Commissioner Romero Shares More Information about Peary Court Property
by City Commissioner Margaret Romero…….
This note is to update you on recent information I obtained after meetings with Management teams at Keys Energy and Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority regarding Peary Court and the City’s possible exposures and unknown costs.
KEYS ENERGY
- Easement for transmission poles along Palm Ave which sit inside the Peary Court perimeter have yet to be transferred from the current owners to Keys Energy.
o KEYS has an agreement for the owners to do this – but the owners have yet to execute it
o There is speculation there could be litigation on this matter.
o There is speculation that the current owners may want to retain the easement land and not relinquish said land to the City so they can charge KEYS fees for KEYS transmission poles being on their property
- Low voltage underground wires which go from the “transformer” boxes to the housing units
o These lines will be the responsibility of the purchaser to inspect, maintain, and repair
- not the responsibility of KEYS and they will not take on that responsibility
- KEYS is not responsible for inspection
- Condition unknown
- High voltage wires from the single main entry (near White St.) to the Switch (think of it like a big transformer) and then to the padmount transformer boxes from which the low voltage wires flow
o Current owners put $97,500 in escrow so that KEYS could make improvement to the high voltage system
o Keys Energy is using the money in escrow to make improvements to the underground high voltage lines (from the main entry to the switch to the transformer boxes), as well as switch cabinet and several of the padmount transformers
o Current owners are questioning the use of some of these funds
o On Wednesday, March 16th, KEYS will be performing the scheduled improvements to bring Peary Court high voltage electrical facilities up to KEYS normal standards. (This is the 8 hour outageon which some have commented in the Citizens Voice – the outage will affect only Peary Court and not any of the surrounding areas)
o Might this cause one to wonder about the low voltage wires condition?
o As new housing units are developed, this will probably require the installation of new padmount transformers and accompanying high voltage and low voltage wiring —cost to be borne by property owner
- 45 Street lights in Peary Court
o Are the responsibility of whomever owns or will own the property
- This includes poles and the lights
- KEYS will not take ownership or responsibility for maintenance and repair
o Currently billed for electricity via an estimating process
- Developer or new owners will need to install meters at the various service points to enable particular billing for lighting
- Individual Electric meters
o Existing 157 units each currently have their own respective electrical meter
- HISTORY
o When Peary Court was built, the military purchased, installed, and was responsible for all on site voltage systems
o Keys Energy merely delivered electricity to the single point of entry to the development
o KEYS did not maintain any electrical in Peary Court
o There was one “master” meter for the entire Peary Court Complex
FLORIDA KEYS AQUEDUCT AUTHORITY
- WATER METERS
o Currently only one meter
o Located near entrance to complex on White St.
o Agreements indicate that individual water meters will be required only if redevelopment occurs
- Mere change of ownership would not mandate individual meter installation
o IF individual meters were to be installed cost would be
- $1,000 per meter
- 90 deposit per meter, paid by consumer
- 20 service charge, paid by consumer
o Current Charges
- FKAA average monthly billing to Peary Court owners
- $17,000
- At 157 units this would indicate a bill of approximately $108 per unit
- At various meetings, current tenants indicated they paid approximately $50 per month
- 157 units X 50 per unit = $7, 850
- How does one account for the $9,150 discrepancy?
- Watering of lawn, trees and shrubs ?
- Pipe leakage ?
o Future charges
- Since there is only one meter for the entire complex, charges or any leakages or unexplained usage after the water passes the meter is the responsibility of the owner – not FKAA – even if there were to be a pipe break
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I don’t live in KW, but the proposed Peary Court purchase is a real no-brainer. “Affordable housing” my butt. That is an unsubstantiated excuse to give a windfall to the current owners while saddling the taxpayers with more debt. Enforce the original agreement limiting some rents and let the current owners remediate mold due to poor maintenance and replace the aging electrical appliances and fixtures. Kudos to Margaret Romero for full due diligence and fearlessly sharing her new findings with The Blue Paper’s readers!
What a relief. With only one water master meter I can leave my hose running when I forget, wash my Hummer every day, not worry about my running toilet orwasting water in any multitude of ways, and the City pays for the water AND the sewer bill! Well THAT’S affordable at least. How about garbage? Can I get a free ride on that too ? Maybe all the impact fees will be paid by other taxpayers so the rents can LOOK low although the impacts will still be there, just not me paying them. Oh Boy!! I’ll get my whole extended family down here if I can. HTA and Faustos are always hiring.
Seriously now, I really think the hotels and other businesses have a responsibility to raise wages or contribute significantly to whatever ” housing trust fund” which probably doesn’t even exist.