Hallacy, Cedar Oaks Get $50,000 In Water Bills

Water bills for more than $50,000 have been sent by the City of Grove to the former owner of Cedar Oaks development on Highway 59, and the current Cedar Oaks Homeowners Association.
A bill for $40,095 was sent Wednesday to Frank & Pat Hallacy in Buckeye, AZ, with another bill for $10,424.83 to the Cedar Oaks LLC Homeowners Association, city officials confirmed Thursday.

The city said that if arrangements for payment are not made by March 5, the city will initiate appropriate legal action to insure collection. The matter has also been turned over to the Delaware County District Attorney's office, City Manager Bill Galletly said Thursday, to determine who made an illegal tap to the city's six inch main years ago.

The problem surfaced when GMSA personnel were called to Cedar Oaks development after January's ice storm to find and work on a water leak. While there, they found a two inch water line connected to the city's six inch main, with no meter and no record of a "tap." The connection supplies water for an irrigation system to a common area. According to the city, this line served an area over twice the size of the metered connection and has more than double the number of sprinkler heads. The city has estimated this usage at $26,746.50 billed to Hallacy, and $6,954.09 billed to Cedar Oaks LLC Homeowners.

As work continued, a second irrigation system was discovered, with a meter, but city records indicate that it was shut off by the city in 1999 but has since been turned on each season to allow for watering a second common area. Since that time more than 7.7 million gallons of water went through the meter, city officials said. A bill for $13,349.00 has been sent to Hallacy and a bill for $3,470.74 has been sent to Cedar Oaks LLC for this metered water useage of 7,779,300 gallons. Total water usage for both is nearly 16 million gallons. A third bill for $5,008.00 has also been sent to Cedar Oaks LL Homeowners for a two inch sprinkler meter and a water deposit fee.

Cedar Oaks development was the center of attention several years ago when some 900 truckloads of loads of dirt were taken from the Grove airport property to the development, without city approval, which turned out to be substandard for clay content, and a $7,800 donation by Hallacy was made to the Delaware Baptist Church for additional dirt with more clay content, court documents show. (See story, 9/7/05)

Phase II at Cedar Oaks was built on dirt dredged from Grand Lake, according to Hallacy's testimony in a previous court action, with Phase III built on airport dirt. Construction work on Phase III has been stopped and Hallacy's sale of the property to a Missouri developer is now the subject of another lawsuit.

Blue Ribbon Committee Sets Future Meetings

Grove's Blue Ribbon Committee will meet again March 1 at 3 p.m., and on March 14, to discuss more details of the aquatic park and new community events center, with at least one meeting including an Executive Session on sale of the currrent civic center.
Four members of the committee of seven were present at the committee's Thursday evening session, with seven citizens showing up in the audience.
No discussion was held on the aquatic park, as the committee said it needs to make revisions with Counsilman-Hunsaker, the consultant firm hired to make recommendations.
The March 14 meeting will include final details and a breakdown on costs and recommendations for financing the water park.
The committee also discussed the proposed new events center including possible financing scenarios, and viewed details of Duncan, Ok.'s events center. The goal is to build a new events center without taxpayer money, using money from the sale of the existing Center and new sales taxes generated by at least three major new retail outlets to be built in Grove. The new events center would be designed especially with Grove residents in mind, the committee said.
Voter approval will be required for selling the current Civic Center, and financing a new aquatic park, after all the details are worked out and presented to the public. A special election could be called for either May or June.
The city of Bartlesville has scheduled a special election May 8 on a .75 increase in the current 8% sales tax, to finance a new water park, soccer and baseball fields and improvements to parks. That would generate about $28 million, Bartlesville officials said. Voters there will also decide on a $29.95 million bond issue to finance new school classrooms and technology updates.