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i <br />BOOK o 9 FACE 224 <br />0 <br />Director Pinto recalled that after General Development went <br />bankrupt, it reformed as Atlantic -Gulf, who has made a decision to <br />sell all of its utilities. They no longer wanted to subsidize <br />their utilities operations, and in order to promote the sale of the <br />utilities, they had to bring the utilities into a profitable mode. <br />They have submitted to the County a request for an increase in <br />rates for that specific area. The County approached GDU sometime <br />back when we were looking at the master plan needs, but GDU was not <br />interested in selling at that time. However, in May of this year <br />they advised us that they now wish to sell the water and wastewater <br />utility. <br />In the matter of negotiations, Director Pinto wished to assure <br />everyone that staff is very qualified and he is considered an <br />expert in this field, having 22 years of experience in negotiating <br />a sale or transition of utilities. He just didn't want that to be <br />a question in anyone's mind. <br />Director Pinto advised that to comply with requirements in the <br />State Statutes, we hired a private consultant to go in and analyze <br />the system itself, to look at the condition of the system and give <br />us a report on the existing system. We have negotiated a price of <br />$3 -million, due mainly to the fact that Atlantic -Gulf has a large <br />investment in developing that area further and it is to their <br />advantage to have the County system that they can rely on for <br />secure and equitable rates. He believed that was the primary drive <br />in the negotiations which resulted in the $3 -million price. He <br />felt it is a fair price and that the County can certainly afford it <br />within its system because of the customer base that is there. It <br />will not have any detrimental effect on the existing customer base <br />of the County. It lends itself to the County's needs as far as the <br />south county area by eliminating the possibility of having two <br />treatment plants within a stone's throw from each other. <br />Harry Asher, Assistant Utilities Director, went through the <br />statutes' requirements: <br />32 <br />