BOARD PREVIEWS IRRIGATION SOLUTIONS AT SPECIAL MEETING

At a special meeting of the association's board of directors Friday, board president Valerie Halaby recapped efforts over the New Year's holiday to restore the community's irrigation system to normal function.

Halaby, a graduate of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and an aerospace engineer, provided a comprehensive overview of her investigation and the progress made since the last board meeting. Engineering highlights dominated the presentation. Variable flow drive (VFD) vendor Sullivan Electric submitted to the drive manufacturer Yaskawa Electric, the report on its bench test of the VFD, finding the cause of the damage to have been a power surge. Yaskawa accepted Sullivan's determination resulting in a finding by Yaskawa that the damage was not covered under the VFD's two-year warranty. FPL's previous determination that a power surge was not the cause of the damage -- based on FPL's finding that other equipment on the same shared line had not been affected by any power anomaly -- came under scrutiny as sources reported that FPL does throttle down "three-phase" power in the evening in the western communities causing power surges that affects different power stations differently. Rather than challenge both FPL and Sullivan, Halaby requested that Yaskawa and Sullivan come up with a solution, which they did. The current proposal involves adding a "reactor" to our refurbished drive, which will help modulate current to the pump station, together with a data logging device and a timer. Although Sullivan emphasized that it will not warranty the solution, the data logging device will help the association establish whether any future damage is attributable to FPL's line. The price tag for the Sullivan/Yaskawa solution is approximately $6,000.00.

A second solution, about which Halaby has a meeting scheduled for Monday, January 10th, involves a new, state-of-the art custom pump station from Fort Lauderdale-based manufacturer Irrigation Craft, estimated at roughly $20,000 to $30,000 depending on the nature and size of equipment required. The Irrigation Craft solution would come with a five-year warranty that would include any damage to the system due to power surges and similar events.

The board also agreed to investigate engaging the services of the golf course's water tanker to provide manual watering of the community's common areas as an interim measure.

The board is expected to select a solution this coming week and agreed to incur the costs of overnight shipping of parts if it would expedite restoring the system to normal function.