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Delays stifle drainage improvements

A bid to solve the Courthouse Annex problem comes in too high. Complexity and timing also are issues.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published September 22, 2005

INVERNESS - Fixing the ongoing drainage problems at the Courthouse Annex will just have to wait a while.

County officials had been prepared to recommend next week that the County Commission approve the only bid they had received for the job. But that bid came in at more than twice the $180,000 budget.

Now, several things have delayed the plan. But price is only one of three reasons, Assistant County Administrator Tom Dick said Wednesday.

The project to widen and deepen drainage ponds at the Courthouse Annex, and then pipe excess water into Lake Henderson, has been put out to bid twice before. The first time, both bids topped the budgeted amount and were rejected. The second time, there were no bidders at all.

On the third bid last month, only Lyric Services of Brooksville submitted a bid, and it was for $383,000. Dick had said previously that the county could find money in a couple of funds to cover the difference between what was budgeted and what the contractor wanted.

But Wednesday he said that he and other officials still believe the price is "awfully high."

Another complication: Contractors familiar with the work have said the job will be difficult. Digging the deeper, larger drainage ponds while they are full of water will require a plan to put the material dug out of the ponds somewhere where the water can drain out. No such plan for that "de-watering" was submitted by Lyric Services, and the Southwest Florida Water Management District has told the county that such a plan is needed, Dick said.

The third reason for the delay: a special event is planned on the Withlacoochee State Trail this fall, and event planners do not want the trail disrupted. The project calls for excess water to be piped from the annex property on North Apopka, under the trail, and then into Lake Henderson.

Although the county's plan calls for creating a small section of temporary trail while that work is going on, Dick said the county has decided to wait.

Dick said Lyric could be asked to freeze its bid for 90 days, but he did not expect that to happen. If Lyric decides to step back from the project, then the county would bid it again, possibly toward the end of the year when the weather is drier and there won't be an issue with the de-watering process.

The Courthouse Annex, which houses the property appraiser and tax collector's offices, opened in May 2003. Even before that, the water management district had seen that the ponds did not drain properly. One month later, a major rainstorm flooded the site and the property of next-door neighbor John Godowski.

"Swiftmud is not telling us that we have to do it (the fix) immediately," Dick said Wednesday. The agency has required the county to pump water from the site regularly to reduce the danger of neighborhood flooding. Water has been pumped from the site at various times during the past two years.

The engineer who designed the drainage, Troy Burrell, is facing negligence charges by the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. Burrell has refuted the licensing board's findings and is set for a hearing before an administrative law judge in December.

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 22, 2005, 01:03:19]