Beach project cost decreases

The town’s ever-evolving 2011-12 island-wide, beach-renourishment program could now cost between $30.5 million and $36 million, instead of the originally proposed $40 million.

Town Manager Bruce St. Denis held a special beach project meeting Tuesday, Nov. 16, at Town Hall, to discuss the continuation of a beach-management plan that has been in effect island-wide since the early 1990s.

“This project will address the last of six major-erosion hot spots island-wide and continue to preserve the island’s beach like it has since 1995,” St. Denis said.

At the meeting, the Town Commission and the public sat through a two-hour history lesson of the town’s beach program, which included a presentation with island aerials that showed how much more sand the town has had since the beach maintenance program, which occurs every eight years, was instituted in 1995.

“We have had a systematic plan since 1995 to take care of these hot spots,” said St. Denis, who said only the eroded north end of the island needs to be remedied.

New cost options reveal that a sand-only beach project would cost between $30.5 million to $36 million. And if the town wants to add a permanent structure solution, such as rock-like breakwaters or pier-like concrete groins, the project cost would increase anywhere between $3.2 million to $6.2 million.

That price estimate could be lowered contingent upon using some or all of the $3 million in available Sarasota County infrastructure surtax funds and a $5 million reimbursement from Port Dolphin LLC for taking sand from the Gulf bottom before the company places a natural-gas pipeline north of Anna Maria Island.

St. Denis also proposed a variety of other options, which included a sand-only project for $36 million and delaying the entire beach project for another year.

Although the commission was not ready to make a decision Tuesday, it told St. Denis it’s also not willing to delay the project another year.

Commissioner Lynn Larson suggested the town attempt to permit plastic geo-textile tubes to help hold sand on the north end until a more permanent solution is achieved. The tubes are used in other areas of the island to help with erosion hot spots.

Commissioner David Brenner also suggested the town could attempt to ask the voters in March to vote for a beach bond that would deal solely with approving a structural solution to control the erosion issues at the north end.

In the meantime, St. Denis said that any mid-Key, Gulf-front property owners who thinks they should not vote in favor of the beach project, because not as much sand is needed in the middle of the island as the north end, are not looking at the overall picture.

“People who don’t need sand should still pay for this project because sand that is coming from other areas of the island keep their beach wide,” St. Denis said.

Deferring the project, St. Denis said, would also amount to another quarter-million cubic yards of sand lost and a more expensive project.

The Town Commission will review the beach cost options again at its 1 p.m. Nov. 18 regular workshop. The commission has until its Jan. 3 regular meeting to make a decision on the project and give town staff enough time to craft a ballot question for the town’s March election.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].