Brown urges communities to work together

Longboat Key Mayor Jim Brown is reaching out to neighboring communities in an attempt to save the town and its neighbors money on future beach renourishment projects.

At a Coalition of Barrier Island Elected Officials meeting Friday, June 17, in Anna Maria, Brown approached Bradenton Beach Mayor Bob Bartelt, Holmes Beach Mayor Rich Bohnenberger and Anna Maria Mayor Michael Selby about splitting the cost of bringing a dredge to shore for future beach projects.

“The costs for beach projects have gotten so out of hand, and it’s only going to get worse as sand sources continue to run out,” Brown said. “It seems only logical to me that we and try and pool all our resources together and work as a team.”

It just cost the town approximately $2 million to mobilize a Hopper dredge for its north-end emergency beach project, which concludes at the end of this month.

At the same time, the city of Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island was performing its own beach project.

“We both paid a little more than $2 million in mobilization costs at the same time,” Brown said. “My point is we can plan renourishments so the dredge can stay here for multiple projects.”

Although the Anna Maria Island mayors agreed that the concept is worth looking into, there are hurdles to making that happen.

The three municipalities all depend on Manatee County to plan and permit their beach renourishments.
Charlie Hunsicker, Manatee County’s director of Conservation Lands Management, told the Longboat Observer that the beach projects on Anna Maria Island do not use a Hopper dredge because its sand resources are closer to shore.

Town Manager Bruce St. Denis told the Longboat Key Town Commission at its Thursday, June 16 regular workshop that it would make more sense for the town to work closely with Sarasota County and the city of Sarasota, which use similar equipment for beach projects.

Brown said there might be other ways for the town to work more closely with neighboring municipalities, including obtaining permits from the state.

“There needs to be more of a unified system,” said Brown, who noted the town pays approximately $800,000 per year to have consultants monitor its beaches, which is required as a condition of state beach project permits. “We need to do everything we can to make this process more efficient and less costly.”

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].