Pace Water System
Serving the Pace, Florida Community
History
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Pace Water System
Serving the Pace, Florida Community History |
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| HISTORY OF PACE WATER SYSTEM
In the year of 1964 a group of men started meeting with the purpose of forming a community water system. The group was led by Ed Fortune and Bobby Murphy and met in the Fortune building. On November 16, 1964 the PACE WATER SYSTEM was incorporated in the state of Florida. The Articles of Incorporation were signed by the following community leaders: Ed Fortune, Bobby Murphy, Charles King, Jr., Robert Weekly, R. L. Carruth, Sam Dixon, Howard Nowling, and Gilbert Weekly. PACE WATER SYSTEM was formed as a 501-C12 corporation under the Farmer’s Home Administration who provided the low interest loans and grants to start the member owned community water system. These signers of the Articles of Incorporation were appointed to be the first Board of Directors which consisted of 9 members. The original bylaws were written and approved by the appointed Board of Directors. The first employees hired by the Board of Directors in 1965 were Doris Nowling as manager and Wayne Kilpatrick operations and maintenance. Mrs. Nowling served as the manager for 26 years until May of 1991. During that time PACE WATER SYSTEM grew to over 5,000 connections serving over 15,000 residents. A total of 7 production wells were drilled and put into operation and the site and drilling had taken place on the 8th well. During this 26 year span a new office on Chumuckla Road (see exhibit 1) was acquired and the Pace community was beginning to experience rapid growth.
Exhibit 1 - Chumukla Road Office The growth began a controversy at PACE WATER SYSTEM over the proposed building of a sewer system. This controversy carried on from 1986 until Mrs. Nowling retired in May of 1991. The Board of Directors hired a new manager from a list of 187 applicants. The new manager Ted Dotson took over in May of 1991. In 1990 a 3.2 million dollar Bond issue was sold to provide financing for a water expansion. A sister company was formed called PACE PROPERTY FINANCE AUTHORITY, INC. (PPFA). PPFA is a corporation in the state of Florida whose sole member is Santa Rosa County. PPFA was formed as a sub district of the state to give PACE WATER SYSTEM the ability to do tax free bonding to raise funds for capital projects. PPFA has no employees or income. The revenues of PACE WATER SYSTEM are pledged to pay any bonding debt incurred through PPFA. In 1990 the PACE WATER SYSTEM also started in the sewer business by taking over a small 30,000 gallon package plant in back of the Winn-Dixie shopping center and made agreements with Stonebrook to build a 100,000 gallon package plant adjacent to the golf course. A second bond issue of 13.1 million was issued in 1992 to pay off the old issue and fiancé a one million gallon regional plant and office building at our present site (exhibit 2). Exhibit 2 - Woodbine Road Office PACE WATER SYSTEM moved into the office and warehouse on Woodbine Road in November of 1993. The one million gallon regional plant and phase one of the collection system were completed in March of 1994. In the next few years Pace became one of the fastest growing communities in Santa Rosa County which become the 2nd fastest growing county in Florida. In 1997 another bond issue was sold and another one million gallon wastewater plant and collection system was completed in 1999. Since 1999 two wells and three water tanks have been added to our system. The property has been acquired and a test well has been drilled to install a 3rd production well. The period from 1991 until the end of 2007 the growth has been very fast and the customer base of PACE WATER SYSTEM has continued to increase. At the end of 2007 PACE WATER SYSTEM had 12,910 connections serving over 45,000 residents in water and 5,298 sewer connections serving over 18,500 residents with sewer service. In 2006 PACE WATER SYSTEM completed the interceptor infra-structure which split our system into a northern and southern zone to divert the flows from the north and bring them into the plant and freeing up capacity in the southern lines. A complete Reuse system was built to pressurize the treated wastewater and send it to our customers to sprinkle their lawns and gardens. PACE WATER SYSTEM built a de-watering system to dry up the sludge to the point that we now haul only one load of sludge for every three we did before the facility was constructed. In 2007 PACE WATER SYSTEM started a three million gallon expansion of the sewer plant to keep up with the projected growth of our updated 20 year Master Plan. In addition to the sewer plant a 4000 square foot new operations center and hurricane shelter is part of a 15 million dollar expansion now under construction. (exhibit 3) The financing comes from the state revolving capital low interest loan fund.
Exhibit 3 - 2007 Plant Expansion PACE WATER SYSTEM has been blessed with many great Board Members over its 44 year history. They have given of their time and talents without pay to have a better community to live in. The employees have strived to provide the best quality of pure clean safe drinking water and service to our customers as we possible can while keeping it affordable. REMEMBER-THE STORY IS NOT OVER –PACE WATER SYSTEM- CONTINUES WITH-THE SAME ENERGY-AND DESIRE TO BE ONE OF THE BEST OF THE BEST-WATER SYSTEMS.
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