Melanie Nichols, president of the North Hill Preservation Association passed along this public record request that she sent to ECUA Executive Director Steve Sorrells this morning.
She said yesterday’s ECUA board meeting was packed. Both Mayor Ashton Hayward and Councilman Brian Spencer were in attendance.
“We still haven’t gotten any of the public records that we have requested on the project,” said Nichols. “I have extended my public records request to find out what happened to that lift station during the April 2014 flood because staff keeps referring to something almost catastrophic occurring to our lift station due to the flood, but won’t give us any details.”
She added, “It makes me wonder if this location for the Moreno Lift Station should be re-thought and re-engineered versus putting Band-Aid tanks on the site.”
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2016
From: president@historicnorthhill.com
Subject: Re: Public Records Request for 1750 North Palafox and Tank Project
To: sorrellse@ecua.fl.gov
Cc: lois.h.benson@gmail.com, daleperk@aol.com
Dear Mr. Sorrells,
I am disappointed that our organization has not received any of the electronic records that were requested one week ago. Please send these items, individually, as available. The PowerPoint presentation that was given to our organization on February 8th indicated that this was a project ready to proceed Summer 2016, so we would assume that you had a current project file that staff was working from and these items would not be so difficult to find.
At yesterday’s meeting, staff member Bill Johnson, showed two drawings of the site. One showed a drawing of one of the tanks, with a cut-away of the street elevation. Why have these drawings and plans not been forwarded to us as requested so that we would have had an opportunity to review them prior to yesterday’s meeting?
No questions were allowed after the Open Forum agenda item ended, so the public was not able to question the Chairman after Mr. Johnson’s staff presentation to your board. If so, we would have asked for the actual elevations and the amount of frontage space on Palafox that would not be used and
available for re-sale/redevelopment/or landscaping.
Varying descriptions have been presented to our organization by your staff at the Feb 8th meeting, and again yesterday, which vary from 100-250 feet, which is why we want to see site drawings of where the tanks will be on the site with all the accessory equipment necessary shown also on the drawings.
Also, your e-mail to a member of our organization indicated that the tanks would not be vented, and no gases would be released into the air. Yesterday Mr. Johnson indicted in his presentation that they MAY be vented. He also indicated that they could possibly be connected if necessary to odor scrubbers onsite at the Moreno Street Lift Station.
Again, the public was not able to ask staff any questions at yesterday’s meeting. Our members want to know what gases will be vented, and the amount of releases when the tanks are in use and when not in use. We have elderly and persons with health issues who live nearby, who invested in this neighborhood prior to your projected incompatible land use, who deserve to see an Environmental Assessment Report from this proposed use near three residential neighborhoods (North Hill, Eastside, & Long Hollow).
There are still many, many questions that we would like answers too, and since ECUA will not hold a true public hearing where all these questions can be asked, and the individual answers to citizens vary widely, all that our organization and the public have available to us are the public records/project files. We hope that you will make every reasonable effort to give us copies of this project file.
Also, the public experienced difficulty in sending e-mails to the Chairman of the Board because your website information for her e-mail address is incorrect. Ms. Benson has contacted me to give me the
correct e-mail address and I have relayed that information to our members, but the general public at large, and those that go to your website to find this information will not know the correct address.
Please extend my public records request to include the following: (in electronic/digital format where available)
1. A copy of the video from yesterday’s meeting of the ECUA Board
2. A copy of the staff’s presentation to you yesterday about the tank project
3. A copy of the video from the May 2014 ECUA Board Meeting
4. A copy of the full agenda packet, and staff presentations from the May 2014 ECUA Board Meeting
5. A map showing the pipeline from the Government Street Lift Station to the Warrington emergency tank location showing the locations for any/all lift stations necessary for this pipeline.
Thank you again for the opportunity to meet with you yesterday and thank you, Chairwoman Benson for allowing everyone who wanted to speak in Open Forum the opportunity to do so.
Sincerely,
Melanie Nichols, President