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A HUBZONE-CERTIFIED SMALL BUSINESS/PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP SUPPLYING FDOT MATERIALS WHILE BRINGING GREEN JOBS TO FLORIDA AND RESTORING THE EVERGLADES
The Lake Point Project Summary
The Lake Point Project is an innovative public-private partnership (“PPP”) intended to promote Everglades conservation and improve water quality for various natural habitats, while providing essential raw materials for infrastructure and restoration projects. In May 2009, the Project was approved unanimously by both the Martin County Board of County Commissioners and the South Florida Water Management District (the “District”).
The +/- 2,260 acres property is ideally located for a PPP because of its proximity to both Lake Okeechobee (1 mile west of the site) and the C-44 canal (abuts the property to the north) with pumps into and out of both bodies of water. The property also potentially provides the missing link between the L-8 waterway and the C-44 STA.
The end result will be a complex of reservoirs and storm water treatment areas (“STA”) that will be able to pump purified water into and out of Lake Okeechobee, as well as the Okeechobee Waterway, which feeds into the St. Lucie River. "It is a fabulous project," said Commission Chairwoman Susan Valliere. "It beats 20-acre ranchettes any day in my opinion," she added. Commissioner Patrick Hayes agreed, stating, "This project…is an extraordinary opportunity." Gov. Christ’s appointee to the District board, Melissa Meeker, called this project, “the wave of the future.”
The property will be donated in stages as work is completed, so the sooner the material is excavated and removed from the site, the sooner the project will achieve its intended, essential purpose as a district-designed water purification STA. Given its strategic location 1 mile from Lake Okeechobee (and the Herbert Hoover Dike), the DOT-certified materials currently being excavated from the facility will provide tremendous transportation savings to the Army Corps of Engineers’ repair work on the Herbert Hoover Dike, to the District in their continuing Everglades restoration projects, to the Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission on their 3 Lakes Wildlife Management Area maintenance, and to Martin County/FDOT as they build the Indiantown and Indian Street Bridge.
The Project is also important as it brings green jobs to a blighted area. The Lake Point Project generates jobs and will generate hundreds of jobs in a particularly distressed area of Martin County with the following designations:
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HUB Zone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone);
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Recovery Zone;
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Targeted Employment Area (TEA);
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Brownfield Site, as defined by 42 U.S.C. 9601 (39); and,
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Supports Pahokee Enterprise Zone via jobs for residents within Enterprise and commerce.
We support jobs and opportunity for this particularly blighted area:
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HUBZone certified small business employing over 40% of our employees from HUBZone areas;
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Poverty Level in the immediate census tracts are 26% and 41%;
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Average unemployment for the census tracts we encompass is 21.1%.
DOT MINE NUMBER:
#89-673
Type: 1 Mine |
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