Fruitland Park commissioners made it clear Thursday night that they’re through waiting for the owners of Burke’s BBQ to hook up to the city’s water and sewer system, install a fire hydrant and pay a significant amount of money in impact fees.
The deadline for restaurant owner T.D. Burke and his family to comply was June 19. The restaurant owners had agreed on April 12, 2012 that they would have a six-month window to hook up to the city’s water and sewer system when access became available, as well as put in a fire hydrant outside the restaurant, located at 311 County Road 466A.
Since the city has heard nothing from the Burke family since City Attorney Anita Geraci-Carver sent them a warning letter in March, Commissioner Patrick DeGrave led the charge to direct her to initiate a lawsuit against the Burkes – a decision that passed unanimously.
“While we’re a friendly city, if you sign an agreement with us, you have to live up to your end of the bargain,” DeGrave said. “So I think we have to hold to the development agreement. And if the next step is filing that claim, we file the claim.”
Commissioner John Mobilian agreed.
“I don’t want to make us look weak,” he said. “He was under an agreement and I think we need to pursue this.”
DeGrave also pointed out that Burke has had months to come speak with the commission.
“If there was a hardship, he could have pled the case and brought that forth,” he said. “But there’s been no communication, so let’s do our best to enforce the agreement.”
Earlier Thursday night, City Manager Gary La Venia told commissioners that a developer has expressed interest in buying 90 acres from the Burke family to open an RV park. And Mayor Chris Cheshire reminded the commission that the Burkes have been trying to sell their restaurant for quite some time, even though the new owner would be responsible for obtaining water and sewer hookups from the city and installing the fire hydrant.
That prompted Commissioner Chris Bell to ask Geraci-Carver if the lawsuit could be dropped if a buyer comes forward.
“We could always at that point sit down with the potential buyer and work something out with them in order to facilitate the sale, but also have a firm date that they’re going to connect,” she said.
Commissioners first tackled the issue surrounding Burke’s BBQ at a March meeting, when the decision was made to put the Burke family on notice that the city was planning to move forward with some kind of action.
At that meeting, Lavenia told commissioners that the city had sent two letters last year giving Burke until Oct. 6, 2018 to hook up and pay about $41,000 in impact fees. La Venia said Burke then paid him a visit and “raised holy hell.”
“He said absolutely no way am I doing this,” La Venia said. “And he didn’t. He just didn’t want to pay the money.”
On Thursday night, as they did in March, commissioners also expressed concerns about the initial plan for fighting a fire at the wooden eatery – pumping 10,000 gallons of water from a nearby swimming pool through a high-pressure hose. The closest fire hydrants are quite a distance away and their use would require CR 466A – the major thoroughfare into The Villages – to be shut down if the city’s fire department had to run hoses from them to battle at blaze at the restaurant.
In addition, Fruitland Park Fire Rescue Chief Donald Gilpin said the pool water has algae in it and he’d be quite hesitant to run it through a fire engine’s pump because it could severely damage it. He said Lake County’s dispatch center has been made aware that if a fire is called out at the restaurant, a water tanker task force needs to be activated to respond.
