August UCO Reporter has articles on alligators and the alligator issue needs to be addressed

Another wonderful August issue of the UCO Reporter, from beginning to end. Thank you UCO Reporter!

I read Rosemarie Fuentes’ contribution on page A3 of this issue, regarding alligators and Century Village.

Also, Ruth Bernhard- Dreiss submitted a piece regarding alligators on page A6 of the Reporter. Ruth’s submission stated that a large alligator appeared at the back door of a Plymouth Association condominium and trappers were called to have it removed.

Does anyone know if the trappers were successful in removing that alligator from the Plymouth area?

The article also states that two baby alligators were spotted at the North bridge on July 4^th weekend.

Are there plans to find the two baby alligators and remove them, as well as, all alligators living in Century Village waters?

On page 17 of the August issue, George Franklin writes about scam phone calls and alligators. George shares an incident where a Century Village resident tumbled into the lake were a gator was seen and George reminds people to be aware and not walk pets near the water.

Take his advice regarding these safety measures, but what are you to do when you are inside your condo and the alligator leaves the water and comes onto your porch, as described on page six for the UCO Reporter? This alligator threat needs to be eliminated.

When looking at an aerial view of Century Village, it shows that that the water system that contributes to our community’s lake and canals, are completely self-contained within the fences of Century Village. In other words, it appears that it would be very difficult to have an errant alligator crawl or sprint into (or out of) the Century Village waterways. They are here to stay and they are our problem.

Somehow they have shown up here and there are no adjacent waters that will attract them to leave. They need to be completely eradicated.

Alligators under 4 feet can be removed, even if we have to pay for it ourselves with a private trapper. I believe, the Palm Beach County SNAP program, which is a free County service, will not take away alligators under four feet.

Six inch male alligators, at birth, grow to an average length of eleven feet. They are not an asset to the Century Village waterways, but a danger.

At this point I feel there are two major issues facing Century Village, WPRF and UCO and those are the chiller used in the Clubhouse’s air conditioning system and the dangerous alligator presence in Century Village waterways.

Not sure which committee is responsible to initiate action on this pressing matter, whether it be the Executive Board, Advisory Committee, Officers Committee or the Operations Committee. Whoever is responsible please move quickly and aggressively, to permanently remove this dangerous situation.

Thank you all who contribute and volunteer. You continue to make Century Village on wonderful place to live.
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Your Blogmiester responds:

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Hi Mike.

Just a couple of points, The Alligator at Plymouth, circa 8 feet in length, has been removed. Experience shows that Alligators which come to an apartment door, have been fed by the apartment occupant. This is a very unwise thing to do.

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Alligators get into the Village via the Weir, which is the outflow point for the entire water system in CV.  The Weir is a fixed height flood control structure at 14.17Ft. NGVD 1929. When the lake level exceeds the Weir height, our excess water flows into the Lake Worth Drainage District canal, and hence through the SFWMD flood control system.

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Small alligators can and do navigate up the LWDD canal and into our lakes, canals and lagoons. It would be virtually impossible to prevent this entry.

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We regularly engage trappers to search for and remove alligators, but this is not a trivial problem.

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Dave Israel