Leesburg City commissioners approved an amendment Monday night that alters an agreement with the South Sumter Utility Company regarding wastewater.
The commissioners agreed to spend an additional $115,023 in an $8.48 million project designed to serve bulk wastewater needs and deliver reuse water to homes that will be built in The Villages portion of Leesburg, known as the Villages of West Lake – a 1,127-acre parcel of land located north of County Road 470 near the Turnpike. The city is working in a partnership with South Sumter Utility Company on the project, which eventually will include 2,800 homes.
The additional money is needed because it’s been determined that the path of a reuse water extension line needs to be altered to avoid wetlands and eliminate potential future maintenance problems. The pipe’s new path won’t be a direct line as was originally planned but is a needed modification, City Manager Al Minner wrote in a memo to the commission.
Also Monday night, commissioners approved a resolution with the South Sumter Utility Company to enter into a 60-year agreement for the city to provide 3 million gallons daily of wastewater service at the Turnpike Wastewater Treatment Facility. The previous agreement had been for 30 years and both parties agreed Leesburg should provide the service for a much longer period of time.
Commissioners also heard the first reading of an ordinance that amends a non-exclusive water use franchise with the South Sumter Utility Company. The ordinance excludes from the agreement about 531 acres south of County Road 470 that The Villages originally had planned to purchase. But it was determined that Leesburg needed to retain that parcel as a spray field until The Villages is ready to accept 6 million gallons per day of reuse water on a yearly basis. Currently, the community can only take the reuse water nine months of the year, excluding its peak snowbird season.
