The Loxahatchee Town Council on Tuesday scheduled a discussion for its next meeting to consider whether a deteriorating culvert underneath Collecting Canal Road maintained by the Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District needs to be replaced.
Collecting Canal Road is a town road, but the culvert underneath is on the district’s maintenance list.
Town Manager Bill Underwood said he had advised the district about the condition of the culvert but that the district did not see a need to replace it.
“The culvert has been broken, and it appears that the bank is giving way on the north side of Collecting Canal Road, going into the canal where the culvert is broken,” Underwood said. “I advised the district that it is their culvert and they should take care of it as timely as possible. I was assured by the district administrator that the culvert underneath the road is OK. I’m kind of leaving it in their court, as it is their culvert.”
Councilman Todd McLendon said he thought the culvert should be attended to before the road collapses.
“I don’t think that is a good idea,” McLendon said. “It’s going to be a big mess and a huge emergency.”
He asked for consensus that the council send a letter to the district demanding that the culvert be fixed.
“There’s no way the culvert could completely break off and the culvert underneath is still structurally sound,” he said. “That just can’t be. They’re just going to leave it, and you can see it’s washing out and it’s going to be a huge emergency where you’ve got to close off that entire corner. I just don’t think sitting here and allowing this to continue is proper.”
Vice Mayor Tom Goltzené said that if a town road goes over a culvert, the culvert should also belong to the town. He suggested that the town have its own engineer look at the culvert to determine the condition.
“We have to stop the erosion that’s occurring on the north side, where there is dirt falling in all the time,” he said.
Councilman Ron Jarriel said he did not want to take action that evening to replace the culvert, which could cost between $70,000 and $80,000. He asked that the item be placed on the council’s next agenda to give him time to research the issue.
“The consensus would be that we put it on the next agenda and talk about it,” Jarriel said. “If the district says that it doesn’t need it, I realize that we don’t pay them respect, but I find it hard to believe.”
He recommended that Underwood get documentation from the district engineer’s report on the condition of the culvert for review at the council’s next meeting, pointing out that the district reviewed most of the culverts for their condition and should have a report.
“At least have the town manager get with their administrator and see if he’s got any documentation,” Jarriel said. “This is something that should be put on the agenda. The town people should have a chance to come and express their concerns, and then we make a decision.”
McLendon said he did not think it was any council member’s desire to approve a culvert replacement that evening, but asked whether the town should also have its own engineer inspect it, and Jarriel said he would prefer to look at the district’s documentation before spending money to duplicate the effort.
Goltzené said the culvert is rusted off on the north and south ends and dirt is falling into the culvert.
“That will only happen so many times before the dirt that is on top of the culvert washes out into the canal and the road that is on top no longer has any dirt underneath it,” he said. “I’m not an engineer, but I can recognize that there is a problem. I think we ought to deal with it sooner rather than later.”
Goltzené said the condition of the culvert was brought to his attention by a resident who crosses the culvert and was concerned about it collapsing.
Mayor Dave Browning said the culvert is smaller than district standards and probably should be replaced eventually, but said a short-term solution might be possible.
“The other side is, for anybody who has lived out here for a long time, it’s almost at the half-life of a culvert; you can pretty well dig in and put a new end on it,” Browning said.
In other business, the council rejected an ordinance that would have increased members’ monthly stipends from $750 to $1,000. They passed the final reading of an ordinance establishing a moratorium on the approval of licenses for the sale of cannabis.
