Cape to stop utility work, revisit issue.

Cape to stop utility work, revisit issue
Originally posted on July 17, 2006
Amanda Inscore/news-press.comCape Coral residents wait for discussion about utilities work today at the Cape Coral City Council meeting in Cape Coral.
8:45 p.m.
Cape Coral City Council voted tonight to stop work in the Southwest 4 utility expansion area and revisit the resolutions on work there and residents' payments until members can discuss findings of an audit first released by The News-Press.“There are several unanswered questions that we need to review,” Councilman Jim Jeffers said. Council voted 8-0 to stop the work.Mayor Eric Feichthaler said before the vote that utility payments for residents — now $22,000 to more than $40,000 — could "go up or down" depending on how long it takes council to assess the contents of Mike Kessler's audit, which indicates possible overbilling on contracts and high profit margins among contractors."There is no way I would support anything higher," Councilman Tim Day said about the assessment amounts. After Feichthaler announced that there would be no public hearing tonight on the utility expansion, more than half of the 200 people that filled the room exited.The mayor said it's important to postpone discussion on the utility expansion because the council has only had a few hours to review the audit and that it will take some time to determine whether there were any mistakes or wrongdoings."This might take a few weeks, it might take a few months," Feichthaler said. "The audit from what I've seen has to be much more specific... It's shown very little."Feichthaler said that should a decision be made to terminate the expansion contract with MWH Contractors, there must be "60 days notice." He said, however, that at this time council was not considering such an action.One Cape couple expressed relief with tonight's decision."I'm still anxious but it's nice to know they're not starting it," said resident Sue Valenza. "My husband and I were ready to put the house up for sale."Her husband, Buck Valenza, said the postponement tells him council has seen "flaws in the audit.""We just moved here in October and are ready to move out," Sue Valenza said. "We're retired. It's an average community and no one has that kind of money. It's overwhelming. I mean we were expecting to pay something but not that much. That's just crazy."Council will discuss the utility expansion project at its meeting on Monday, Aug. 28. The public will have an opportunity to speak at that meeting. Council indicated that discussion could also continue to later meetings."The real key is to find a way to reduce costs for (Cape Coral residents)," Feichthaler said.However, the mayor said he didn't want to do anything to put residents' health at risk."This is the best quality system," he said.Cape resident Joe Lentini drew a few smiles from council after he asked them to personally pay for the expansion project since the "people of Cape Coral don't want it.""I don't want it," Lentini said. "I'm very happy with what I have. They're forcing me to take something I don't want. We don't want it. Don't force us to take it...Give us a chance, give us a break."
5:30 p.m.
By 5:20 p.m., 10 minutes before the Cape Coral City Council meeting was set to start, most of the seats in the council chambers were filled.Cathy Burton, a resident of the next area slated to receive city water, sewer and irrigation lines stood in front of the entrance to the chambers and collected more than 50 signatures for a petition calling for the council to rescind the massive utilities expansion project.One of the petition signers is Keith Stamp, who is trying to sell his southwest Cape Coral house rather than pay a $48,000 assessment for his 22,500-square-foot property."I just want to see the information," Stamp said. "They need to disclose the bids."Stamp said he understands that the city needs to extend water and sewer lines. He said he objects to how closed the process has been. He added that there has not been an adequate explanation from either the city or MWH Contractors about why the utilities assessments are so high — $22,000 for a standard two-lot property.Outside City Hall, television crews had their towers set up for live shots, and reporters buzzed about inside. Much of the discussion was about the utilities assessments, though not too many mentioned the Kessler International audit, which was posted on news-press.com this morning.
From this morning's updates
A big crowd is expected at the Cape Coral City Council meeting at 5:30 at City Hall.Opponents of the city’s Southwest 4 utilities program hope to pack today''s city council meeting to stop the project.News-press.com will be providing live, minute-by-minute online updates until the meeting concludes.“I expect we’re going to have several hundred people,” said Lloyd Duhon, who helped organize a petition drive over the weekend.The drive collected more than 200 signatures, but the exact total wasn’t known tonight, Duhon said.Several people downloaded the form, which was posted in a news-press.com forum on utilities. How many signatures they collected isn’t known, but they will bring them to the meeting, Duhon said.The project is controversial because of the bills - or assessments - that property owners received to pay for the cost of bringing water, sewer and irrigation service to their homes. The bills start at about $22,000 for a two-lot site and go up from there depending on the size of a person’s property.Tonight’s meeting is the first held by the council since June 12, when it went on summer break.A long meeting already was expected, said Mayor Eric Feichthaler.Utility matters will dominate the session, which begins at 5 p.m. in the council chamber at 1015 Cultural Park Blvd.The council is scheduled to vote on a proposed utility rate increase to help pay for a nearly $500 million expansion of the city’s utilities system. The program includes new and expanded water and sewer plants, wells to supply the water plant, wells to store water for use in the dry season and other improvements.The rate increase will increase the monthly water and sewer bills 7 percent a year for water and about 10 percent a year for sewer through 2010. The change, if approved, is effective Oct. 1 of each year.City Councilman Tim Day said he also wants to discuss whether less expensive options to gravity sewers are available.The city council in office in 1990 proposed using the system, which pretreated effluent and was considered less expensive and less disruptive to yards when it is installed.But residents protested. A group called Citizens for Gravity Sewers, led by activist Cornelius van der Linde, rallied 1,000 people for a public hearing at Cape Coral High School. The council decided to switch to gravity sewers.