Tara Preserve CDD searches solutions to pool infrastructure issues

Pipe leaks have been causing problems for the Tara Preserve Community Center for months, but field manager Jim Kaluk has come up with an interim patch.

Currently, the mixing room — the room where the community pool’s water pump, electrical system and chemicals are stored and operated — resides inside of the community center. Pipe leaks have caused flooding in the center twice this summer.

Kaluk rigged a plug made from an aluminum can, a plug fixture and three metal bands to patch up the pipes, for now.

Vice Chairwoman Beth Bond brought up the issue with flooding and the electrical system during the Tara Preserve Community

Development District board of supervisors meeting Tuesday morning. She requested that the board establish a timeline to get information about ways to solve the issue, such as constructing a new pool house, using a POD or refurbishing the current room in which the pool’s infrastructure is housed.

“What I would like to see is the board agree to a path to make a series of decisions that are likely to have tremendous financial implications,” she said.

The board elected supervisor John Schmidt to work with the district’s management company and research three proposals to present to the board at the November meeting.

However, Kaluk said he still needed an immediate solution for the electrical system and the piping leaks to the problem between now and the future meeting. Kaluk suggested he could make more of the plugs he’d fashioned, only buy some sheet metal for a higher-quality invention.

Kaluk suggested the electrical system needed to be cleaned, repaired and painted with rust-prevention. He gave the board two bids from contractors who could do the needed repairs.

The board approved a $976 bid from Complete Electric to repair the pool electrical system in the interim of the long-term solution.