Suspicious officials are balking at a contractor’s demand for more money for pond maintenance in The Villages.
Supervisors in Community Development Districts 1 through 4 were informed in meetings on Friday that Solitude Lake Management LLC wants a $15 per acre per month increase to maintain aquatic weed control in the water retention basins. Solitude is seeking the increase throughout The Villages and other CDDs will be discussing their increases.
CDD 4 supervisors, staring down the barrel of a maintenance assessment increase for its residents, flat out refused to approve Solitude’s request for more money. They will revisit the pond maintenance subject next month.
CDD 4 has 38.91 acres of water retention basins and the current contract calls for $35 per acre for Solitude. The increase would push it to $50 per acre. It would cost CDD 4 an additional $7,000 on top of the $16,342 to be spent on pond maintenance.
Supervisor Jim Murphy, who has been on the CDD 4 board for many years, pointed out that several of the ponds in CDD 4 are dry and have been dry for a long time, thus not needing aquatic weed control.
“Are they mowing the ponds?” Murphy asked. “Based on my time here, a lot of these ponds don’t need to be touched.”
He was told that Solitude doesn’t mow the ponds, but treats them for algae and responds if there is an episode such as a fish kill.
District officials said Solitude’s increase is due to a 70 percent increase in the cost of labor and a 150 percent increase in the cost in chemicals.
Prior to contracting with Solitude, Clarke Aquatic handled aquatic weed control. But Clarke was bought out by Solitude and there are simply fewer options for this type of service. Deputy District Manager Carrie Duckett warned that going out to re-solicit the contract could result in even higher prices. The Solitude contract includes CDDs throughout The Villages. Grouping the CDDs together in the contract was aimed at leveraging the bargaining power of the entire community.
Are we paying for the ponds down south?
CDD 4 Supervisors Cliff Wiener and Mark Hayes said they suspected the money requested by Solitude is being used “to pay for pond problems down south.” They were referring to the uniqueness of ponds south of State Road 44. Those ponds are much shallower and use bubblers to keep the water moving.
The increase for Solitude also aroused suspicious in Community Development District 1, which would have to eat a $4,890 increase.
“Are we paying for the ponds down south?” asked CDD 1 Board Chairman Rocky Hyder
He suggested that CDD 1 might want to explore the possibility of separating its portion of the aquatic weed control contract and renegotiating without the other CDDs.
In the Solitude letter, the regional director for the company admits that the pricing had not properly factored in the maintenance costs for the “shallower ponds” and “equipment” in the “more recently constructed districts.”
You can read the letter at this link: Solitude Letter