AMSCD Gives Preliminary Nod to Budget
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Published on Wednesday, 04 May 2011 19:52
The Ave Maria Stewardship Community district board gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The budget keeps revenues and expenses basically the same as the current year and does not change the supplemental assessment that residents pay as part of their annual property tax bill. Right, district manager Todd Wodraska swears in new board member Tom DiFlorio (2nd from right), who was elected last fall to the seat formerly held by Herb Cambridge, as well as re-elected board members Paul Roney and Doug Baird.
The final budget will be presented at a public hearing late in the summer and then presented to the board for approval.
The board also approved hiring the consulting firm of Fishkind and Associates to develop a strategy for refinancing about $25 million in bonds that become due in 2012. The current short-term bonds are entirely the responsibility of the town developers, and the intent is to conver the debt to longer-term bonds. District manager Todd Wodraska said that the responsibility for the new bonds would also belong entirely to the developers. "There is no chance the residents would pay more," he said.
Barron Collier Vice President Tom Sansbury, the developers' representative to the board, also provided an update on a number of other pending matters, including:
- The Gas Station. Mr. Sansbury said recent developments with the bank that foreclosed on the gas station property could pave the way for one of a number of interested parties, including potentially the developers themselves, to finish the project and begin operating the business. The property was foreclosed on by Superior Bank, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which ran into its own financial difficulties and was taken over by the FDIC and its assets in turn handed over to Community Bancorp of Houston, TX. Mr. Sansbury said he was hopeful the new management would let the sale of the existing property to be handled relatively soon.
- Golf Cart Identification Stickers. Mr. Sansbury said new, larger stickers that can be read at a distance will be available soon and required for golf carts operated in Ave Maria. The larger stickers will make it easier for residents to report golf carts being operated unsafely.
- Arthrex Development. Mr. Sansbury said plans for the site, which would be off Oil Well Rd. west of Ave Maria Blvd., are under development and he hoped that there could be a filing before the Collier County Board of County Commissioners in the next month or so. He said that the development would have no impact on the district's costs of infrastructure.
