District Manager Andrew Mendenhall began the Nov. 7 Westchase CDD meeting by seeking Board approval of the consent agenda, which included resolutions to amend the FY 2023 budget based on year-end numbers and subsequently assign the fund balance for FY 2023. All supervisors in attendance voted to approve. Supervisor Greg Chesney was absent.
There were no comments from the audience and the focus turned to Robert Dvorak’s Engineer’s Report. Dvorak informed the Board that he had done an initial survey of the sidewalk repair needs throughout the community, with the exception of The Bridges and The Fords, which the County has already included in their FY 2023 budget.
The report he presented to the Board identified 716 locations in need of sidewalk replacement (a total of 3,179 square yards) and 150 locations that require sidewalk grinds (a process used to level raised areas under ¼ inch). The overall estimated replacement cost is $352, 873 and the estimated overall cost for sidewalk grinds is $15,000, for an estimated total cost of $367,873. Supervisor Chris Barrett expressed surprise that the cost wasn’t substantially more. “This is phenomenally good news,” he said.
Dvorak explained that the repairs were being evaluated based on ADA standards. In other words, they were looking at areas that present tripping hazards, making them non-ADA compliant, as opposed to areas where the sidewalk may dip and lead to pooling.
Dvorak went on to explain that the CDD could look at completing the work over the course of three years to spread out the cost. If they wanted to complete the repairs in one year, they would be looking at a 3-month period, or two 6-week periods spread across two years. Barrett noted the cost would equate to roughly $105 per household if they tackled the project in one year.
A resident in attendance asked if the cost included management of the tree roots and Dvorak said that root pruning was included in the cost.
Turning to the cell tower construction, Dvorak stated that pipeline work had recently been completed and he had not seen any activity since. He added that they may simply be remobilizing following the pipeline work.
In her report District Counsel Erin McCormick returned to the topic of sidewalk repair, reminding the Board that they would need to get a Right of Way permit from the County to complete the work and Dvorak said the contractor overseeing the work would handle that.
Mendenhall offered an update on the search for a field manager to replace Doug Mays as he heads into retirement this spring. A post on job search engine Indeed resulted in 60 applicants, which had been whittled to 12 viable candidates. Three additional candidates responded to their newspaper ad. Mendenhall suggested inviting 3-4 of the best candidates to a workshop and asked the Board if they would like to be involved. Chairman Matt Lewis agreed with this plan and all members of the Board agreed they would like to be involved. Mendenhall said he could have the potential candidates come to the Nov. 21 CDD workshop and then asked if the Board was looking to bring is someone soon so that they could shadow Mays. The Board agreed this was the plan.
Mendenhall also presented the Board with a ranking sheet for the review and consideration of proposals for engineering services. All members of the Board present agreed they needed more time to review the sheet before making a decision.
Landscape Engineer Ivy Clinton was on hand to provide an update to the RFP process for the WPV Plaza enhancement project. She reported they received a limited number of responses for demo/site work, a single response for fountain design, two very split (low to high) responses on the landscaping component and no response for the electrical component. Lewis asked about the potential to start the project by awarding the contract for the fountain and Clinton said they ran the risk of having to deal with a contract extension if the timeline ran long.
McCormick noted that since they had received fewer than three bids on all components, the Board was within their legal rights to pursue other proposals as it was in the best interests of the District.
McCormick asked the Board if they wanted to carry this meeting over to the Nov. 21 Workshop so that they could potentially seek additional candidates for a vote. The Board agreed to carry over all four components of the project so that they could find candidates that were in the best interests of the District.
In his report, Mays said Fieldstone Landscape Services had officially taken over for Davey and he was pleased with what he was seeing initially.
The meeting will carry over to the Nov. 21 CDD Workshop, where the Board will continue discussions on the WPV Plaza RFP process, as well as the review and consideration of proposals for engineering services. Following the continued meeting, they will hold initial interviews for the field manager position.
