BY TRACY LEE TATE
Special to the Times
At the Feb. 18, 2025, regular meeting of the Lake Butler City Commission City Manager Kimberly Hayes reported about two grants, one the city has already received and another that is in the application process, as well as a status report on the new Wawa planned in the city.
Wawa is still going through the necessary paperwork before being able to begin construction on its new store in Lake Butler. Hayes said that it had been discovered that the land on which the company plans to build is actually made up of two parcels. This presents a problem as building a business on two lots is not allowed by the land use regulations, so WAWA engineers, with the assistance of Kimley-Horn and the North Florida Regional Planning Council will have to apply to have the two parcels combined into one.
The city had received a grant for new equipment from the USDA and Hayes reported on the purchases made with it. Purchases included:
A towable lift for $44,500 from Lift Source
A panel pump truck for $32,858 from Thompson Pump & Manufacturing Company
Two Gravely Pro-Turn 52-inch Pro-Turn zero turn lawnmowers for $18,827.64 from Union Power Equipment
A 2025 Big Tex dump trailer for $8,690 from Texas Trailers
A sewer snake for $6,558
Hayes said the invoices and forms for the purchases are in the process of being sent to the USDA-Rural Development office for reimbursement with the USDA grant funds.
Hayes also told commissioners that the request for proposals and request for qualifications deadline for the Florida Boating grant (FBIP) had been extended to Mar. 12 due to grant compliance issues required for the grant.
Later in the meeting, Public Works Director Sam Norris said he was happy to be getting the new equipment but wants to “put the new mowers on the shelf” until all the use can be gotten out of the old ones on hand. Some of the city’s older mowers are in bad shape, but still running and others need some basic repairs and Norris said he wanted to continue to use them as long as possible before starting the use of the new ones.
Norris also spoke to the board about the city’s electric meters. The meters currently in use by the city, which were purchased in 2018 through a grant program. These meters are of the type where the monthly readings are transmitted directly to city hall to facilitate billing. Norris said that he and his work crew were putting in quite a few hours servicing and repairing these meters. He said that the meters were not of good quality and were wearing out. He suggested that the city look into purchasing new meters that could be read remotely from a truck and that the cost of paying someone to drive around and read the meters remotely would most likely be less than the hours now being spent on repairing the old meters. It was also noted that the warranty on the current meters runs out this year.
Norris also reported that, since the watermain break near the water tower city workers had been spending a great deal of time dealing with smaller leaks around the city and checking valves so ensure they were operating properly (after it was discovered that the one at the water tower would not close at the time of the watermain break). The most significant of the leaks occurred near DLP Bank and required 400 ft of 1 ½” pipe to repair. He also said that his crew would soon be beginning to check and maintain the manholes around the city.
At the same meeting the commissioners unanimously approved agreements with FDOT to allow them access to rights-of-way and easements for the Union County grant-funded projects to repair and improve sidewalks in the vicinity of the schools and renewed a long-time agreement for the maintenance of traffic lights in the city.
