GROVELAND, Fla. — Groveland’s Public Utility planned to spend more than double on “Growth Driven Needs” than their existing infrastructure needs, according to the city’s Utility Master Plan published in April 2022.
Channel 9 found the report as the city deals with its third boil warning notice within the month of September. Most recently, a water main broke near the city’s Sunshine Water Treatment Plant, creating a boil notice advisory in the city’s northern service area.
Ivan Maldonado, who lives in Groveland, said he is frustrated about the number of boil notices. He said he’s especially mad after the city increased its rate structure in 2024 by 40%, along with an additional 10% jumps for the next few years afterward.
“It just feels like, you know, you’re paying for a service and..it’s getting worse,” Maldonado said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
A spokesperson for the city of Grolveand said its water rates are in the middle when compared to surrounding communities. According to its website, the city said it raised water rates to pay for critical water infrastructure upgrades, including a new treatment plant, pipe and water main replacements, as well as other more efficient equipment. The city said online (https://groveland-fl.gov/976/Utility-Rate-FAQ) it should of raised rates sooner to pay for repairs to the current system.
“The truth is, these improvements have been needed for more than 20 years, and although discussed, they were never addressed or funded by previous councils,” said the city’s website. “Now, the need is urgent…If we wait any longer, the situation will get worse, and we will get closer to a catastrophic event that could take water offline for weeks, not days.”
Customers like Maldonado said he’s frustrated this problem wasn’t solved sooner, especially since the city spent money connecting new customers. He’s started an online campaign lobbying people to get the city to focus on fixing its water utility rather than focus on additional development projects.
From what I see, the local government has spent years on approving all of these developments,” Maldonado said. “And nobody has said to themselves,’ Hey, we need to make sure our infrastructure can support this in the years to come.’”
According to the US Census Bureau, Groveland’s population has grown by almost 200% over the last 15 years from about 8,729 people in 2010 to 25,526 people in 2025.
TJ Fish, who is the Director of Transportation and Public Works for the city of Groveland, said the city’s infrastructure makes it harder to care for customers rather than growth.
“At some point, you can go and change out pumps, and you can change out motors and things like that, but we were consistently concerned about SCADA technology just needs to be completely redone,” he said. “The electrical needs to be completely re-done, and we’ve known this.”
He also said state law requires the city to spend money to connect new customers from new developments into the city’s water system.
“We’re planning for the future as we’re required by law to do,” Fish said. “If Groverland’s annexed properties are being given the right to develop, you have to have facilities. That’s state law.”
Groveland’s Mayor Keith Keogh said his community is paying the price for not raising water rates sooner. He also said the city should have raised impact fees, which municipalities use to charge developers to help pay for public infrastructure required to accommodate the new development, weren’t raised soon enough.
Mayor Keogh said he thinks people were more focused on the incoming tax revenue than on the potential consequences below ground.
“When you have a lot of rooftops coming in and you’re looking at the rooftops as revenue rather than substructure,” he said at the water distribution event on Wednesday.
According to the 2022 utility master plan, the city plans to pay for the growth-driven needs with impact fees.
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