David Carson: Storm Water A Policy Priority

This week, we asked the candidates:

• If you could leave one indelible policy mark on Dunedin, what would it be? 

David Carson responds:

As defined an indelible mark is a mark not easily removed. Wow, that is an intense question and really very difficult to answer. As I have said on many occasions this commission works as a team and not one commissioner can change anything without support from other members of the commission. So indelible marks would be success stories shared by the commission as a whole. 

With that said, I am quite pleased with the changes this commission made as it relates to storm water. Our citizens have historically been left to fend on their own when infrastructure that lies under or on their property needs repair. This infrastructure is used by the City to move storm water from the eastern-most streets and properties west to St. Joseph Sound. As this water moves over and under private property it uses a series of pipes and retention ponds on the way to the Sound. These pipes and private ponds need maintenance and this commission has said if we use your private land for storm water removal, the City will step up and help maintain this critically important part of our infrastructure. This commission changed the ordinance to allow the City to enter private property, when the owner agrees, to help make the necessary repairs to the damaged area. 

This policy change began in the Skye Loch subdivision and currently we are talking about repairing Lake Sperry. In the Skye Loch case, a large pipe collapsed under property owned by the residents of Skye Loch. While this pipe was indeed on private property almost all of the water that ran through this pipe came from the east, across Patricia Avenue from an area that reaches all the way to U.S. 19. Under the old rules the folks at Skye Loch would have been totally responsible to repair this pipe even though their use was little. The City stepped up and paid a portion and Skye Loch paid its' share. It was a wonderful new progressive way of handling an obvious challenge for our citizens. It is a great partnership between government and residents to keep our infrastructure intact. 

The next case will be Lake Sperry. This lake was once 10 feet or more deep and many of the owner's that have homes that line the lake tell stories of how their children learn to swim in the lake. Now that lake is just a couple of feet deep due to storm water pipes that dump into the lake and all of the sediment that comes along with that discharge. The lake needs to be dredged and with this new policy the City can step up and help. These are the types of issues that government should be handling without question. Some people may not find this glamorous but the residents that have been negatively impacted by these problems are certainly pleased. Fixing the storm water issues was indeed something I wanted to accomplish on the commission. We are not done yet, but we are on our way.

See Also, Heather Gracy's response.

Related Coverage:

• Patch Podium: David Carson on Spurring Development
• David Carson on the Patch Podium: Quality of Life
• City Elections: Candidates Share Quality of Life Vision
• David Carson on the Patch Podium: Experience
• City Elections: Carson Vs Gracy on Experience