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Hernando Today

Water Authority To Set Up Shop At Swiftmud

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By TONY MARRERO

Published: May 30, 2008

Hernando Today

BROOKSVILLE The organization charged with planning for future water supply sources for Hernando, Citrus, Sumter and Marion counties will set up shop in Brooksville.

The Withlacoochee Regional Water Supply Authority will get office space at the Southwest Florida Water Management District's headquarters on U.S. 41. The district, known as Swiftmud, will also provide the authority with administrative and technical support.

The district's governing board unanimously approved the agreement at its regular meeting Tuesday.

"It really is important we support the regional water supply authority," Ken Herd, Swiftmud's water supply program director, told the board. "The support for (alternative water supply) projects to be developed on a regional basis is essential."

It's much less than what that water authority had hoped for a few months ago, but it will do, Executive Director Jack Sullivan told the board.

Sullivan had asked Swiftmud for $400,000 a year for the next five years to help establish a full-fledged operation. The water authority has operated on a minimal budget and without a fulltime home or dedicated staff besides Sullivan since it was founded in 1977 to develop plans and partnerships to meet the region's water needs.

Sullivan works as a consultant out of his home in Tallahassee. He makes $100,000 per year. The authority's total budget for 2008 is just more than $672,000.

Faced with a budget crunch, Swiftmud staff recommended the "in-kind services" instead, with a promise to evaluate the situation each year to see if more support might be possible.

Because the water authority's plans for alternate water sources are in preliminary phases, and "given the current economic climate, this counter proposal to the authority seems to be a reasonable approach at this time," Herd said.

The authority gets some of its funding through a 20-cent per capita assessment from its member governments of Citrus, Hernando and Sumter counties and the City of Ocala. Marion County had left the authority, but plans to rejoin this year, Sullivan said.

Hernando County has some 160,000 residents, translating to a $32,000 annual contribution to the authority. In March, Sullivan asked the County Commission for an annual increase of 1 cent for the next five years, eventually bringing the total assessment to 25 cents, or $40,000.

Commissioners, faced with a budget shortfall of their own, shot the request down. Commissioner Jeff Stabins called the authority a redundant bureaucracy.

The authority is expected to come back to the Swiftmud governing board with a request to allow revenue from the Charles Blackwell water facility in Citrus County to be used for administrative costs, Herd said. Currently the revenue can only be used for water supply projects.

The top priority in the coming years will be to direct existing groundwater to areas that have supply problems, including western Hernando County and Sumter County, Sullivan said. The authority hopes to bring in more revenue from new wellfields constructed in the next few years in north Sumter County and in the Withlacoochee State Forest to serve areas in Citrus County and maybe West Hernando County, he said.

Commissioner Rose Rocco, who represents Hernando on the water supply authority board, told the governing board Tuesday that its support would help the authority meet those goals and start planning for alternative water supply projects.

"The big concern was being able to have a location where we could work with consistency," Rocco said.

Sullivan hopes to have his new office at Swiftmud set up by October. The Brooksville native and Hernando High School graduate said he and his wife likely will move to Brooksville.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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