By BEN GRAFTON
Freeport’s City Council held back-to-back meetings in City Hall on Nov. 10. The first of these was a workshop for the presentation of the hydraulic model of the city water system and the second was a regular Council meeting. This combination gave the city a very long meeting: the opening gavel fell at 6 p.m. and the final stroke came about three-and-a-half hours later.
Anna Hudson of Preble-Rish Engineering reviewed the completed hydraulic model for the Council. In the process of building the model confusion from outdated maps had to be overcome and in the process some mains had to be exposed and measured to assure correct data would be used. It was reported that mains in the system vary in size from 1 1/2 to 12 inches in size and it was pointed out that future revisions must be made to the model to provide for new developments and modifications to the system. The model has been checked against actual flows. Calculations use different demand flows for residential, commercial and industrial uses. Information developed shows that upgrades should be made to several mains in the system. The model also indicates that under firefighting conditions there are several “hot spots” in the system.
Engineer Cliff Knauer of Preble-Rish told the Council that a major upgrade of water mains along U.S. 331 will be required to handle the anticipated commercial development along this artery.
The workshop meeting was closed at this point and the regular Council meeting was called to order.
City Planner Latilda Hughes-Neel presented a draft resolution to change the designation of Freeport from a “Rural Area of Economic Concern” to a “Rural Area of Opportunity.” The state office Opportunity of Florida has requested this change. The Council approved the resolution.
Hughes-Neel noted that she keeps up with code violations. There were a total of nine of these violations. Of these five have been corrected, but the others have not been. Rather than bringing these notices to the Council, Hughes-Neel proposes to send them on to City Attorney Clayton Adkinson for action. Adkinson said that when he receives the notices from Hughes-Neel he would like to send the party in violation a letter which includes a 30-day warning to correct the violation. Then if the alleged violator does not respond within the 30 days, he would bring the matter back to the Council for review before proceeding to court action. The Council approved this process.
Adkinson provided the Council with copies of a letter proposal from Walton County stating the conditions under which the Freeport Fire Department, equipment and personnel, would be transferred to the county and become a part of the Walton County Fire Department. Firefighters presently on duty with Freeport would remain assigned to this location. These firefighters would be expected to be rotated among other stations for familiarization in case of an emergency, but they would return to their permanent assignment in Freeport. It was also pointed out that the new ISO ratings have been received for Freeport and for Walton County. Both are 5 1/2, so there will be no insurance cost impact because of this. The Freeport firefighters will be given reasonable time to complete required training. The Council approved the proposal and Adkinson will start work on the agreement to effect the transfer.
Adkinson said, “We have an agreement with the county that was started in May of 2006…They ultimately loaned us $2.2 million [for sewer expansion]… with an interest rate of 3.09 percent. There is some comment made that, ‘Well, we don’t really owe them until people hook up.’ That’s not true. We owe them the 2.2. Our payments are made as the people hook up. We get $2,000 per ERU (equivalent residential unit) per this agreement and that’s how we pay the county. When this was done in ’06 the boom was going on. Everybody believed that…we were going to have a thousand customers hooking up out there and the loan would be paid off within a couple of years. Everybody knows that didn’t happen. We put the sewer line in and the bottom fell out of the real estate market….Eight years later we still have a principle balance of $2,113,941….You are going in the hole, interest wise, about $60,000 per year.”
Adkinson continued, “The county has said, ‘We will change the interest rate to 0.5 percent. We will go back to when we started the loan and we will calculate your interest at 0.5 percent.’ What they are saying is, – ‘of the $369,684 that you have paid,…we will apply $81,221 [to interest] and give you credit for $288,000 in principle.’ …[leaving a] balance of $1,913,000. They would receive a payment of $1 million. The agreement does provide that at a certain point, when the loan is reduced down to a certain amount, they would forgive $400,000. So in effect you will pay $1 million, you will get credit for $400,000 per the agreement and you would owe a balance of $513,429 interest free for a five year period.”
The Council approved accepting the proposal.
Acting Fire Chief Tom Palmer reported that about 150 to 200 people visited the fire station on the 50th anniversary of Freeport’s Fire Department. He also reported that in October the Department responded to 50 calls including 31 medical, three vehicle accidents, one structure fire and two vehicle fires. There were three Tuesday night training sessions for career and volunteer firefighters and maintenance was performed on 50 hydrants.
For the engineering report, Hudson said the design of the Business U.S. 331 sewer project is 70-percent complete and that applications for permits are being prepared. On the Freeport Legislative appropriation water projects: on Oct. 16 they got the two grant agreements for those projects, so they should be implemented fairly soon. On the Northwest Florida Water Management District grant initiative – they submitted in October two separate applications to the District.
Application 1 dealt with upgrades along Business 331- construction of a 10- inch water main to tie in to the existing 10-inch main to run along SR-20 and then running along Jackson Street tying into that 10-inch. That application also included upgrading to a 6-inch main from Madison Street to SR-20’s 8-inch main. Application 2 covers various upgrades throughout the system. They include a 6-inch main on Hampton Road, upgrade to a 6-inch main along Robinwood Drive, upgrade on West and East Mallard Creek to a 6-inch, and an upgrade to a 6- inch main on LaGrange Road.
Councilwoman Kasey Cuchens opened a discussion about the need to upgrade the water meters in North Bay system because of their poor performance – as many as 300 re-reads may occur in a month. She asked John Wood of H D Supply Waterworks to address the Council on this subject. Wood said the system could be converted to automatic drive-by reading Sensus meters which deliver the reading directly into the billing system. Wood said these systems are in service in Molino, Gulf Breeze, Midway, Destin and others. After discussion the Council approved purchase of 710 meters ($118 each) and transmitters ($106 each) and the drive-by unit.
Cuchens told the Council that she would like to see an expenditure approval list so the Council would be aware of expenses and that it could approve them in a public meeting. Adkinson pointed out that in the past a list of expenditures was put into the Council’s information packets. This list could include expenses that had been paid and what expenses were coming up and the Council could approve action on these expenses. City Clerk Gary Mattison will review the problem and present possible ways of providing information to the Council.
Councilwoman Jennifer Laird reported that the keys for the locks on the lights at the Sports Complex have been changed. Her recommendation to change the keys on the remaining secured facilities at the Sports Complex was approved.
Laird then opened a discussion about the fee schedules for using Sports Complex facilities. The existing schedule was approved in 2008. A proposed schedule is broken into non-profit organizations, commercial, non-tournament play, and for tournament functions. These fees are the same across the board for the same class of user. Organizations can come before the Council for waivers. The new prices are very competitive. Action will be tabled until the next meeting.
The Council discussed a new job description for the Parks Director and approved advertising for this position.
Councilwoman Elizabeth Brannon reported that the Working Waterfront flag has been stolen.
Councilwoman Janice McLean advised the Council that a draft of a personnel policy has been prepared. She recommended that Mattison be given some time to settle in before undertaking adopting this policy.
McLean asked the Council to revise the uniform policy for city workers. The present uniform rental is not effective. She recommended a policy for purchasing uniform items for the workers. This proposal was approved.
