SEWALL’S POINT — After years of complaints about persistent yard flooding, a Mandalay Road homeowner won commission support Nov. 18 when a board majority approved a $70,000 stormwater retrofit near Mandalay Road and River Road, despite an engineer’s warning that the fix may not fully resolve the issue.
Town Engineer Joe Capra provided an overview of the proposed stormwater work and reminded commissioners of their previous discussion with Mandalay Road resident Cindy Lucas.
“The last time we met we presented a plan which pretty much talked about how we would keep stormwater from coming down Mandalay Road from River Road and getting into Ms. Lucas’ property,” he said. “We presented the cost, close to $80,000, which was more than we had budgeted for the project. Your direction was to sit down with the contractor – in this case Cheatham, the contractor doing the Phase 3 work – and we talked about things we could possibly eliminate.”
Capra proceeded to detail the subsequently revised plan, which resulted in less savings than he had desired.
“The plan shows two inlets within the range of River Road to Ms. Lucas’ property,” he explained. “We placed some weirs in those structures so we could hold the water back, deepened the roadside swales [and] put some ditch blocks in the swales next to the property. We put a berm on her property to keep the water from coming off Mandalay Road and going into her side yard, which ultimately goes onto the backyard. We did some work on her side yard, which included the yard drain and putting in some pipe there. We did many of these things in the original plan but combined some of the work.”
He and Cheatham representatives also eliminated one of the two planned Wapro valves, which were the costlier components. That reduced the price by $10,000, which didn’t satiety the town engineer, who’d hoped for a larger reduction. Now he suggested the Town consider doing something totally different.
“To be very honest with you, we are going to get a rainfall event that’s going to exceed the benefit of this,” Capra concluded. “At that point, we’ll have done the best we can, but water will ultimately get to her property [because] she’s the lowest lot there. I don’t have a problem going forward with it, but it’s a lot of money. I think the biggest benefit we can do here is to do the improvements on River Road. That will keep the water from Delano Lane, which ultimately goes into the backyards of those properties.”
Commissioner Dave Kurzman was the first Board member to pose a question afterward.
“Would the cost be any cheaper if we were to go to somebody like Sunshine [State Engineering]” he asked. “Are they or Jamie Underground capable of doing this?”
“Let’s be honest,” Capra responded. “We’re using Sunshine on a directional drilling project right now, and they’re pretty buried with getting that done. We talked about the short fuses that we have on several projects, [and] we’re going to need more than one contractor. I don’t want to say that we shouldn’t get the price again: Maybe we’d be better off pricing it with multiple contractors that we’ll be using.”
Town Manager Robert Daniels, however, expressed opposition to that option because of the multiple of projects going on in the same area, including the ongoing sewer line installations.
“As much as I don’t like spending a lot of money on these solutions, we’re back to where the Commission had authorized the $70,000,” he said. “The individual that has been before us, Cindy, has been very patient in trying to get this resolved. If we delay this process, it’s going to actually delay it until after June 30 of 2026. Right now, my focus is getting those grinder [sewer] units in, getting the gravity system in and getting part of Phase 2 for the resiliency project done, and that’s a lot. If we’re going to go ahead and make changes now, we’re adding something else onto the backs of staff and even to Mr. Capra’s staff. They’re working weekends to get the design work done for the 134 connections, and I just want you to think about that before you make a decision to rebid it.”
Because Daniels mentioned the septic-to-sewer work simultaneously underway in the River View and Rio Vista neighborhoods, Mayor Vinny Barile questioned staff about using the same company that had installed the North Sewall’s Point sewer infrastructure to do that work and the Mandalay stormwater refit as well.
In his response, Capra emphasized that the River View and Rio Vista projects were particularly specialized.
“Jamie Underground was very good in North Sewall’s Point, so I wouldn’t discount them,” he said.
“I’ve already talked to them,” Capra replied. “They’re definitely interested in bidding, and we have to get more contractors, and Jamie is on the list. The gravity system in Rio Vista has lining-of-pipe improvements that have to be done. That’s a specialty contractor, and we are bidding that schedule specifically for lining. Those are gravity mains already there, and we’re putting in a lift station in Rio Vista.”
Commissioner Kurzman then redirected the conversation back to the project at-hand.
“If we do the projects on Ms. Lucas’ property the way that’s in the diagram, how much relief will she get?” he asked. “Would you say 50 percent less water, or it’ll drain out quicker? What is the improvement we’re going to be making here, [and] how’s that going to make a difference?”
“We are trying to hold the water up the hill,” Capra answered. “There’s a pipe system with exfiltration that’s underground, and we are holding water by putting weirs in those structures to hold the water. That gets done with actually two inlets. Between those structures are exfiltration perforated pipe with rocks. We want to fill those rock systems up with water. That’s what we’re doing for that. Then we’re making some adjustments to the yard drains in her property so that the water gets to the inlets easier. The west side of her property will [also] be blocked by a ditch block that’s basically a berm.”
After Kurzman posed a few more questions without actually getting the specific amount of flooding improvements to the Lucas property he’d wanted, Commissioner Frank Tidikis made a motion to approve the work. Kurzman seconded that motion, which then passed 4-1, with Vice-Mayor Kajia Mayfield dissenting. Riverview Drive homeowner Diane Kimes was the only member of the public to speak prior to the drainage discussion but spoke only on the nearby sewer project that she’d lobbied successfully to get extended to her neighborhood last October.
“I could not let the day pass without voicing our appreciation for the support of the town,” she said. “We are so excited. The fact that we got the 134 grinders for the sewer systems is incredible. As I said earlier to the town manager, we should make one fee for all residents, whether it’s $10,000 or whatever the fee is, it should be uniform across the threshold. There are many of us that are ready to sign on the dotted line that can be used for collateral or for pledging towards the DEP match.”