$4 million beach project questioned

Although the Longboat Key Town Commission is worried about the lasting effect of a north-end beach restoration project, Town Manager Bruce St. Denis told commissioners the project must be done.

At its Monday, Nov. 1 regular meeting, St. Denis gave a presentation to assuage concerns about the project after Commissioner David Brenner sent a string of e-mails last week questioning whether taxpayers should pay for a $4 million beach project that likely won’t hold sand for more than a year.

Telling the commission he already received authority from the commission to move forward with the project, St. Denis said the project, which will place 130,000 cubic yards of sand from the north end of the island to Broadway, is necessary.

“This is the most critical erosion spot on the island,” said St. Denis, who explained the town is also working on a long-term plan for the area.

On Tuesday, Oct. 26, St. Denis sent an announcement to the commission, informing it he had received three bids for the project.

The submitted bids were from Weeks Marine for $6.6 million; Great Lakes Dredge and Dock for $5.42 million; and Cashman Inc. for $3.5 million.

But the announcement concerned Brenner, even though St. Denis said the town was going to move forward with working out a contract with Cashman Inc. The project will cost approximately $4 million after factoring in sea-turtle relocation costs.

Wrote Brenner in an e-mail dated Oct. 27: “Frankly, the more I think about this expensive temporary fix without having a long-term solution ready to go, I am having second thoughts. There must be a less expensive, albeit ugly, temporary solution that we could work out with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) that would add protection to the properties at the north end until the permanent solution is ready. FDEP tells us they are in business to preserve our beaches. This is a unique opportunity to test that thesis and still not spend money, which is literally going down the tubes. This is all said in the context of a potential $40 million renourishment about which I’m also getting cold feet. We are rushing to judgment when it’s not clear where we’re headed.”

Brenner urged St. Denis not to move forward with the bid process until the town discusses the island-wide beach project at a special beach meeting scheduled for Nov. 16.

But St. Denis says he has to move quickly with the project, in part because the state has an opportunity to receive up to $5 million from Port Dolphin LLC, which is placing a natural-gas pipeline through an area of Gulf bottom that’s rich with white sand.

St. Denis also explained at the meeting that permitting for an emergency effort project has already been obtained.

“Erosion losses will continue at an alarming rate if we don’t do something now,” St. Denis said. “We are still evaluating proposals for permanent structures that could control the erosion on a more permanent basis.”

St. Denis called the north end of the island the most critical and last erosion hot spot with which Longboat Key has to contend.

“I know it’s not easy to recognize this amount of money will be spent when we know we will lose the sand,” St. Denis said. “But we either lose the sand we put down or lose the sand that’s there and put that part of the island in a precarious position.”

When Commissioner Lynn Larson asked if this project would save homes, St. Denis said that it would.
Brenner then relented his position but warned he has issues with the town’s overall beach-management plan and is looking for better ways to hold a beach in the area.

“It scares me to know what we are buying here,” Brenner said.

St. Denis said he understood but asked the commission to think about the expense in a different way.

“What you are buying here is a lot of protection for these folks for a year,” St. Denis said.

The town has put aside $4.5 million in its 2010-11 fiscal-year budget for the project, which is expected to take at least a month to complete. Work could begin as early as November.

According to the permit, the project involves renourishing a 4,015-foot beach segment by using sand from a a previously town-permitted fine white sand site located approximately two miles off of the northern end of Anna Maria Island.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].