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Cleanup will help fund amphitheater
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| By: Mark J. Crawford, Editor |
March 19, 2009 |
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Starke has come up with a unique way to help fund the outdoor stage it wants to build at the site of its former power plant.
The site is slated for further environmental cleanup resulting from years of using diesel to generate electricity. The contractor overseeing the cleanup, Advanced Environmental Technologies, has pledged to work with local subcontractors, among them the New River Regional Landfill.
The cleanup will require the excavation, transport and disposal of tons of contaminated soil from the site. Given its relationship with the local landfill, which is jointly owned by Baker, Bradford and Union counties, Starke is being given the same disposal price as the member counties-$24 a ton.
Because the landfill can use the soil as ground cover, the city will be getting a kickback of the disposal fees from the landfill, and that money will go to help build the amphitheater.
The landfill's attorney, Jon Wershow, had questions about the arrangement when it was first raised at a meeting last month. Since the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is granting the money to the city specifically for the cleanup, he questioned returning the money to the city to be reused for another purpose.
Wershow wanted to know if DEP was aware of the city's plans since it was basing the amount of money being granted to the city in part on the cost of soil disposal. Technically, there is no cost since the plan is to turn around and rebate that money.
Some board members had similar concerns but did approve the arrangement, minus any costs incurred by the landfill, pending the attorney's final approval.
Since that meeting, both the contractor and the landfill have been in touch with DEP to discuss the arrangement. DEP's Robert Brown recognized that, because of the city's relationship with the landfill, the plan to send the contaminated material there is the most cost effective solution for the state.
Cleanup update: former contractor appeals decision to switch
Chad Gunter of Advanced Environmental Technologies gave the city commission an update March 3 on the power plant site cleanup.
The city is still waiting for the project funding to be approved, but AET has been working with local contractors as promised to develop a plan to finish the cleanup. That includes, he said, using local trucking companies, local backfill and concrete, and the local landfill.
The project minus sod and new concrete-which will be taken care of under separate work orders-already totals more than $1 million.
Every such project around the state is funded based on its score. The score includes consideration of the risk posed by the contamination. The funding schedule fluctuates based on the amount of money available.
The Starke project is designed to finish cleaning up diesel contamination of the soil at the former power plant site. The site will be returned to its existing state, after which the city plans to build an open-air stage there.
Starke recently switched contractors overseeing the project again. AET took over for Fortis Environmental Group in much the same way Fortis took the project from AET a number of years ago-by playing on the commission's preference for working with local people.
At the city meeting March 3, Christy Leger of Fortis Environmental Group disputed Gunter's prior statements, saying 33 percent of the work order is going to local contractors. She also said Gunter had turned in a proposal to the state that calls for seven weeks of work, not four as he told the commission in a prior meeting.
According to Leger, Starke's funding priority with the Department of Environmental Protection has dropped since it switched back to AET.
She said the Fortis didn't even know the city was considering changing contractors. They were doing what they supposed to do, she said, citing a number of meetings attended with the operations manager and city commission.
She said their work proposal used almost as much local work, with an exception being the landfill. She said that was because the city would be liable for any contamination leaching into the landfill and they didn't feel comfortable putting the city in that position.
She said, however, they would use the landfill if the city named Fortis the contractor for the project again. She also said that while it wasn't feasible for Fortis to use only local contractors, their team would use them when they could.
Landfill Executive Director Darrell O'Neal discussed disposal of the contaminated material at New River at a workshop the city held March 9, saying the city had liability should any of the waste-including weekly residential and commercial disposal-should contamination leak from the landfill into the surrounding environment. The design of the landfill makes that unlikely, however, and the landfill carries millions of dollars worth of insurance in case it ever was to become an issue.
At the workshop, Fortis continued to answer questions about how much local workers would benefit from the change in contractors. In particular, the questioned funneling project funds through another firm, Horizon Environmental of Alabama. As project manager, Horizon will be on site working with local subcontractors.
In spite of that and other discussion, the city commission did not seem interested in reversing its decision.
At the March 3 meeting, Mayor Wilbur Waters and Operations Manager Ricky Thompson said there had been communication problems about the status of the project, although Fortis' Laura Mooney denied that.
Leger provided a list of meeting attended and an e-mail trail she said disproved any communications breakdown. She said there was never any dissatisfaction expressed and suggested things were being communicated to Thompson that were not being passed on to the board.
Fortis had made progress on the project over the years, including contamination cleanup and removal of the power plant building.
Work is stalled now pending a release of funding from the state.
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©Bradford County Telegraph 2010
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