News

By Rich Pollack

    Voters in Highland Beach will be asked to give town officials a green light for a multimillion-dollar water improvement project that will include replacing 60-year-old water mains and making additional enhancements expected to improve water taste and reduce odor.
    Town commissioners will finalize language this month for the March 10 ballot, which if approved will enable the town to move forward with the replacement of 6,700 linear feet of water mains serving the town’s side streets.
    If passed, the ballot measure would also allow the town to go ahead with the installation of a lime slurry/carbon dioxide system at Highland Beach’s water treatment plant.
    While the exact cost of the two projects has still not been determined, town officials estimate the bill to be in the neighborhood of $5 million.
    A referendum on whether the town can go ahead with the project is necessary because Highland Beach’s charter requires voter approval of any capital project over $350,000.
    Public Works Director Ed Soper said the current water mains serving the town’s side streets were installed in the late 1940s and are about at the end of their life expectancy.
    The pipes are made of a combination of asbestos and cement that becomes brittle with age.
    “They are reaching the end of their lifespan,” Soper said. “Replacement is inevitable. If we wait too much longer it will be more expensive.”
    While there have been no major water main breaks recently, Soper said, the goal is to avoid an emergency situation, where replacement and repairs could be costly and residents throughout all of Highland Beach, not just in the nearby neighborhoods, could be inconvenienced.
    “Water mains are like your heart arteries,” he said. “You have to take care of them before it’s too late.”
    As part of the project, crews will likely be replacing the current mains with more durable high-density polyethylene pipes. Service connections from the mains to individual meters will most likely be galvanized pipe.
    “If residents want to take full advantage of the benefits of the new system, they’ll replace the line from the meter to their property,” he said. “But that’s not required.”
    Soper said the mains serving residents along State Road A1A were replaced a few years ago and are not part of the project.
    To cover the cost of both the water main replacement and the lime slurry/carbon dioxide system, town officials are considering borrowing money from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which provides low-interest — under 2 percent — 20-year loans for public water facilities.
    The town is planning to use ad valorem taxes — which are federally tax deductible for residents — to pay back the debt, which would be reflected in tax bills. Even with the additional debt, however, the town’s annual debt service rate would still be lower than it was in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, according to town officials.
    Town officials plan to provide residents with more information about the project through the town newsletter The Highlander and other methods, prior to the March 10 election.