The Laker/Lutz News

Ted Beason

Zephyrhills passes $75.3 million budget

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The City of Zephyrhills has adopted a budget of nearly $75.3 million for fiscal year 2021-2022.

The figure represents about a 24.5% increase over this past year’s budget, which was roughly $60.5 million.

The newest budget also comes in significantly higher than the 2019-2020 and 2018-2019 fiscal years, which were approximately $66.3 million and $59.4 million, respectively.

The Zephyrhills City Council unanimously approved the 2021-2022 budget at the second and final reading during its Sept. 27 meeting.

No citizens spoke during a public hearing on the matter.

The city’s balanced budget is based on a rate of 6.35 mills, which will generate about $5.7 million in ad valorem taxes based on a citywide property valuation of nearly $946.7 million.

The city’s millage rate has been the same since 2016, according to Zephyrhills Finance Director Ted Beason.

The 54-page budget is broken down into the following categories:

  • General fund: $15,655,783
  • Special revenue fund: $13,154,724
  • Community Redevelopment Agency fund: $879, 814
  • Impact fee fund: $6,143,835
  • Utility impact fee fund: $6,292,000
  • Utility fund: $22,766,563
  • Airport fund: $8,440,931
  • Sanitation fund: $1,963,030

Zephyrhills City Manager Billy Poe highlighted major projects in the upcoming fiscal year in a memo to council members. The fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

Notable projects include:

  • Sarah Vande Berg Tennis & Wellness Center multi-purpose indoor facility: $4.655 million, with 100% of the funding coming from the state
  • Simons Road Phase II: $2.3 million, funded by transportation impact fee
  • Park improvements: $1.1 million, funded by Penny for Pasco
  • Sidewalks: $1 million, funded by Penny for Pasco
  • Eiland Boulevard/Simons Road intersection: $800,000, funded by transportation impact fee
  • Dairy Road/Kossik Road extension: $800,000, funded by transportation impact fee
  • County Road 54 improvements, east of Hercules Park: $581,907, funded by Penny for Pasco
  • Seventh Street milling and restoration: $575,000, funded by Penny for Pasco
  • City yard design: $350,000, funded by Penny for Pasco
  • Gateway development project: $350,000, funded by transportation impact fee
  • Hercules Park design: $300,000, funded by Penny for Pasco
  • Jennifer Lane design and construction: $120,000, funded by transportation impact fee

Meanwhile, the new budget calls for several additional personnel, including three police officers (detective, patrol officer, K-9), a human resources specialist, senior maintenance mechanic, water utilities service worker and wastewater utilities service worker.

Also on the city staffing front:

  • Total employee health care costs increased 1.4%
  • Pay increase of 3% for employees and 41 cents per hour to work toward the upcoming $15 state-mandated minimum wage increase by September 2026

Poe shared other citywide updates in his city manager’s report:

  • The 2021 Zephyrhills Economic Summit is scheduled for Oct. 13, from 9 a.m. to noon at Zephyrhills City Hall, 5335 Eighth St. Featured presentations will take a look at an aviation cluster study, growth, expansion and development, workforce initiatives, and various updates throughout the state and Pasco County.

• The City of Zephyrhills will host a stormwater master plan public workshop on Nov. 1 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at Zephyrhills City Hall. “It’ll be a workshop where citizens can come in, look at a map, and have a conversation about their property or their areas of concern,” Poe said.

City of Zephyrhills fiscal year 2021-2022 budget
Total balanced budget: $75,296,680

  • General fund: $15,655,783
  • Special revenue fund: $13,154,724
  • Community Redevelopment Agency fund: $879, 814
  • Impact fee fund: $6,143,835
  • Utility impact fee fund: $6,292,000
  • Utility fund: $22,766,563
  • Airport fund: $8,440,931
  • Sanitation fund: $1,963,030

Published October 13, 2021

Zephyrhills tax rate to stay the same

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Zephyrhills property owners won’t see an increase in their ad valorem tax rate for fiscal year 2021-2022.

The city council on July 12 unanimously voted to set the tentative millage rate at 6.35 mills — a rate the municipality has maintained for several years.

Public hearings on the proposed property tax rate have been scheduled for Sept. 13 and Sept. 27, both at 6 p.m.

The City of Zephyrhills set its tentative property tax rate at 6.35 mills for fiscal year 2020-2021; it is the same rate as it has been for the past several years. (File)

Under state law, once a tentative millage rate has been set, the city cannot raise it before the start of the fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. The council does, however, have the option to reduce the rate before then.

A mill represents $1 in tax for every $1,000 worth of a property’s taxable assessed value.

In Zephyrhills, maintaining a rate of 6.35 mills would levy about $6,011,395 in property taxes — a revenue increase of $690,420 compared with last year, according to city records. (Aiming for a 95% collection rate, that’d be $5,710,925 compared to last year’s $5,054,922.)

The figures are based on the total city’s property value of $946,676,382, an increase of $103,363,254 over last year, according to the Pasco County Property Appraiser’s Office. Of that increase, $50,282,764 is attributable to new construction.

Zephyrhills Finance Director Ted Beason summarized the details during the meeting.

In other news, City Manager Billy Poe reported there was “very little impact” to the municipality when Hurricane Elsa touched down, aside from a lone city police vehicle that suffered flooding damage.

“We had one police vehicle that got flooded, unfortunately, but that was the only damage that was incurred. No trees were down, which was shocking,” Poe said.

Meanwhile, councilman Smith credited Zephyrhills Police Chief Derek Brewer and Zephyrhills Public Works Director Shane LeBlanc for being well-organized and prepared for the impending tropical storm.

Smith said of the two city department heads: “You already have your plans in place, you already know what you’re going to do, that’s why nobody was panicking. I knew you had already done this many, many times before, so thank you for your planning on it.”

Published July 28, 2021

Zephyrhills renews utility billing service

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Utility customers and Zephyrhills city staffers can breathe a collective sigh of relief: For the next year at least, MuniBilling will continue to handle the city’s utility billing.

That means customers will be able to continue to view their water consumption and make payments, without switching to another company.

The Zephyrhills City Council made that official announcement during the council’s Nov. 9 meeting.

The City of Zephyrhills has renewed its contract on utility billing services with MuniBilling, a North Carolina-based firm that provides cloud-based utility billing software for governments and private companies. The renewal comes a year after the city was forced to scramble to find a new utility billing provider, after it was informed that Fathom Water Management was going out of business. (File)

Last November, the city had to change its water billing provider after it was informed that Fathom Water Management was going out of business. The notice came from the Arizona-based company in a Saturday email — telling the city it had three weeks to find a different provider to service utility customers.

The bombshell — or what city officials describe “a disastrous day” — forced the city to scramble for a new utility billing provider, subsequently requiring the complete overhaul of billing system software and repository information, as well as bill printing.

“It was quite an undertaking,” Zephyrhills Finance Director Ted Beason recalled. “I used to be thin and had a lot of hair before that process, so it’s had a toll on the staff.”

By December, the city was able to land with MuniBilling, who converted the city’s billing data to their software and offered call center services within a period of days.

Customers were able to provide their same username and account number on MuniBilling as they did on Fathom. Also, the company combined 1,700 irrigation accounts on the same bill as household meters.

That first-year agreement with MuniBilling came with an $812,000 price tag, or $5.99 per active account (roughly 11,300) for 12 months.

Now, in continuing the relationship for a second year, MuniBilling services will drop to $541,000 ($3.99 per account for 12 months), yielding a savings of $271,000 for the city, the finance director says.

“We’re now in a position where we can take advantage of our second year of our contract with MuniBilling,” Beason explained to the Zephyrhills City Council. “We think it’s worth the second year of the contract, and we think they performed well enough that we’d like to push forward.”

Beason highlighted other program benefits, too.

The firm’s associated integrated customer portal — WaterSmart — allows customers to make online payments, set up autopay and review data on their water consumption. The program also sends email and text notifications to customers on abnormal water usage. A meter showing 20 gallons of water being used in the middle of the night may signal a leaking toilet, for example.

Beason called the feature “a total win” as it allows customers to resolve a potential issue before seeing major effects on the following month’s bill.

“It’s very much the case of, we don’t want to produce boomerang bills. As we notice the problem, reach out to the customer and try to head off the problem before it really becomes expensive for them,” explained Beason.

However, the finance director acknowledged there were some hiccups in the early days of the MuniBilling partnership, including: inexperience of the firm’s call center staff; software that didn’t smoothly handle old customer move-outs and new customer move-ins; and, deposit refunds requiring a lot of effort by city staff.

But, Beason noted the company in June added “a really good project manager” who “seems to be in tune with not repeating the same mistakes more than once, and goes ahead and gets that taken care of quickly.”

Zephyrhills City Manager Billy Poe also went to bat in favor of renewing MuniBilling’s contract.

Poe told council members he’d “highly recommend against” changing gears and searching for a new water billing provider.

If that was to be the case, Poe, perhaps half-jokingly, said: “We probably will not have a finance director or many utility employees,” referencing the stress and workload involved in transitioning from one utility billing firm to another.

Other city staffers didn’t have to put up much of an argument, as council members likewise expressed their satisfaction with the MuniBilling and WaterSmart system.

Said Councilwoman Jodi Wilkeson: “For me personally, I think that the bill is easier to read. I think that it’s pretty consistent when it arrives and for the general customer experience, overall, has been pretty positive.”

Council President Charles Proctor also shared upbeat comments about MuniBilling, noting he has not received many complaints from utility customers.

Efforts to modernize the city’s water billing system had been in the works for some time.

Prior to signing up with Fathom more than five years ago, Zephyrhills leaders expressed the need to shift to state-of-the-art, cloud-based technology that can monitor for leaks and spikes in water usage, and provide more accuracy and consistency in meter readings and billings.

Confidence in the city’s billing system had eroded in recent years because of inaccurate meter readings, broken meters, leaks that went undiscovered and other problems.

Residential and commercial customers then reported incorrect billing, including a $100,000 error in the Zephyrhills bottled water account.

Yet, even the initial Fathom rollout led to numerous complaints from residents, who saw their bills go up after installation of new bar meters provided more precise water-usage readings, finding leaks the old system did not detect.

Published November 18, 2020

Improvements slated for County Road 54 in Zephyrhills

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A congested roadway in Zephyrhills is set to receive some long-awaited and seemingly much-needed improvements to ease traffic patterns and enhance safety overall.

The City of Zephyrhills and Pasco County have come to a cost-sharing agreement for upgrades to a portion of County Road 54 which crosses both city limits and unincorporated county areas.

Zephyrhills City Councilman Ken Burgess (Courtesy of City of Zephyrhills)

The scope of the project calls for the following enhancements along a 1.31-mile stretch, east of U.S. 301 east to 23rd Street:

  • Additional signage and pavement markings
  • Left-hand turn lane at the Dairy Road intersection
  • Right-hand turn lane and new mast arms at Wire Road, turning onto 12th Street
  • Signalized intersection at 23rd Street
  • Pedestrian signals and ADA sidewalk ramps at the intersections of Wire Road/12th Street, 20th Street and 23rd Street
  • A 10-foot concrete multi-use path on the south side of County Road 54 adjacent to Zephyrhills High School, and a 5-foot to 6-foot path on the north side of the road, plus associated drainage

The Zephyrhills City Council on Oct. 12 unanimously approved an interlocal agreement with the county that calls for a 50/50-split on costs for the multi-million project.

An engineer’s estimate for the project’s entirety came in at $6,855,255.44, meaning the city and county each will have an estimated cost of $3,427,627.72.

The entire project will be constructed in one phase. How it’s actually funded will be handled a bit differently, however.

The county has agreed to fund all improvements east of 20th Street to east of 23rd Street, including a new signalized intersection. Any dollars leftover from their cost-sharing portion will be used to help Zephyrhills fund improvements from east of U.S. 301 to 20th Street, which is inside the city’s jurisdiction.

Also, under the agreement’s terms, the county will conduct construction engineering and inspections either by utilizing its workforce or contracting with a third party. The county has also agreed to be responsible for facilities maintenance after construction.

Initial plans outlined many years ago called for the stretch to be widened to four lanes. But, various infrastructure and logistical hurdles necessitated the project to instead feature turn lanes, traffic signals and adjacent multi-use trails.

Zephyrhills City Councilman Lance Smith (File)

Either way, any improvements to the roadway section are greatly needed, city leaders say.

Councilman Ken Burgess labeled the stretch “a nightmare to navigate for many, many years.”

Councilman Lance Smith similarly called it “probably one of the most congested areas, at times, in the city.”

“I think there’s some necessary segments that we need to do,” Smith said. “I’m a little disappointed that we couldn’t get the four lanes in there, but hopefully, this will help with the traffic.”

The project’s sizable price tag — and how to split funding — had been a snag over the last several months between the city and county.

That in mind, the city does have the option to terminate the agreement should receive bids exceed cost estimates for its funding portion.

Council members acknowledged it’s quite possible that project bids will come in higher than anticipated, but they said they likely still will move forward with project — unless bids come in excessively greater than the engineer’s initial projections.

Smith put it like this: “Nothing is getting cheaper to build. I mean, as much as it’s a bitter pill to swallow, I think it’s something we should go ahead and do.”

Bid opening for the project is anticipated for some time in December, with Pasco County commissioners expected to award the bid/contract in February or March.

Once that happens, Zephyrhills will make an initial payment of $1.1 million to the county within a month of the bid award. From there, the city will pay installments (estimated at $581,906.93, plus change orders) to the county each of the next four years, through fiscal year 2024-2025.

Purchase thresholds upped for small projects
In other business, the council unanimously approved a first reading ordinance amendment increasing purchasing thresholds for when quotes and sealed bids are required.

It’s part of a move to streamline smaller purchases and projects, officials say

In a staff memo, Zephyrhills City Manager Billy Poe and Zephyrhills Finance Director Ted Beason outlined how small projects have been stalled as they’re required to comply with lower, outdated thresholds ($2,500 for quotes; $20,000 for bids) instituted back in 2014.

To alleviate those issues, the altered ordinance raises proposed thresholds for quotes and bids to $5,000 and $50,000, respectively.

Zephyrhills City Manager Billy Poe (Courtesy of City of Zephyrhills)

As an example of the ongoing threshold issue, Poe explained how a somewhat routine purchase of a new city-operated pickup truck requires council consideration if it’s greater than $20,000 — which most new trucks are — even though it received prior approval in the regular budget.

The city manager outlined other examples, too.

A damaged handrail on Green Slope Drive cost about $3,600 to repair, but the project “took a while” to complete because the city was having trouble finding three separate quotes, Poe said.

Meanwhile, a pedestrian crossing on Simons Road estimated to cost slightly more than $20,000 is being delayed because it must go out to formal bid “as opposed to taking the plans and getting three prices, and getting the project done,” the city manager said.

“It’s just slowing things down a little bit,” Poe said of the current lower purchasing thresholds. “You know, staff does a great job of finding the most cost-efficient piece of equipment or tool as they can. This just helps…of reducing some of the search time.”

Council members expressed they are on board with the threshold changes. They added there’s still transparency in such purchases and projects, as they’ll still get listed as noted items in regular council meeting packets.

“I’m OK with what we’re doing here, because you don’t want to slow things down,” Councilman Ken Burgess said. “It’s just a formality of making sure that we’re aware of it.”

A second and final reading of the amended ordinance will be considered at an Oct. 26 regular council meeting.

Published October 21, 2020

Zephyrhills offers new online utility service

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Zephyrhills utility customers have transitioned to a new online software in order to view their water consumption and make payments.

“We are going to go from a firm – Fathom – that has provided our services for utility billing, going to MuniBilling, out of North Carolina,” said Ted Beason, of the Zephyrhills Utilities Department.

Zephyrhills has a new MuniBilling portal for its utility customers. It will allow customers to view their water consumption level and make online payments. (File)

The Zephyrhills City Council approved the switch to MuniBilling, which offers the same online portal, just through a different platform.

The change comes after Fathom gave a Nov. 9 notice that it would be going out of business, thus discontinuing services.

The software program became obsolete on Dec. 13.

“When we got that notice, we started to look at other alternatives,” Beason said. “We’ll have a very smooth transition of service with the option that’s been selected.”

The Zephyrhills Utility Department had a public meeting at Zephyrhills’ City Hall Council Chambers on Dec. 11. Those attending were informed about the change and had an opportunity to ask questions.

The utility department was able to turn on or turn off the service, at the customer’s request, on Dec. 13. It was the last day for new customers to activate their utility accounts before the transition.

Dec. 13 also was the final day for customers to make payments before the switch to MuniBilling.

Check payments were only accepted and paid at Zephyrhills City Hall.

MuniBilling became officially operational the week of Dec. 15.

Customers can provide their same username and account number on MuniBilling as they did on Fathom.

There will be no fees to customers in order to make the switch.

For additional information, call (813) 780-0015, or visit ci.zephyrhills/fl.us/161/utility-billing.

For making payments through the new portal, visit MuniBilling.com/solutions/.

Published December 18, 2019

Planting seeds to grow gardeners

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The room at the rear of the Land O’ Lakes Community Center was buzzing with chatter as children made their way around the various stations — creating caterpillars out of egg cartons, turning peanut butter jars into terrariums, and creating worm condos out of recycled soda bottles.

Master gardeners from Pasco County Cooperative Extension shared their enthusiasm for gardening as they talked to the youngsters about worms, air plants and compost.

Pasco County Cooperative Extension master gardeners Juanita Fawley and Mary Ellen Gotto help Makenzie Haworth, 7, build a worm condo. (B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)
Pasco County Cooperative Extension master gardeners Juanita Fawley and Mary Ellen Gotto help Makenzie Haworth, 7, build a worm condo.
(B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)

Master gardeners Mary Ellen Gotto, Juanita Fawley and Stan Groves helped Makenzie Haworth, 7, of New Tampa, as the young girl built a worm condo.

Amy Perkins, who is Makenzie’s mom, said the event helps connect kids with nature, and gives them a chance to experience gardening.

“It’s great exposure,” Perkins said.

“We put this on every year for children,” Gotto said. “It’s educational for children.”

Master gardener Chris Storch helped Caleb Hicks, 9, as he assembled his terrarium. The Connerton Elementary School student attended the event last year and wanted to come back when he heard it was being held again, said Land O’ Lakes resident Ted Beason, the boy’s grandfather.

Storch enjoys seeing the children’s delight.

“They love it, getting their hands dirty and digging into it,” the Lutz woman said.

Vicki Arndtz, a Pasco County master gardener from Zephyrhills, thinks the event gives children from all backgrounds a chance to learn the love of growing plants and vegetables.

“Not every child has an unlimited budget to experiment with gardening,” Arndtz said.

At the terrarium station, children could choose from a wide assortment of recycled containers. There were recycled peanut butter jars, a cheese puff container, pretzel jars and Beanie Babies collectible cases.

After selecting the container, the children added rocks, a weed cloth, soil, plants and decorative items, such as colored stones, gems and coins.

Carolyn Watson, of Land O’ Lakes, was there with her granddaughter, Grace Heller.

“My granddaughter and I love to plant plants together,” Watson said.

The 7-year-old, who attends Corbett Preparatory School, said she’s grown carrots, impatiens and miniature sunflowers with her grandmother.

The master gardeners share a passion for gardening, Arndtz said, and enjoy sharing their enthusiasm.

“Only an eclectic group like this could get excited over worm compost,” she said, laughing.

There’s always something new to learn, Storch said. For instance, gardeners who move to Florida from northern states have to learn about the spring and fall gardening seasons, she said.

“Timing is everything,” Storch said, especially when it comes to growing vegetables in Florida.

To learn more about the Pasco Cooperative Extension, visit Pasco.IFAS.UFL.edu.

For more information about gardening, visit http://solutionsforyourlife.com.

Published August 13, 2014

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