December water usage a hot topic in Lakewood Ranch

Lakewood Ranch CDDs use double the amount of irrigation water from previous December.

By Pam Eubanks
| 6:00 a.m. January 27, 2016

The meetings are held at Lakewood Ranch Town Hall.

East County
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It could just be an anomaly, but a 210% increase in irrigation water usage last month has Lakewood Ranch officials puzzled.

At community development district meetings last week, Town Hall Financial Director Steve Zielinski reported charges from Braden River Utilities, the districts’ source of irrigation water, were at about $41,000 for a warm December, compared with charges of about $19,500 for November, across Lakewood Ranch CDDs 1, 2, 4 and 5.

Although the figures show disparity, Zielinski said if November and December usage is combined and averaged, the water is on par with previous years. For example, the six-year average (2009 to 2014) for November/December irrigation was 222.6 million gallons. The average for November/December 2015 was 211.7 million gallons, representing about an 11% decrease, comparatively.

Averages for October through December reveal similar findings.

In other business

CDD 1: Supervisors formally agreed on the installation of a park bench along Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and the placement of plaques to memorialize three individuals, including youths Brendan Shreve and Jared Duran and pedestrian Don Mader, killed near that location.

CDDs 2, 5 and 6: Supervisors in Districts 2 and 5 approved pavement inspection work with Atkins North America Inc. District 6 already had hired Atkins to perform similar services.

CDD 5: Supervisors denied a request from a Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club couple who reside outside the district to have transponder access through all the country club’s gates, as they have had for more than six years. Supervisors had adopted an ordinance in 2014 that prohibits non-residents from having resident access through the unmanned gates.

CDD 6: Operations Manager Paul Chetlain reported the installation of a flagpole at the Balmoral Woods Boulevard gatehouse will be included in the 2017 fiscal year budget, as supervisors requested. Supervisors voted to have staff purchase speed radar devices for use on district roadways.

Districtwide usage for November 2015 represented a 42.8% drop from the previous year.

Zielinski said Lakewood Ranch CDDs’ water usage is not metered, and BRU calculates usage by subtracting metered user totals from the overall water amount.