1/20/1982 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

JAN 20198Z' apox 48 FSE 589 In the case of Treasure Coast Utilities, the Court has indicated if corrective actions are not undertaken to meet Florida Department of Environmental Regula- tion requirements, the Court will order the utility closed which will result in the County Health Department issuing eviction notices to affected residents. In addition, the owner of the utility has filed a $4,000,000 suit against the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners jointly and individually. In an effort to stay further Court action which could result in families being evicted and resolve the litigation against the County, the owner of Treasure Coast Utilities has made an offer for the sale of the utility. The sale price is $168,500. A copy of the offer of sale is attached for your review. You will note in the attached letter (Salter to Myers), the offer is to expire January 11, 1982. This date has been extended by mutual agreement to allow the County time to evaluate its position. As you can see, time is of the essence in purchasing this utility. Ixora Utilities has been cited by the Court with two contempt of Court violations in conjunction with legal actions filed by Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. At the most recent Court hearing involving Ixora Utilities and Florida Department of Environmental Regulation, the Court indicated the County could be involved. As the County does not own the utility, the County has no way of making improvements which would eliminate any legal action taken against the County. The owners of Ixora Utilities have made an offer to sell the utility to Indian River County for a price of $225,000. A copy of a letter from the utilities' attorney is attached for your review (letter Bogosian to Collins). Please note, the owners are indicating in the letter, if the County does --not agree to the purchase of the utility by January 15, 1982, the utility will be closed. This date has been extended by mutual agreement to allow the County time to evaluate its position. Further legal action by Florida Department of Environ- mental Regulation could result in a possible interruption of water and sewer service to the families who live in Ixora Park Subdivision. Again, time is of the essence to purchase this utility. From the above, it should be obvious the County has been placed in an unusual position with respect to purchasing these utilities and providing a remedy to legal actions pursued by Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. Further, in order to protect the interest and well being of the residents of these utilities with respect to water and sewer service, the County must act very quickly. As stated earlier, the County is requesting the use of Farmers Home Adminis- tration obligated loan funds to purchase these utilities and make the necessary capital improvements to comply with State and Federal requirements. In addition, the County is familiar with the normal procedure for requesting loan and grant funds from Farmers Home Administration. The County is also aware of the normal timetable to process such a request. As is stated in the attached letters and reiterated herein, the County has a short time frame to indicate acceptance of the Treasure Coast offer and to indicate acceptance of the Ixora offer. The County is aware Farmers Home Administration could not process a normal loan request in such a short time frame. It is for this reason the County is request- ing the following special procedure for handling this loan request. 1. Notification to Farmers Home Administration as to the necessity to purchase Treasure Coast Utilities and Ixora Utilities utilizing special procedure. 2. Request to Farmers Home Administration for the use of $732,115 of obligated sewer monies for the purchase and capital improvements associated with the purchase of the sewer portion of the referenced utilities. Request to Farmers Home Administration for the use of $411,268 of obligated water monies for the purchase and capital improvements associated with the acquisition of the water portion of the referenced utilities.