Summary The City of Alachua and the Suwanee River Water Management District (SRWMD) entered in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on April 7, 2017 where the City was to receive a SRWMD grant of $400,000 to partially fund land acquisition, design and to construct a Water Quality Improvement Project (Project) near Mill Creek Sink, identified as SRWMD # 16/17-182. The MOA was amended on Feb. 12, 2018 after the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, on Dec. 8, 2017, executed and delivered a grant of $1,000,000 to the SRWMD to be combined with the described $400,000 grant to increase the grant to the City to $1,400,000 to fully fund the Project.
The amended City-SRWMD grant (Total Grant) provides for $96,665 for a wide variety of consulting services before land acquisition and $600,000 in direct land acquisition costs. The City was able to negotiate a purchase price not to exceed $400,000 plus closing costs. Buyer agreed to pay the usual Seller cost of owner title insurance ($2,075) in order to gain inclusion of a $400,000 cap on the sale price. The total appraised price for the parcels was subsequently determined to be $411,720, Buyer closing costs of $15,410 are estimated.
The $400,000 purchase price plus $15,410 in closing costs brings the City land acquisition costs $184,590 below that allocated in the Total Grant. City staff has presented to the SRWMD and DEP a request that the land cost savings be reallocated to construction and maintenance costs. That request is now in the process of review.
The closing costs are rounded up from $15,410 to authorize the total purchase of "up to $420,000" in the event preliminary costs such as attorney fees for final title work exceed those presently estimated. Approval of the contract also contemplates issuance by the City of the $5,000 binder deposit check to the Trust Account of Attorney Darryl Tompkins, the closing agent.
The project goal is to construct a stormwater treatment system that will improve water quality recharging the Upper Floridan aquifer at Mill Creek Swallet and preserve the Mill Creek Sink. | | |