News

By Steve Plunkett

    The pipes that bring saltwater from the ocean to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s fish viewing tanks need $2 million of repairs — and fast.
    “Those poor fish — you just want to breathe for them. You want to give CPR because they’re having such a hard time,” said Susan Vogelgesang, chairwoman of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District Board.
    The board declared an emergency Aug. 17 to speed up the process of having repairs made. The declaration let the district immediately hire consultant Applied Technology & Management to design and build whatever is needed to fix the seawater lines. ATM already had studied the lines for the city.
    Arthur Koski, the district’s interim executive director, said the consultant would begin with a temporary repair. Designing, getting permits and constructing a permanent solution will take two years, he said.
    Koski said air is leaking into the system, but ATM is not sure whether the leak is in the pump house, east of State Road A1A, or in the lines under the highway. There are also issues with the intake lines out in the ocean, he said.
    Without the emergency declaration, the district would have had to put the repairs out to bid, adding months to the project.
    “It’s obvious that something needs to be done,” Koski said.
    The city owns Red Reef Park, which includes the nature center. The district pays for all operating expenses and maintenance. It also funds most capital projects.
    Gumbo Limbo’s saltwater tanks, which opened in 2012, were built with $2.2 million from the district. Not long after, officials realized something was wrong with the pumps and pipes that bring in saltwater from the Atlantic.
    Koski said he first heard of the trouble at a meeting in March 2014. “We knew the problem existed way back then,” he said.
    The district started to have a consultant look at the plumbing system, then the city said it could do the work in-house. Earlier this year the city decided to pass responsibility back to the district.
    Beach and Park District Commissioner Earl Starkoff said he and his colleagues should monitor both the repairs and their budget to make sure they have enough money.
    “We don’t know if the $2 million we’ve got budgeted for it is too much, too little or just right,” Starkoff said.
    But Commissioner Robert Rollins said it was more important to focus first on making the fixes. “Let’s just keep the pedal to the metal and keep this thing moving forward so we don’t have a catastrophe,” he said.
    Judy Gire of the Friends of Gumbo Limbo thanked commissioners for taking the emergency action. “We hope that this approval will be sufficient to move the project ahead quickly,” she said.