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Larry Brown, Utility Wastewater Project Engineer, through a PowerPoint <br />Presentation, summarized any and all options, benefits, and synergy, of partnering with the City <br />of Vero Beach to treat their wastewater. He emphasized that this report is preliminary only, and <br />is not based on any detailed engineering study. The questions of whether this was feasible from <br />an operations standpoint, and could it be done in a reasonable amount of time, both drew answers <br />of `Yes.' <br />Mr. Brown addressed the options of merger, the infrastructure improvements, <br />capital costs, as well as, operational costs associated with each option. He also addressed the <br />pros and cons of each option. The options to merge wastewater treatment are: <br />1. Divert City of Vero Beach (COVB) flow to the West Regional WWTF <br />2. Divert COVB flow to Central Regional WWTF <br />3. Divert COVB flow to West and Central Regional WWTF <br />Chairman Davis asked for the location of the central plant, and wanted to <br />ascertain whether we were just shutting down that sludge treatment facility, to which Mr. Brown <br />responded. <br />Commissioner Wheeler asked if there was any interest from the City to pursue <br />this. <br />Commissioner Solari explained how the City had, in the past, decided to move <br />ahead and had subsequently obtained a Consultant report, which erroneously suggested that <br />working with the County was going to cost them about $113 million. Commissioner Solari <br />deemed that partnering with the County would cost the City probably $30 or $40 million less <br />than the City building its own plant. He believed we have about 20% of the City's customers <br />living in the County; so we have an obligation to do what is best for the residents of the County. <br />February 17, 2009 30 <br />