OVIEDO, Fla. – With aging infrastructure and rising costs, it’s no wonder cities across Central Florida are struggling to keep up with stormwater projects.
Earlier this year, Oviedo’s finance director told the city council “there was no cash on hand for stormwater. Period.”
Our News 6 team reported on a utility rate hike that was made permanent in February to help pay for future projects.
But during a meeting on Monday night, the council unanimously decided that they want to borrow $9.5 million dollars to address stormwater issues.
“For the stormwater note, we selected option B to go with TD Bank,” one city official said during the meeting. “It was determined to be the most advantageous after significant discussion. It took a couple days for us to fair through it all.”
Mayor Megan Sladek, who met our crew by Lake Charm, explained that this is part of the plan.
“The rates that were approved envision being able to take out enough loans to fix all of the problems all at the same time,” Sladek said.
Right now, Oviedo has 88 projects on a list of wants and needs over the next 10 years and 37 of those projects are in water and sewer utility, which includes pipelines and facility improvements.
Fifty-one are capital improvement projects, which include culvert repairs, creek clear outs, etc.
A map on the city’s website shows information on some of those capital improvement projects in areas such as Lake Charm, where plans to replace the existing ditch along the east side of Lake Charm Drive with a storm sewer system are currently in the design/permitting phase. Other projects, like a pipe repair along Alexandria Boulevard, are already in construction.
With the utility rate hike and borrowed funds, Sladek said Oviedo will have the option to fund the solutions now, rather than having to wait.
“The plan is just to start knocking them out one at a time,” said Sladek. “Over the past decade or so when people have brought issues, we’ve added them to the list, and then whenever we have funding the biggest fire got put out. We’re just tired of saying, ‘you’ve got to take a turn flooding.’ Nobody should take a turn flooding. We need to address this comprehensively throughout the whole city.”