- March 29, 2024
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OAKLAND — Oakland town leaders selected an engineering firm to carry out the first phase of a centralized sanitary sewer system for the town, which has always operated on septic. Mike Parker, Public Works director, announced at the June 30 Town Commission meeting that Central Florida Environmental, of Casselberry, won the bid and is expected to begin work within a month.
The town solicited bids in the spring, and five were submitted by the deadline.
The contract calls for a regional lift station and force main to be constructed on Old Highway 50 near the West Orange Trail’s Killarney Station.
Parker said the lowest bidder’s submission package was incomplete, so the town had to go with the next-lowest, which was $44,000 higher but came from an award-winning local civil and utility construction contractor. CFE’s bid was $693,637. Bidders were required to submit two designs in their bid — a primary one and a less-expensive alternate.
Parker said the town will pursue the alternate design. He expects to bring the cost down by making small changes to the materials to be used, but he assured the commission that all changes will still meet state requirements.
“We don’t compromise on quality,” he said.
The lift station will take any sewage generated in Oakland and send it to the treatment plant in Clermont, he said. An interlocal agreement between the city and the town began in 2013.
While Central Florida Environmental is building the lift station, the town is working on the design of the gravity sewer that will serve portions of State Road 50’s commercial corridor west of the Florida’s Turnpike interchange.
Parker said several developments are in the works right now — one commercial, one residential — and the town is going to mandate that they hook up to sewer rather than septic.
In 2011, the Town Commission authorized staff to analyze whether a sanitary sewer system was feasible. A year later, the commission adopted a document that outlined possible treatment options, the potential for reclaimed water, recommendations for construction phasing and possible funding opportunities or mechanisms.
REVIEW FEE SCHEDULE
The commission adopted a resolution that modifies the development application review fee schedule for permitting following the town’s contract approval with PDCS for building-official services. This is not a change in fees, which are charged for the processing of planning, development and building permit applications, according to Planning & Zoning Director Max Spann, but rather, it allows the town’s new building official to charge the fees approved by the town in May.
“It actually minimally lowers fees because applicants used to have to come in, pay our zoning fee and then go to Orange County permitting and pay another fee for the building permit,” he said. “We want to keep streamlining services for the fees we charge.”
Spann said this modification is required to support current and future requests in building and development along State Road 50 and throughout the town.
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• In a move that will increase cost savings and voter turnout, the date of the town’s 2016 municipal election is changing from the second Tuesday in March to the third Tuesday, the same day as the Presidential Preference Primary. The election will be held March 15, 2016. Candidate qualifying by signature cards will begin at 8 a.m. Dec. 7 and end at 5 p.m. Dec. 18. Qualifying by paying a $100 fee begins at 8 a.m. Dec. 21 and ends at 3 p.m. Dec. 28. If necessary, a runoff would be held 28 days after the General Election.
Three seats will be on the ballot — those currently held by Mayor Kathy Stark, Vice Mayor Mike Satterfield and Commissioner Willie Welch.
The commission adopted the first reading of the ordinance that would make these changes, and the final adoption is set for July 14.
• Taressa George, interim director of the Oakland Nature Preserve, was introduced to the commission. The previous director, Barb Gugliotti, left the position, and George agreed to work with the preserve until the end of July. She said she has enjoyed the work and would be interested in taking a permanent position.
• The commission accepted the Fiscal Year 2015-16 budget of nearly $4.07 million for Oakland Avenue Charter School. The budget includes a 36-month lease of 100 new computers for the classrooms, a 3% employee pay increase, $170,625 payable to the town of Oakland for management fees and $74,000 in the capital improvement account.
• The elected officials designated Commissioner Joseph McMullen to represent the town of Oakland in the Florida League of Cities’ Annual Conference, Aug. 13-15, in Orlando.
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Contact Amy Quesinberry Rhode at [email protected].