Late deal saves thousands from losing water

Furloughs, layoffs kept local HOA from paying the bill

CORAL SPRINGS — It came down to nearly the finalminute, but 3,000people in Coral Springs have been saved from having their water service shut off— for now.

Residents of the Ramblewood East complex fell behind in paying their bills this year, hit hard by furloughs and layoffs from the COVID-19 pandemic. Their homeowners association couldn’t keep upwith its debt to the water company and all the residents faced having their water disconnected Thursday.

A deal finally came through Wednesday, giving the community until Oct. 28 to work out a payment agreement for nearly $300,000 that Ramble wood East owes the water company, Royal Waterworks Inc.

The complex can apply to the city for a share of its $5.79 million allocation of federal coronavirus aid to to help reduce the debt, county officials said.

Ramblewood East includes about 60% renters. About 25% of the units are not paying their bills on time or at all, said Nick Damasceno, president of the Ramblewood East Homeowner’s Association.

Damasceno said he’ll cut services like tree trimming for the next few months to make up some money and redirect bills.

“We’re going to have to make it happen, somehow,” he said.

He called the extension a “bridge to the future.”

The deal will bring relief to tenants like Alyssa Ippolito, a single mother of three children who worried how she would clean or cook for her family or even flush the toilet. Going to a homeless shelter that to the water was out of the question for fears of exposure to the new coronavirus.

“There is nowhere for me to go, absolutely nowhere at all,” she said.

The agreement was reached between a state representative and a city commissioner and the water company.

State Rep. Dan Daley wrote the water company Tuesday telling them this was a matter of life and death. He urged “compassionate solutions” and not “predatory” collections.

“This egregious act would, in normal circumstances, raise great concern; however, during a global pandemic, specifically within an area considered a ‘hotspot,’ is unacceptable,” he wrote. “Water services are essential to hygiene and cleanliness, reducing the chance of contracting and spreading this deadly disease.”

The company’s president, Gary Deremer, respondedWednesday that the city and county have known about the problem since June without resolution, and Royal Waterworks is operating at a loss because Ramblewood wasn’t paying its bills.

The president also said disconnecting service is permissible to protect other customers from taking on bad debt. He askedDaley to intervene to have government help pay the bill or at least make a commitment to work on a resolution.

Although the homeowners association has paid some money since the pandemic hit in March — four payments of about $20,000 and two payments of about $10,000 — the outstanding bill now hovers around $297,000.