FELLSMERE – A deal between the City of Fellsmere and the Indian River Board of County Commissioners has been approved on both sides.
The Fellsmere City Council unanimously approved an agreement with the county, contingent on what happens in the appeals court later this year.
The agreement calls for the county paying the city approximately $25,500 for maintaining the city’s fire hydrants for Indian Rive County Fire Rescue – but whether the city would be able to keep the funds hinges on what the appeals court decides on the city’s 2009 bill for the same service.
“I feel pretty good about it,” City Manager Jason Nunemaker told the council Thursday evening about the deal.
County Attorney Alan Polackwich, in working with Fellsmere City Attorney Warren Dill, came up with the compromise as a way to minimize the county’s financial liability in the event the county loses the pending appeal.
In 2009, Fellsmere billed the county approximately $25,500 for maintenance and upkeep on the city’s fire hydrants, which the city contends are used only by Indian River County Fire Rescue and should be paid for by the county.
That year, the county paid half the bill and refused payment on the other half, which triggered a code enforcement hearing and a finding by the special master that the county was in the wrong.
The county was ordered to pay the remainder of the bill and another nearly $26,000 in legal fees and code enforcement fines.
Instead of paying, the county appealed the ruling to the Court of Appeals, where it sits awaiting an appeals hearing that could happen by late fall or early winter.
In the meantime, the City of Fellsmere sent the county a bill for 2010’s hydrant maintenance, which the county again refused to pay, starting the cycle over again.
County officials had asked the city to hold off on pursuing the matter through code enforcement while the 2009 appeal remains pending. The city declined and initiated the code enforcement proceedings.
The matter was scheduled to go before the same special master on June 9. With the Fellsmere council’s approval of the deal Thursday, there will be no hearing in front of the special master, Dill said after the council meeting.
County Attorney Polackwich told commissioners that, in his opinion, the worst thing to do – for the taxpayers – would be to duplicate the situation.
Commissioner Wesley Davis agreed.
“I felt, at the time, we should have paid this,” Commissioner Davis said of the 2009 bill – and then figure out how to get the money back if the 2009 appeal favors the county.
