Large Lake Improvement Initiative
2025
Purpose
The HOA Board in it’s charge to both preserve the community amenities, and it’s fiduciary responsible to the entirety of CV owners, has been reviewing all of the amenities and the reserve funds needed for them. One of the standouts, due to the ongoing annual high cost of operation, maintenance, and constant repair needs are the four fountains in the large lake. For this reason the Board has embarked on exploring the feasibility of designing and implementing a different way of preserving this amenity for less cost, and it appears that this particular initiative has an easy and quick improvement solution, with a very rapid full cost-recovery, and a tremendous cost savings for all CV residents going forward.
History
In 2018, during the time of the community turnover from DR Horton to CV Community residents, George Sites, (then the Director of the Turnover Committee) was engaged in understanding the large lake fountains (The Fountains).
He specifically was focusing on their recent breakdowns, repairs, electrical costs to operate, and consideration of maintenance plans from service providers.
In August of 2018, George Sites provided CV residents with a written report which is available HERE.
Several times throughout past years the fountains have been turned off during times of drought and also during times of high winds.
The lake is the result of the FL Department of Transportation digging for road base soils needed for the construction of Interstate 75, section between North Tampa and Naples back in the 1970’s and 80’s (completed in 1986)
For the 30 years prior to the development and construction of Caribbean Village Community, the lake has never had fountains or any other water-quality management apparatus, and locals claim that the water was always of good quality and was a major wildlife habitat and a favorite fishing lake by many.
Current Research
This year the HOA Board has been engaged in extensive research and data analysis on the large lake, it’s fountains, lake water quality, and effective water quality management solutions. The purpose is to assemble a qualitative and quantitative report aimed at informing and guiding the Board decision-making as it considers the need to improve the quality of the water of the large lake while also providing a low-cost operation and maintenance solution with a 2 - 3 year full cost recovery. It is important to note that eliminating the four fountains in the large lake is not a focus, purpose, or consideration of this initiative, rather replacing them with low energy-use and low maintenance cost fountains combined with adding additional water-quality management components is.
Facts:
The lake is about 32 acres in surface area
The lake average depth is approximately 12 feet deep. The most common depth is in the 10 – 12 feet range
The deepest point is a “bowl” just off the East shore by the Clubhouse parking lot which is about 13 - 16 feet deep during normal water elevation (NWE), and rises sharply to 10 feet depth at about 400 feet from shore. Fountains A & B sit above the deeper hole, while fountains C and D sit above shallower water by about 5 feet.
As of this writing, the water elevation is around 36 inches below NWE due to the current seasonal drought.
The lakes' primary contributor to it's water quality with the current setup is wind/wave action due to it's 21 acre surface area, and secondary contributor is The Fountains, which aerate the surface area where the spray lands possibly to a depth of about 3+/- feet below the surface within that same area of spray. This current condition does not mix the stratification layers below 3 feet depth.
To fully aerate the lake would be to install a system which continually moves a water column through the stratification layers across the entire lake. According to industry used volume aeration formulas, this size lake volume would require 15 fountains and 15 lake bottom aeration diffusers running 24 hours per day to accomplish and maintain the needed level of aeration for maximum water movement and water quality.
The current four fountains are mildly effective, and only in their immediate vicinity. The remainder of the lake water quality, although not in bad condition at all, is certainly not perfect.
Banks Engineering Survey Map of CV. The National Geodetic Vertical Datum places the lake’s NWE at 9 feet above sea level (ASL). On the survey map that NWE number is referenced as 9.0. You will see negative numbers placed on the lake, which represent the lake bottom elevation in refence to 9.0. Therefore, a -4.50 elevation shown would mean the bottom is 13.5 feet below NWE (9.0 – x = -4.50 x=13.50 feet)
(VIEW SURVEY MAP)The current fountains are powered independently; each one equipped with it’s own mounted 460 Vac, 3-phase 30 HP motor with a 23 kilowatt power requirement.
The fours fountain pumps and the two irrigation system pumps are all on the same electrical meter (total of 6 pumps at 30HP each)
Figures
During a period in November 2024 through January 2025 the two irrigation pumps were offline for that entire time frame. This provided the first ever opportunity to isolate and determine the exact cost of energy usage of The Fountains. Please examine the cost analysis formula at the following link. Energy Usage / Costs Analysis of The Fountains
Since 2019 the four fountains have needed many repairs each year, along with routine maintenance. Below are the totals of the records of repair invoices and payments found, plus the approximate energy costs per year as reported in the cost analysis figures linked above.
2019
Repairs: $7683
Energy cost: $47,000
2020
Repairs: $20,086
Energy Costs: $47,000
2021
Repairs: No financial records found yet
Energy Costs: $47,000
2022
Repairs: $28,191
Energy Costs: $47,000
2023
Repairs: $20,307
Energy Costs: $47,000
2024
Repairs: $14,235
Energy Costs: $37,000 (one fountain offline for 3+ months )
Based on the above actual and estimated costs, the four large lake fountains have cost CV residents somewhere in the range of $200,000 - $218,000 costs for energy, and at least $90,502 in repairs, which comes to $290,502 - $308,502
Solution
Large Lake Improvement Imitative
Improve the large lake water quality and fountain amenity:
Adding 5 lake-bottom aeration diffusers along and near the line of fountains
Replace the high-energy need fountains with new modern energy efficient fountains with a more appealing and consistent spray pattern
Consider the option of using solar power.