A shortfall in construction costs for the Twin Lakes road elevation and drainage project won’t be thrown onto the 100-plus property owners in the Key Largo subdivision.
Monroe County commissioners turned down a proposal by county staff to levy an assessment up to $25,000 against the homeowners to cover capital expenses during a May 21 meeting in Key West.
Frequent and persistent flooding due to heavy rains and high tides, and notably king tides, in past years drew the need for a solution for affected residents. There were times where the inundation of water kept essential services from entering the community.
A $21.9 million project kicked off last August, as contractors with Ferreira Construction are elevating roads some 13 inches while installing a “pump and treat” stormwater drainage system. A federal appropriation of $5.4 million and a $3.9 million Florida Resilient grant partially funded the construction costs. Rhonda Haag, county chief resilience officer, said in a March presentation there was a $10.8 million shortfall — a bid for construction came back double the estimate. With construction well underway, she said the county borrowed money to cover this portion of the project at 4% interest.
Adams Drive resident Stephanie Russo attended meetings over the past 11 years when the county was looking to do a pilot project to address flooding issues in her Twin Lakes community. The only Twin Lakes resident to speak and advocate for the project through the years, Russo told commissioners how she appreciated their efforts to be fair.
She asked the five commissioners to again be fair in voting on the proposed assessment by taking into consideration that such an assessment was never discussed by county staff to Twin Lakes property owners.
“County staff said it found the money to make up the shortfall and the board approved breaking ground without ever discussing a dollar figure for capital costs,” Russo said.
Commissioner Holly Raschein said she wouldn’t back an assessment on property owners for the reasons stated by Russo.
“I don’t want to build the plane as we’re flying it, but we’re learning,” Raschein said, adding that discussion never occurred over assessing property owners to cover construction costs.
Commissioner David Rice said part way through the project is not the time to tell people it’s going to cost additional money.
“It doesn’t pass the fairness test to begin a project and establish the fact that, ‘oh by the way, we’re going to bill you part way through the project,’” he said.
Russo said property owners in Twin Lakes were putting blame on her regarding the possible assessment for construction costs. Russo said it’s not fair to her either, and given the facts, she didn’t believe any amount should be assessed for capital costs.
Commissioner Michelle Lincoln said she was disappointed to hear Russo’s Twin Lakes neighbors were blaming her.
“You have been an absolute cheerleader for the project and been so polite at all meetings,” Lincoln said.
Before the assessment on capital costs for the project was kiboshed, county commissioners approved a resolution to collect $2,131 per dwelling unit in Twin Lakes for operation and maintenance costs associated with the project. Collection of the assessment needs further approval at the June meeting.
A discussion item related to possibly assessing $25,000 on property owners to help cover construction costs on road adaptation projects in their Florida Keys neighborhoods was tabled to a September meeting.
“This is a big deal, so we need a lot of time to consider how we’re going to move forward,” Raschein said.
