Lady Lake officials could barely hide their irritation Monday night when discussing a neighboring community’s need to continue reliance on help with wastewater treatment.
Fruitland Park is nearing the end of a 10-year agreement in which the city sends wastewater to Lady Lake for treatment.
During that decade, Fruitland Park was supposed to bring a new wastewater treatment plant on line to increase its capacity as the community continues to grow. That hasn’t happened.
Fruitland Park wants to extend its current agreement with Lady Lake.
However, Lady Lake is also experiencing rapid growth and leaders want to ensure the town has enough capacity for its current and future needs.
“I don’t want to cut them off. We should give them time. But we need to save our capacity for Lady Lake,” said Commissioner Treva Roberts.
Lady Lake is treating 550,000 gallons of wastewater per day and about 80,000 gallons per day are coming from Fruitland Park, according to Lady Lake Director of Public Works C.T. Eagle. The Fruitland Park section of The Villages is serviced by The Villages District Utilities.
Eagle said that 10 years ago, Fruitland Park had a wastewater plant that was failing and had been cited for state violations. He said Fruitland Park turned to Lady Lake and Leesburg for help. That’s when Lady Lake offered a 10-year agreement.
Lady Lake has another wastewater treatment plant coming on line in the future, but the town also has another 4,200 residential units to be constructed and added to the usage.
It could take up to four to five years for Fruitland Park to build and activate a new wastewater treatment plant. Wildwood is struggling to bring a new plant online in an effort to keep pace with city’s soaring population.
Fruitland Park leaders are hoping for another 10-year agreement with Lady Lake. However, Lady Lake commissioners weren’t open to another 10 years, fearing another decade of procrastination on the part of Fruitland Park.
“They have no plan. We should up their fees and give them a shorter contract. The rate should go up so it really smarts and they have to do something,” said Commissioner Mike Sage, a resident of the Historic Side of The Villages. “We are going to be eating into our surplus capacity. I don’t want to be a poor neighbor, but we have to look out for ourselves.”
Commissioners directed Town Manager William Lawrence to negotiate a two-year contract with Fruitland Park at a higher rate.
