SEWALL\u2019S POINT \u2014 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\u2019s warning that the fix may not fully resolve the issue.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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\u2019 property,\u201d he said. \u201cWe 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 \u2013 in this case Cheatham, the contractor doing the Phase 3 work \u2013 and we talked about things we could possibly eliminate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Capra proceeded to detail the subsequently revised plan, which resulted in less savings than he had desired.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan shows two inlets within the range of River Road to Ms. Lucas\u2019 property,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019t satiety the town engineer, who\u2019d hoped for a larger reduction. Now he suggested the Town consider doing something totally different.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be very honest with you, we are going to get a rainfall event that\u2019s going to exceed the benefit of this,\u201d Capra concluded. \u201cAt that point, we\u2019ll have done the best we can, but water will ultimately get to her property [because] she\u2019s the lowest lot there. I don\u2019t have a problem going forward with it, but it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Dave Kurzman was the first Board member to pose a question afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould the cost be any cheaper if we were to go to somebody like Sunshine [State Engineering]\u201d he asked. \u201cAre they or Jamie Underground capable of doing this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be honest,\u201d Capra responded. \u201cWe\u2019re using Sunshine on a directional drilling project right now, and they\u2019re pretty buried with getting that done. We talked about the short fuses that we have on several projects, [and] we\u2019re going to need more than one contractor. I don\u2019t want to say that we shouldn\u2019t get the price again: Maybe we\u2019d be better off pricing it with multiple contractors that we\u2019ll be using.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I don\u2019t like spending a lot of money on these solutions, we\u2019re back to where the Commission had authorized the $70,000,\u201d he said. \u201cThe individual that has been before us, Cindy, has been very patient in trying to get this resolved. If we delay this process, it\u2019s 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\u2019s a lot. If we\u2019re going to go ahead and make changes now, we\u2019re adding something else onto the backs of staff and even to Mr. Capra\u2019s staff. They\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Point sewer infrastructure to do that work and the Mandalay stormwater refit as well.<\/p>\n
In his response, Capra emphasized that the River View and Rio Vista projects were particularly specialized.<\/p>\n
\u201cJamie Underground was very good in North Sewall\u2019s Point, so I wouldn\u2019t discount them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve already talked to them,\u201d Capra replied. \u201cThey\u2019re 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\u2019s a specialty contractor, and we are bidding that schedule specifically for lining. Those are gravity mains already there, and we\u2019re putting in a lift station in Rio Vista.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Kurzman then redirected the conversation back to the project at-hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do the projects on Ms. Lucas\u2019 property the way that\u2019s in the diagram, how much relief will she get?\u201d he asked. \u201cWould you say 50 percent less water, or it\u2019ll drain out quicker? What is the improvement we\u2019re going to be making here, [and] how\u2019s that going to make a difference?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to hold the water up the hill,\u201d Capra answered. \u201cThere\u2019s a pipe system with exfiltration that\u2019s 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\u2019s what we\u2019re doing for that. Then we\u2019re 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\u2019s basically a berm.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Kurzman posed a few more questions without actually getting the specific amount of flooding improvements to the Lucas property he\u2019d 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\u2019d lobbied successfully to get extended to her neighborhood last October.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not let the day pass without voicing our appreciation for the support of the town,\u201d she said. \u201cWe 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\u2019s $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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEWALL\u2019S POINT \u2014 After years of complaints about persistent yard flooding, a Mandalay Road homeowner won commission support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[326,171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-64219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-martin","9":"tag-port-st-lucie","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","11":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}