We’d like to tip our hat to Fruitland Park’s first commissioner from The Villages, Patrick DeGrave, for standing tough and leading the charge for the city to file a lawsuit against a local restaurant owner.
The city’s attorney, Anita Geraci-Carver, told commissioners Thursday night that the deadline for the owner of Burke’s BBQ, T.D. Burke and his family, to comply with an order to hook up to the city’s water and sewer system, install a fire hydrant and pay significant impact fees had come and gone.
The eatery owner had signed an agreement on April 12, 2012 that he would have a six-month window to comply when access to the city’s water and sewer system became available at the restaurant, located at 311 County Road 466A.
At a March 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.”
That didn’t sit well with DeGrave in March and it didn’t fly any better with him on Thursday night, either.
“While we’re a friendly city, if you sign an agreement with us, you have to live up to your end of the bargain,” he 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 quickly agreed, saying he doesn’t want the city to look weak.
“He was under an agreement and I think we need to pursue this,” he said of the legal action.
DeGrave, who brings a wealth of government experience to the table, also pointed out that Burke has had plenty of time – 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.”
Another issue that didn’t sit well with commissioners – or Fire Chief Donald Gilpin, for that matter – is that the fact that the fire suppression plan (one this commission had nothing to do with) at the wooden BBQ eatery centers around a hose running to a nearby family swimming pool that holds 10,000 gallons.
Anybody who knows anything about firefighting should chuckle and be horrified at the same time, as there’s a good chance 10,000 gallons of water would be used up pretty fast on a burning wooden structure. And with the nearest fire hydrants a considerable distance away, CR 466A – a main thoroughfare into The Villages – would have to be closed if the fire department needed to run hoses to battle a blaze at the restaurant.
Gilpin also pointed out that 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. Because of that and the far-away fire hydrants, he said Lake County’s dispatch center has been made aware that if a fire is called out at Burke’s BBQ, a water tanker task force needs to quickly be activated to respond.
To make matters even more complicated, 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.
Geraci-Carver said the city could always sit down with a potential buyer to work something out so the sale can move forward. But she also stressed the importance of getting a firm date from a prospective new owner on when they would take care of the requirements at hand.
As we said earlier, we applaud DeGrave for taking the lead on this issue and standing firm on what’s right and what’s wrong. We agree with DeGrave that if someone signs an agreement with the city, he or she has an obligation to follow through with it. And don’t even get us started on the tomfoolery associated with the whole hose-in-the-pool firefighting plan.
In the end, the commission voted unanimously to file a lawsuit to get this issue resolved. We also applaud each of them for doing the right thing for the city and sending a strong message about how this commission plans to operate moving forward.
