2006 will receive

$ 985,000 of your bonded money

Also Government Services Group Bonding Company will
receive a 3% fee for issuing the bonds for the 2005
which equals to –

On the 25 million 2005 revenue bonds – GSG received $750,000
On the 7.5 million 2005 special assessment bonds -- GSG received $225,000

GSG and their other companies will receive 1.96 Million dollars in fees alone this year WHY?????

These fees above does not include yearly operations contract amount that Government Services Group charges FGUA

We told the FGUA board what you think...

Last Thursday [15 september] Jim Fleming, Robert Anderson, and I drove to Inverness to deliver your comments to the FGUA board.

Here's the press release of our road trip: Lehigh Residents Robert Anderson, Jim Fleming, & Mike Welch Comment at FGUA Board Meeting in Citrus County

Inverness, Florida, September 15, 2005:

Lehigh Acres residents and civic activists, Robert Anderson, Jim Fleming and Mike Welch, traveled to Citrus County today to participate at a meeting of the Board of Directors of Florida Government Utilities Authority, (FGUA). The meeting concerned the governmental group's budget, pending contracts, and their aggressive expansion plans for their system in Lehigh Acres and communities in four other Florida counties.

At the meeting the three Lehigh residents heard new information, about planned and budgeted projects in Lehigh Acres. Among the most significant items were: the almost immediate expansion of water and sewer service to 414 lots in Woodridge Preserve at the estimated cost of $9,420 per lot that's over $500.00 and to your yearly tax bill; the imminent construction of a deep well injection system for the disposal of local wastewater, and the 12" interconnect water line running along Lee Boulevard and linking up with the system owned by the City of Ft. Myers at the cost of 1.2 million dollars.

Jim Fleming, a member of the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corporation, and a Supervisor of the East County Water Control District questioned the FGUA Board on their policy of issuing letters of capacity to local developers in Lehigh in light of evidence that their local plant is already overwhelmed by the growing number of hookups and rainwater infiltration. FGUA and Government Services Group staff members said that they had not issued letters of capacity to anyone for the last six months, and hinted that they would not issue and more such letters until the problems were fixed and their plant capacity was increased.

Mr. Fleming also asked if the Board intended to abide by the Lee County Commissioners' request that FGUA stop incurring further bonded indebtedness until the county government had negotiated for the purchase of the Lehigh Acres water and sewer system. The Board refused to answer the question, but did announce that they were in negotiations with Lee County, and that Lee County government had accepted the interlocal agreement to join FGUA, with county utilities director, Rick Diaz serving as a member of their board.

Mike Welch, president of Citizens United Against FGUA, then took the podium and repeated the often raised question of why FGUA was planning to embark on such an ambitious and expensive expansion plan in Lehigh Acres without providing scientific data that establishes an environmental, or any other, need for the massive project. No one from FGUA could answer.

Mr. Welch strongly emphasized that FGUA's grand project would damage the community as a whole, as the many citizens who could not afford the 10,000 to 17000$ tax assessments against their homes. Welch challenged the FGUA to include the people of Lehigh Acres in the decsion-making process in an effort to address the issues of Lehigh's sudden and rapid growth in a way that benefits everyone.

Robert Anderson, the president of the Lehigh Acres Watchdog civic group repeated those themes, and chastised the FGUA and its contractors for poor service and dangerous disregard for the health, safety and welfare of the community.

Mr. Anderson pointed out that the system operator, Severn Trent, had allowed treated effluent to flow into the Lehigh Acres canal system for 43 days, and ignored a potable waterline break for ten weeks, stating that the operators had more important priorities, like repairing the overburdened sewer plant.

Among the revelations at the meeting was the fact that Lehigh Acres water and sewer customers will soon see regular rate increases, despite earlier assurances that such rate increases had been capped until 2007.Under the new plan, residential and commercial customers in Lehigh Acres will see automatic, "cost of living" adjustments of 2.6% beginning this year, and continuing until 2010.

Mr. Anderson pointed out that the interconnect system with the City of Ft. Myers was originally slated for emergency use only, but FGUA reported at the meeting that the interconnect would also be used to address a "temporary" shortfall in water supplies in the local FGUA system. This should alarm Lehigh Acres customers, since the planned construction of the Mirror Lakes water treatment plant is not slated for completion until 2008 at the earliest.

In response to requests by Mr. Anderson, the FGUA Board's next meeting will be held on October 21, 2005, beginning at 10:00 AM at the East County Regional Library on Gunnery Road in Lehigh Acres.

Mr. Welch, on behalf of the concerned citizens of Lehigh Acres, urges all residents to attend to express their opinions of FGUA's services and its planned expansion, which will affect thousands of Lehigh Acres residents for years to come.

ECWCD Press Release ---- on discharge

** PRESS RELEASE **

The East County Water Control District is issuing a statement to the public that there has been treated reclaimed water discharged from the Florida Governmental Utilities Authority's (FGUA) Wastewater Plant into its canal system.

The FGUA will be correcting this problem by building a deep well injection system. This could take a few years. East County Water Control District is recommending that citizens do not eat fish that are caught in Lehigh Acres in the Able Canal west of the Williams Street bridge, nor in Hickey's Creek Canal or in Canal 47-30-3, (just west of the Lehigh Regional Medical Center), until further notice or until the deep well injection system is completed.

The East County Water Control District's canals are not classified as recreational and swimming is never permitted. Please call the FGUA at 368-1615 or the East County Water Control District at 368-0044 for more details.

The Effluent from FGUA is getting deeper

The Effluent from FGUA is getting deeper

An Op-Ed by Jim Fleming

I don't know which is worse, the treated effluent that is being dumped into Lehigh's canals, or the other "treated effluent" that is emanating from Florida Government Utilities Authority's public relations department, but they both stink.

Last week FGUA's systems manager, Robert Sheets, released a repetitive and flowery deodorizer that was disguised as an editorial in the News-Press and the local newspapers.

In his cover-up, Mr. Sheets focused the readers' attention on two themes that I would like to vigorously refute:


1. "A small group of people have tried to advance the idea that FGUA has created and plans to impose new fees and charges for water and sewer services in Lehigh Acres."

The "small group" that Mr. Sheets is referring to consists of myself, Mike Welch, Robert Anderson, Frank LaRosa, Frank Lohlein, David Adams, the local media, the entire board of the East County Water Control District, the entire board of the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corporation (with the exception of FGUA Board designee, Charlie DeFelice), and the vast majority of the informed citizens of Lehigh Acres.

With clever misdirection, and half truths, what Mr. Sheets really said was that FGUA isn't planning to raise rates for the existing, unfortunate FGUA customers who are already paying the highest water and sewer rates in the state of Florida.

No, we are apparently being spared at the expense of all the other property owners in Lehigh Acres. To Mr. Sheets and the FGUA spin doctors, the planned $17,500 assessments for Lehigh Acres residents who are not current customers are not "fees," so we shouldn't keep calling them that. Shame on us. And shame on you Mr. Sheets, a fee, by any other name, is still a fee.


2. "New growth should pay for itself,"

Allow me to again interpret what Mr. Sheets is really saying. FGUA wants property owners who are not hooked up to their system to pay huge assessments whether they like it or not, or whether they need it or not. When he answered the question of why FGUA was doing this, his terse reply was: "Because we can."

Growth paying for growth is a noble sounding ideal, and you've heard me say that myself hundreds of times in forums and my editorials. But that's not what Mr. Sheets means.

Even if you've owned your home or your vacant homesite in Lehigh Acres for over 40 years, and even if you don't want the service, you'll pay for it, or FGUA will slap a lien on your property.

Mr. Sheets, how does assessing a home that has been here for decades fall under your definition of "New growth paying for itself?"

The fact is FGUA is targeting areas for expansion where the population and the homes are among the oldest and most established in Lehigh Acres.

These aren't newcomers Mr. Sheets, and you know it. Many of these people are on fixed incomes and simply cannot afford your oppressive and expensive expansion plans.

What is disturbing about your organization, Mr. Sheets, is that you are not leveling with us. That's why government and the citizens of Citrus County are ready to run you out of town on a rail, and that same sentiment is building here.

Here in Lee County you keep certifying that you have the plant capacity for all these new residential subdivisions that the county is approving. But the fact is you're so far over capacity that you're dumping effluent into our canals.

You are part of the problem in Lehigh Acres, Mr. Sheets, not part of the solution.

Armed with FGUA's phony assurances about having enough water and sewer capacity, the county government is rezoning more of our precious open land for high density residential developments, and you're helping them do it.

What the Lee County planners don't know, or won't admit, is that your 2.5 million gallon a day facility in Lehigh is actually trying to process 3.5 million gallons of wastewater a day in the summer months, largely because of massive overdevelopment and rainwater infiltration. That's right, my wife and I, and your other customers are paying you outrageous rates to treat rainwater!

Your answer to the problem is to obfuscate the issues and dump the excess treated effluent into our canals without telling us. That illegal dumping is prohibited, of course, and you're about to be fined heavily for it. The trouble is, you'll just pass those fines along to us in the form of more "fees."

Yes, Mr. Sheets, "Community support has to be based on the facts." Try giving us the real facts for a change.

And if you were really trying to gain community support, why did you allow a broken potable waterline in Lehigh to run for 10 weeks without fixing it? Why did you send a water and sewer bill of $235 to a widow, who lives in a one bedroom apartment without checking it? And why do you keep insisting that there are only a few malcontents in Lehigh Acres who are stirring up all the trouble?

Trust me, Mr. Sheets, just like the people in other communities that you "serve," the citizens of this community speak with one voice when we tell you that we have no faith in you, your company, your promises or your assurances. And we will not be forced to swallow your "fees" or "assessments," or whatever you choose to call them, without a fight.

Sincerely,

Jim Fleming
Vice Chairman of the East County Water Control District
Founding Chairman of the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corporation
Founding Co-Chairman of the Lehigh Acres Community Redevelopment Agency

Lehigh Acres, Florida