Electrical Service Upgrades
From John Coutanche - Beachway Park Board
(Reference - See List of Units Covered in Contract)
Background to Problem with Park Electrical Utilities
Most of the electrical boxes and posts/poles outside units are up to 50 years old in a hostile climate for rain and rust. We believe that up to 118 shared service panels would no longer pass electrical or insurance inspection. More than 6 years ago we surveyed the problems, drew our own map with our comments and set out to persuade owners to themselves pay to have rusty , dangerous equipment and rotten wood supports behind their units replaced. Less than a dozen have done so. Our document has been discussed and has appeared in various meetings and newsletters and has been available in the Park Office. Meanwhile, we have had several spectacular electrical fires on posts, in boxes, and owners have faced thousands of dollars each in damages to appliances and their units due to faulty and failed connections.
Potential Liability
As a Corporation, we believe that we could be liable if individuals' outside electrical boxes, meter cases, and the posts, panels and /or poles they are attached to fail and cause fire and damage. We have over the past years attempted to get six different electrical companies to propose a solution for the entire park. We have never found more than several who could do the work and bid on it. The most recent bidders in 2022 included Pinellas County Electrical, whose bid jumped in price between first and second, and did not include removal of debris.
Contractor Vetting
We therefore hired Courtesy Electric in 2022 to replace more than two dozen units' outside equipment. We were satisfied with the results, and then asked the company to survey the whole park, which they have done. We have now a proposal from them for completing work on up to 118 places over the next year (approximately) To repeat: No other companies were responsive or competitive. See the quote from Courtesy Electric
In this proposal from Courtesy, which we discussed in the Utilities Committee a few days ago, the work – which will take almost a year- has individual owners pay about $1450 each to replace the metal electrical parts behind their unit. We have as a Board decided that Beachway will pay from our accumulated funds the cost of replacing the wooden panels and posts/poles that owners' equipment fastens to with concrete posts and fibre composition backboards for every unit. This is several hundred dollars per installation absorbed by Beachway, Inc. The proposal leaves some questions that will be addressed as work goes forward such as if a unit has had recent and proper work done, but not neighbours who share a panel with them, do they get a discount on the fee that is quoted? It seems so at this stage of discussion.
Financing Renovations to Electrical Utility
All that said, we have decided to fund a deposit on materials for the future work, so that we lock in quoted prices for things like circuit breakers, the steel boxes they go in and those new concrete posts and composite backing boards. Price hikes in the past several years have meant that materials are now costing 20% more than they would have two years ago. If we 'bulk order' now, we all save, individually and as a community. We want the work to start early in 2023 and to be completed about a year later. Brad, owner of Courtesy electric, appeared before two Board meetings Dec 5 (a special meeting) and Dec 7th (the Board Workshop). The clear consensus of residents at those meetings is that now is the time to more forward and make the Park and its owners safer. Your Board is pleased that at last – after years of work by Utilities chair Roy Barker, and now Bob Mills and support from many who have toured the park many times looking at and taking pictures of the declining situation - we are as a group moving forward to make the Park safe for all.
John Coutanche, on behalf of the 2022 Beachway Board.