PAGE 6 MAY 12, 2012

ARCHER continued from page 1“We have mostly low to medium income resi-

dents and a lot of single parents,” he said. “They have to take laundry into Gainesville because there is no infrastructure for a laundromat here.”

“We have a beautiful downtown area. We could get economic development grants for it, but our well fields are in the downtown area.”

Ogborn has several folders stacked on his table that hold forms and other paperwork including reports by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Basin Management. One plan has been adopted by the EPA to limit the number of nutrients going into the aquifer.

Another government document states that the Florida aquifer in Archer is designated by Alachua County as Vulnerable/Highly Vulnerable to contami-nation and that Archer has a septic tank density of approximately 400 per square mile in the urbanized area.

For 10 years, Ogborn says the issue of an ac-ceptable sewer system and a water treatment facility has been pushed back and forth between the city, the county and the state.

“We are looking at a plant nine miles southeast of Archer on property that is being donated by the Whitehurst family that is still in negotiations. And we’re still talking with GRU.”

Ogborn said the development of standards is a road block for progress.

“There’s a problem with the establishment of standards,” he said. “The County Health Department can’t tell us what they want.

If nobody can tell us if you meet this standard or fall below it, you can’t qualify for grants or help.”

“So Archer is developing it’s own story,” Ogborn said. “We are going from house to house knocking on doors, talking with people. Not only in the Holly Hills neighborhood, but all over Archer.”

Ogborn came across some stories that surprised him. “The door opens, there’s four little kids. The mother says, ‘Every time I do my laundry, the sinks and toilet back up.’”

Then Ogborn describes, “There’s raw sewage and toilet paper on the ground. Further in the back yard, there is raw sewage mixed with mulch.”

Ogborn’s concern is that people are walking through raw sewage and then tracking it into their homes. Then he shows a photo of a broken pipe and a dried up trail of where sewage has drained down the road during a recent rain.

“When we had heavy rains, some of the affluent floats to the top and runs down the street,” he said. “I have kids walking to school in sewer water.”

One step in the right direction includes a pro-

posed study of the city that will increase Archer’s chances for earning grants.

In the meantime, Ogborn assures his residents that he’ll do his best to apply for funding that will cover hookup costs if the city does receive a sewer system and water treatment plant.

According to Ogborn and the last census report, Archer is steadily losing residents. The number went from 1,400 to 1,200. “I suspect we are losing people be-cause they’re growing up and leaving Archer,” he said.

“It breaks my heart,” Ogborn said. “Our lack of basic services. We are 12 miles from one of the finest universities in the country and here we are with failing septic tanks, health issues, sanitation issues.”

“Gainesville has been dumping their bio solids out here. For 20 years they dumped trash here.”

As a result, Ogborn says he is pushing hard to ac-complish the city’s sewer system and water treatment mission. “We’re going to the State with the story of Archer. We might go to Washington, D.C. with the story of Archer. It will be presented in the form of a multime-dia presentation.”

“I‘m pushing harder than the rest because I am retired and I have the time to go to Tallahassee, to do in-terviews, to go on the radio. We’ve got our plans already drawn for our sewer system.

We are shovel ready. We are just waiting on loans and grants to come through.”

Photos by Frank Ogborn

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