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Residents Say Hooray For The Spray

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By KENNETH KNIGHT

kknight@tampatrib.com

Published: November 19, 2008

TAMPA PALMS - The Tampa Palms Community Development District plans to deliver a holiday gift to the residents of The Reserve.

The water fountains that have sat idle for more than two years at the village entry will soon sparkle thanks to a major investment in reclaimed water.

The community development district, or CDD, has arranged to have the city of Tampa truck in as much as 35,000 gallons of reclaimed water to fill the three fountains fronting the subdivision. The city does not provide reclaimed water service to New Tampa.

"The center fountain is fixed and should be ready to start right before Thanksgiving," district consultant Maggie Wilson said last week.

She anticipates the two smaller fountains on each side of the entry should be spraying water by Christmas Day.

"It will be really nice to make them operational again," Wilson said, adding that the fountains were "a quarter-million dollar investment" for the community.

The fountains, meticulous landscaping and Canary Island date palms frame the entry to The Reserve, a premier enclave with Tampa Palms' only attendant-staffed gate.

Seeing the fountains sparkle again will be a thrill, said Trish Cardoso, president of The Reserve Homeowners Association.

"Everybody wants the fountains turned on," Cardoso said. "They are the focal point of the community."

Firing up the fountains should squelch resident complaints, she said.

The CDD shut down the fountains in May 2006 during a major dry period, Wilson said. That month the Tampa City Council passed an emergency ordinance restricting water use in the city limits. The rules included restrictions that affected lawns, car washes, swimming pools and outdoor water fountains.

District officials recently began investigating alternatives to using Tampa's drinking water supply to operate the fountains.

"We came up with an idea to put reclaimed water in them," Wilson said. "Getting it here is the difficult part."

Last month district supervisors backed Wilson's recommendation to have reclaimed water delivered. The fountain in the median can hold up to 15,000 gallons of water, Wilson said. The fountains on each side of the entry have the capacity to handle 10,000 gallons.

The highly treated wastewater will cost the district about 80 cents per 1,000 gallons.

The district also has set aside $10,000 to install new filtering systems and to recondition the motors in each fountain.

The fountains are on property managed by the CDD. District officials say the fountains were built to delight residents in Tampa Palms Areas 1 and 2.

"It adds to the ambience of the entire community," Wilson said.

Work also will be done on The Reserve entrance signs.

Last week district supervisors approved spending $45,000 to replace the reddish-tan granite slabs and brass lettering on the entrance signs with a India black granite background and 23-carat gold letters.

Reporter Kenneth Knight can be reached at (813) 865-4842.

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