AMSCD Board Approves 2009-10 Budget
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Published on Tuesday, 04 August 2009 16:25
Residents of Ave Maria will see a slight reduction this fall in the portion of their tax bills that covers expenses of the Ave Maria Stewardship Community District. The 2009-10 budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 has reduced operating and maintenance expenditures compared with the previous year, resulting in a reduction of about $30 a year for each property in the town.
The special district board unanimously approved the budget Tuesday morning after a brief public hearing. The budget has two main components - interest on a 30-year bond, which essentially stays the same from year to year, and expenses for operations and maintenance such as streetlights, landscaping and mosquito control. District Manager Todd Wodraska said that the lower operations and maintenance expenses resulted from both a better understanding of actual expenses as well as aggressive negotiation with suppliers to lower costs of services.
In response to questions, Mr. Wodraska explained that each plotted property - whether it has a home on it or not - is assessed at the same rate. For the next fiscal year, the assessments will be $1,258.27 for a detached house and $798.37 for condominiums and townhouses. These non ad-valorum assessments will be part of the tax bills being sent out in November.
Mr. Wodraska also told a questioner that the developers will pay about 88 percent of the budget for the next fiscal year.
Design Review Board Proposed
In other business at the AMSCD's regular meeting, the board heard a proposal from Barron Collier Vice President Tom Sansbury, the developer representative to the board, to form a design review board. Mr. Sansbury explained that the purpose of the board would be to review and approve architectural and landscaping plans for commercial development that would be built in the Park of Commerce off Ave Maria Blvd. and land along Pope John Paul II Blvd east of the town center. Commercial developers would need to seek the board's approval before getting authorization to proceed from Collier County officials. "As more land is sold to third parties in the future," Mr. Sansbury said, "we want to ensure a consistency of look. The board would include people like a civil engineer, a landscape architect, and a representative of the commercial landowners, he added. Developers would pay a fee to the board that would fund its operations, Mr. Sansbury said. AMSCD Chairman Tom Peek said the board would take the request under advisement and consider it at its next meeting.
Mr. Sansbury also provided an update on some security matters, informing the meeting that the unpaved roads between Camp Keais Rd. and the Middlebrooke and Bellera Walk developments now have been gated to prevent unauthorized use. He said that a gate at the construction entrance north of Pope John Paul II Blvd, which leads past the Emerson Park development, also will be locked beginning Sept. 1.
Cell Phone Tower Operational Soon
Work on the cell phone tower is nearly complete, Mr. Sansbury said, and the tower should be in service within the next 45 days. Verizon and AT&T will be the first carriers to use the tower, he said.
The board also adopted a formal meeting schedule for the coming fiscal year, continuing the practice of scheduling meetings for the first Tuesday of every month at 9 a.m. in the Ave Maria Master Association offices. Resident Robert Klucik noted that several scheduled meetings had been canceled during the last year and asked that the board consider a way for residents to bring forth matters even when the board does not have a formal meeting. Mr. Wodraska suggested that the appropriate conduit for these concerns would be Stephen Ernst, the manager of the Ave Maria Master Association, who serves as an on-site representative of the district board. Mr. Ernst said after the meeting that he welcomed calls or emails from residents on any issue at any time.
Mr. Klucik, at the start of the meeting, also thanked the board members and staff for "suffering all of the slings and arrows recently," a reference to the controversial series of articles on the district board published in May in the Naples Daily News. "I'm grateful and I know you're trying to make this place all it can be," Mr. Klucik said. "I know I speak for a lot of residents in saying this."
