Charlotte County reports healthy utility reserves, details SRF/SOFIU funding and Burnt Store expansion timeline

Rick Arthur, Charlotte County fiscal services manager, told the Board of County Commissioners on Jan. 13 that the utilities fund finished the latest fiscal year with stronger-than-expected results and that staff will update the Raftelis financial model this month to incorporate FY25 actuals and the FY26–27 budgets.

“We ended up putting about 33,000,000 into reserves this year, pretty close to his forecast of 31,” Arthur said, summarizing the year’s capital and operating timing effects. Arthur said the county projects a utilities fund balance near $120,000,000.

Arthur reviewed revenue drivers and cautioned that some capital purchases budgeted this year have not yet been received and may charge to next year’s expenditures, affecting the timing of reserves. He said connection fees — driven by recent growth — exceeded last year’s forecast by about $1,314,000 (as reconciled by staff), a factor that materially improved the utility’s position.

On federal and state financing, Arthur said the State Revolving Fund (SRF) clean-water cap for the year looks to be about $20,000,000 and that the county is also evaluating projects for the drinking-water program. Separately, staff identified a $31,000,000 supplemental loan package (described in the meeting as SOFIU hurricane-related funds) that will be programmed into the Ackerman and Eastport projects; those funds are being drawn as project expenditures occur and, unlike SRF loans, are expected to be forgiven after construction is complete.

“We have them programmed into these two projects,” Arthur said of the SOFIU dollars, adding that staff will draw the funds down as they spend them.

Operations and capacity

Jeremy Frost, utilities operations manager, reviewed operational metrics for September through November and said overall water purchases and production are trending upward as new connections come online in the Burnt Store area. Frost reported purchased water (annualized numbers presented at the meeting) and plant production figures used for planning; he also said reclaimed water use is increasing amid current drought conditions.

Frost told commissioners the Burnt Store Water Reclamation Facility is treating about 74% of its permitted capacity to date and that temporary treatment units will soon be installed to meet immediate service needs. Eastport is at roughly 76% of capacity and is nearly through its expansion; Rotunda and Westport are operating well with available expansion planning under way.

Service impacts and contractor hits

Frost said the county experienced elevated service leaks and water-main breaks in the recent quarter; contractor hits accounted for a large share of those incidents. He reported a contractor-hit repair cost summary for the year and said the county is working with contractors to reduce the incident rate.

“We are working diligently with the contractors to get those numbers down,” Frost said, noting 155 contractor-related repair events reported January–November and about 304 major water-distribution events overall in the period covered.

Projects and schedule

Ken Stecker, utilities project manager, provided a project-by-project update. He said the 42-inch Hillsborough Boulevard main installation is progressing with substantial sections completed, the 776 wastewater force main is in design with $1,000,000 allocated from the county’s 2020 sales tax funds for phase 1, and water-quality projects such as Ackerman and Lakeview Midway are in various stages of procurement and design.

Contractor update on Burnt Store temporary plant

Jason Swift, CMAR with John Swift Construction, said the county has applied for necessary permits for the temporary package plant, expects a notice of intent from regulators soon, and has procured the first Clovisen(a/Clowesina) package treatment unit (reported roughly 80–90% complete by the vendor) with delivery anticipated in February–March. He said the temporary unit is expected to be online in the second quarter and that permanent expansion design and permitting remain on schedule.

Next steps

Arthur told the board bond counsel will present an updated reimbursement resolution at the finance committee meeting scheduled for the following day; the board will consider a related approval at its Jan. 27 regular meeting. Staff said they will update the Raftelis model after the kickoff meeting and will continue to evaluate SRF versus other funding options for upcoming capital work.

(Reporting note: quotes and figures above are drawn directly from the board presentation and discussion. Where the transcript contained an implausible raw numeric transcription, staff reconciled the value in the meeting materials and the article uses the reconciled figure.)