Price of reclaimed water squirts upward

Lakewood Ranch Community Development District supervisors learned March 17 residents will pay more for reclaimed irrigation water starting next year.

Braden River Utilities, irrigation water provider for Lakewood Ranch, will increase rates from $1.05 per 1,000 gallons to $1.20 per 1,000 gallons next year.

That figure equates to an average $20 annual increase per household, with a range from $9.10 to $28.31, depending on the neighborhood.

Across the four CDDs, the budgeted amount for irrigation water for Fiscal Year 2017 is $1.42 million, compared with $1.29 million in 2016.

Town Hall Financial Director Steve Zielinski said the increase is in line with budget projections and is the fourth increase in the last eight years.

Historically, rate increases have been tied with improvements to Braden River Utilities’ infrastructure, as it brought reclaimed water in from other areas of Sarasota and Manatee counties. The water is used for landscaping throughout Lakewood Ranch.

Zielinski said he has asked Braden River Utilities representatives for a reason for the increase.

In other news, longtime Inter-District Authority supervisor Tom Green and fellow members of the IDA want to shift to meeting once monthly and have asked Town Hall staff to make their meetings and those of the CDDs — 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 — run more efficiently. Individual districts will discuss meeting structure at next month’s meetings.

Currently, all the districts hold agenda review meetings before their regular meetings, normally held the third Thursday of the month.

“We used to go through every invoice (at the review meetings) because, at the time, we didn’t have confidence in our staff,” Green said of why agenda review meetings started. “Now, we have a very competent staff.”