Manatee pares patrol funds

The recent beach renourishment project deposited more than white sand on Beer Can Island.

The expanded shore means that more visitors can enjoy the beach, meaning that the north-end beach is more packed than ever with boaters and beachgoers, particularly on weekends. And it’s an area that already required significant marine-patrol resources.

“Now that we’ve got a renourished beach, the crowd is stretching around the corner,” Longboat Key Mayor Jim Brown told the Manatee County Commission at its Aug. 23 meeting.

To help the town with the costs of patrolling not only Beer Can Island but marine patrol and rescue for the Manatee County side of the island, Brown requested $76,500 — $55,000 for police and $21,500 for fire rescue — from the county in West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND) funds. Brown asked for the funding on a one-time basis for the upcoming fiscal year, because current county policy requires WCIND funds to be used for new projects and limits use to projects such as boat ramps, navigational aids and dredging. Before next year, he hoped to discuss a possible policy change with the county that would allow the use of funds for patrols.

The change would open the possibility for a relationship with Manatee County similar to that which the town shares with Sarasota County, in which WCIND funds are used for capital and operating expenses that allows communities in Sarasota County to support each other’s marine operations. Funding is provided on a reimbursement basis, so Sarasota County pays only for actual hours on the water.

Brown laid out the town’s case for WCIND funding in an Aug. 16 letter to Manatee County commissioners.

“The majority of our public safety marine efforts take place in the Manatee County portion of Longboat Key,” Brown wrote. “In fact, the single location that requires most of our time is Greer Island (Beer Can Island) which is actually a county-owned property located on the south side of Longboat Pass.”

After discussion, the commission agreed to funding, but not in the way that the town had hoped.

The town will receive $30,000, rather than the $76,500 it requested.

And the funding will come from the county’s contingency fund, rather than WCIND funding.

In discussing use of WCIND funds, commissioners worried that making an exception for the town would set precedent.

“If we open this up, I’m thinking the mayor of Holmes Beach or Anna Maria might come up here and ask for the same thing,” said Commission Chairwoman Carol Whitmore.

Whitmore also suggested that the county could shoulder some patrol responsibilities because of a new marine-rescue facility on Bradenton Beach, where the Manatee Sheriff’s marine patrol will be based.

Commissioner Donna Hayes worried that the request would return year-after-year. She said that the town receives funds for projects such as “a $200,000 very low ridership transit system.”

“We have to set priorities, and I think you folks are going to have to say the same thing,” she said.

Commissioner John Chappie said that the county needs to re-evaluate current responsibilities, citing patrol agreements that the county has with other law-enforcement agencies that it doesn’t have with the town. But he didn’t believe that a special exception would cause too much harm.

Commissioner Joe McClash proposed a compromise and noted the importance of revisiting patrolling duties.

After the meeting, Brown said that he was pleased that the town received some funding although he was disappointed that it didn’t receive the full amount. He said he hopes to revisit the policy in the future with commissioners.