November’s CDD meeting was the first since Hurricane Milton, so it was no surprise to have a large audience in attendance. The majority of residents were from the Bridges, anxious to speak to the board about the six flooded homes on Bayboro Bridge Drive. Michael Dansereau spoke earnestly on behalf of residents, imploring the board to explain what would be done to alleviate the flooding of Pond 125. Another resident described the dramatic impact that the storm had had and how upsetting it was to see his neighbors’ belongings outside on the street. Chairman Matt Lewis told said, he “hated to hear this” and reassured them that the CDD Board of Supervisors planned to take “immediate action.” He reminded the audience that last month the board had approved their engineer to take a survey of the pond. Mr. Dansereau reported that, over the years, they had received promises of surveys and engineers’ plans. To give the audience some context, Supervisor Chris Barrett explained that the lake was only acquired by the Westchase CDD in 2018 to ensure that any concerns pertaining to the pond would be listened to. Barrett recognized that a complete investigation into Montague’s drainage system was required as the area had been impassable for a couple of days following the storm. Sylvia Johnson from Radcliffe informed the board that this was not just a problem unique to the Bridges; her yard was often sodden by the pond dividing Radcliffe and The Shires and the road was routinely flooded. Barrett again pressed that these issues needed to be prioritized. The board listened to many more emotional stories from residents about the impacts from the recent storms and Supervisor Greg Chesney then invited Engineer Robert Dvorak to give his feedback.
Dvorak went into some detail on the history of the land, how the piping connected across county land and the TECO easement and how the legacy infrastructure had not been designed to withstand the amount of rain that the area had collected. His main point was that the CDD had no ability to improve how fast the drainage leaves the pond behind Bayboro Drive. In the short term, the CDD could protect buildings by building up the berm surrounding the pond, but this would not prevent 16’’ of rain from saturating yards and flooding homes. In the longer term, a solution would have to come from a multi-agency approach: Hillsborough County, TECO and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). Dvorak confirmed that he would meet with SFWMD on behalf of the CDD. Barrett reassured residents that the board would not oppose the building of the berm and they would support the engineer in his efforts to engage the other agencies. It was decided that the meeting would officially continue the following week in order to review the bids and proposals for the short-term solutions. Barrett ended the discussion by reiterating how sorry the board was for the losses experienced by residents.
A new resident to the Shires, Marlon Santos, requested some background information on the Cell Tower recently completed. Chairman Lewis explained that it had been a long process that had developed with Vertex over the past four to five years. During Covid, the board felt there was a safety issue where some residents had little or no cell phone reception. He assured Mr. Santos that the board had worked closely with a consultant to obtain the best financial deal with the developer. Attorney Erin McCormick confirmed that two carriers, T-Mobile and AT&T, were subletting the tower and the first would be putting up their antenna in the next few weeks.
Frequent golfer, John Russo from Greensprings, was unhappy to report the abuse he and other golfers had experienced from residents shouting at them as they played. Barrett explained that it is an HOA covenant that oversees the rights of golfers, and it should be that body that informed the residents of those rights. Supervisor Reggie Gillis felt that this board should be bothered when residents were being aggressive to one another and he made a motion to request that the HOA clarify their position on the signage used on the golf course. Lewis remembered that here had been an article in the WOW outlining the covenants and thought it would be useful to have it published again.
After an affecting couple of hours, the board quickly caught up on other reports. Field Manager, David Sylvanowicz confirmed that all storm debris had now been collected from homes. The effort had been completed by CDD staff, Red Tree and two other vendors, with another contractor removing the debris from CDD property. Barrett offered a sincere thank you to Sylvanowicz and his team for their extraordinary hard work following the storms. Sylvanowicz was pleased to report that the West Park Village Plaza renovation was near completion following a successful walk through. The ribbon cutting has been rescheduled for December 6 at 6:30 p.m. during the next WOW Food Truck rally. And lastly, the board was very happy to pass a motion recruiting Sherida Cook to the CDD staff. Sherida had been shadowing Office Manager Sonny Whyte over the last few months and was integral to the effort following the hurricanes.
