8/11/2019 Beach renourishment to stop short

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GASPARILLA50

Vol. 25, No. 41 Boca Grande, Florida October 15, 2013

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GAZETTE

Looking inside ...Page 3Obituaries for

Comfort,

Jaekels ...

Columnists this week:

P 11, One in the Chamberwith Lew Hastingsof the Boca Grande

Area Chamber

of Commerce

P 13, Caregivers CornerwithTina Marrelli, RN, MSN

P 12, Suncoast

Salutations withPhil Synder

Page 10What will yoube for

Halloween?

Gasparilla Island land taken off state land sale list

Beach renourishment to stop short at south end

The beach renourishment

that some had hoped wouldprovide some extra support

to the crumbling seawall at Belcher

Road will offer little.The project is a continuation of the

restoration completed in 2007, with a

slightly different footprint. The initialrestoration went from Department ofEnvironmental Protection Monu-

ments R10 in front of 19th street toR26, which is about a quarter milesouth of Belcher road.

This renourishment, however, willstop short of the seawall, and nothingshort of an act of Congress can

change that.The story goes back to the 1960s,

according to Steve Boutelle, Depart-

ment of Natural Resources, LeeCounty. That was when the federalgovernment defined what part of the

beachfront on Gasparilla Islandwould serve the interest of the fed-eral government to protect.

He admitted that the state of theseawall at that time might have beenvery different, and said the assess-

ment more than likely assumed the

seawall would bear some of the bur-den.

In turn, the seawall was not sup-posed to bear the wave action it has;permit documents from the originalrestoration, issued in 2002, granted

Lee County permission to constructT-head groins and a breakwater off-

shore of the wall.Those structures were never built.

BY JACK SHORT

See BEACH on PAGE 10

Kids needed for Jungalbook auditionsO

n Saturday, Oct.19 at noon, kids

will be able to au-dtion for a Royal PalmPlayers Kids Drama Club

rendition of Jungalbook.Approximately 12 childrenare needed for the pro-

duction.Want to be a tiger? A

panther? How about a

monkey or a snake? Nows your

chance to do it! Stop by theBoca Grande Com-munity Center and

try out!Call 964-2670 if

you are interested in

a part but cannot at-tend the auditions.

STAFF REPORT

GAZETTE

One of the 11 parcels of land slated forsale as recommended by the FloridaDepartment of Environmental Protec-

tion has been removed from the states surpluslands list, but it looks like the others will remain.

The 0.4 acre parcel of land at the end of Gas-

parilla Street has been dropped from the list,according to the DEPs website.

Patrick Gillespie, press secretary for the DEP,

said it was removed because when the landwas given to the state, it was given with thestipulation that it couldnt be developed.

Sifting through title and lien issues was thelast part of the process for much of the land onthe list.

He estimates that within a month, parcels ofland that passed through both their coarse andfine filters, have been determined to be valuable

and marketable for sale or lease, and which

have no restrictive liens or leases will be no-ticed.

Our part in this is largely over, said Gille-spie. The majority of the survey has been com-pleted.

Nine parcels on Cayo Costa, a total area of8.7 acres, and three parcels that comprise 47.2acres in the Yucca Pens preserve are still on

the chopping block. One 25.7 acre parcel isslated to be noticed for sale in the CharlotteHarbor Preserve area.

Dr. Aaron Adams, marine scientist at theFlorida Institute of Technology, said of the plotson Cayo Costa, Im disappointed. Many of the

plots on the southern part of Cayo Costa aremangrove habitats.

He said mangroves hold the shoreline to-

gether, filter nutrients and slow water flowscoming from the land, and that Florida has al-ready lost 50 percent of its historic mangrove

habitat.

BY JACK SHORT

Shown above is the new southernmost boundary of the beach renourishment, indi-

cated above as R24. This came as a surprise to many at the south end.

8/11/2019 Beach renourishment to stop short

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PAGE 1 GASPARILLA GAZETTE October 15, 2013

What are you going to be for the Halloween Carnival?

Though homeowners near theBelcher Road seawall were hopingfor a different outcome, the footprintof the current renourishment doesnot include land south of the DEPmonument R24, which is located justnorth of the South Beach Bar and

Grille, and which would have putsome sand in between the water andthe seawall.

Lee County had planned to rectifythat by hiring a US Army Corps ofEngineers contractor, once theywere already in the water, to renour-ish the beach beyond the southern-most boundary of the USACEproject, according to Justin McBride,Lee County Coastal Project Manager.The funds were in place they justneeded permits from the USACE.

It would take us 30 to 60 days toaward those permits, said AlisaZarbo, acting section chief of theUSACE Ft. Myers Regulatory Office.

That would have made it impossi-ble to begin construction on time,Boutelle said.

Whats more, because the U.S.Fish and Wildlife and U.S. NationalMarine Fisheries services must coor-dinate their efforts with the USACE,and both of those agencies haveboth been furloughed, Zarbo said,the USACE couldnt even begin therequired consultation for the project.

I spoke with some of (the repre-sentatives from those agencies) ontheir way out the door, Boutelle said,and they told me their backlog is sig-nificant, so that even when they re-

turn to work theyll be backed up.The renourishment, part of the

Flood Control and Coastal Emer-gency Shore Protection Project, isbeing carried out differently than theoriginal restoration because LeeCounty qualified for Flood ControlCoastal Emergency funds based onthe impact of Hurricane Debbie in2012.

Projects carried out with the use ofthose funds, however, must be car-

ried out by the U.S. Army Corps ofEngineers, according to Boutelle,which is why the USACE is hiring itsown contractors and acting as man-ager.

Lee County has reversed its rolesince the renourishment.

We coordinated, hired contractorsfor and directed that project,Boutelle said. (The Federal govern-ment) just gave us some money, headded.

Federal funds covered a share ofthe costs, along with funds from theState of Florida and Lee County, torestore the beach between R11 andR24. Lee County and the state cov-ered the cost of restoration south ofR24 to R26, south of Belcher Rd, ac-cording to Boutelle.

This time around, the things didntline up the way Lee County hadhoped they would.

Zarbo said she spoke with a repre-sentative from Lee County and toldthat person that there was anotheroption: Ask the USACE to expand the

footprint of the project. But that op-tion was dead in the water.

That would literally require an actof congress, Boutelle said.

Because the funds Lee County hadin place would have only covered thecost if they were able to hire theUSACEs contractors, already inplace and in the water, the extensionhas been abandoned.

To get a hydraulic dredge in thewater and into the area is very ex-

pensive, Boutelle said.Jim Ardrey, vice president of the

Boca Bay Master Association andPass Club, said,

So many homeowners were hope-ful and had been led to believe thatthe upcoming beach renourishmentproject would extend south toBelcher Road, as was the case in2007. Now we're being told that anextended beach, designed in part tobuffer the seawall in front of BelcherRoad and the Pass Club, has beendismissed.

The renourishment from R11 toR24 does not look to be affected bythe furlough, according to Laurel Rei-chold, USACE Project Manager. Shesaid they were not waiting for FY 14appropriations for the project, whoserequired completion date is June,2014.

If additional employees are fur-loughed, though, things couldchange.

Things are changing by the hour,she said.

As if to affirm that, she said in a fol-low up email on Friday, Oct. 11 thatshe was being furloughed as of theend of the day. She said her absencewould not affect the USACEs abilityto manage the project, and that itwould continue as scheduled.

Boutelle said the renourishmentwould have been a band-aid thatwould have bought some time whilethe state decided what to do with theseawall.

Reichold it would not have lastedmore than two or three years.

Sue Najar, general manager of theBoca Bay Associations said that thestate parks and property owners atthe south end of the island werebanking on the renourishment to addprotection for a few years while fundscould be appropriated to renourishthe (rock revetment).

That seawall is scheduled to bepartially repaired soon by InnovativeMarine Structures, a local businessowned by Perry Lawrence of CapeHaze and Boca Grande businessmanRichy Edwards, but without the extrasand, and since repairs to the revet-ment have yet to be scheduled, thereis little to buffer the wall against fur-ther damage.

In addition, Ardrey said, thescope of work involved in repairingthe seawall itself has been delimitedto merely 55 percent of the 921 footwall. We are flabbergasted by thesedevelopments in light of the hardwork that property owners and others

invested for nearly a year to secureprotection for the south end of Gas-parilla Island from hurricane destruc-tion. The Florida DEP, Lee Countyand the Army Corps of Engineers ap-pear less than concerned about ourcry for help.

According to Najar, the permit hasbeen issued to repair the revetmentin front of the seawall, but no fundshave been secured and there is noplan in place to perform the repairs,which will cost between $419,000and $665,000.

There is also a small discrepancyat the north end of the renourishment

project, which Boutelle confirmed, butsaid that it was small by comparisonand may have been accounted for bya difference in the projects taper.

There were never plans in place torenourish north of the northernmostboundary of the USACEs proposal,Boutelle said.

Beach

From PAGE 1

Current Daily Rates

May 1 - Oct. 31 - $1.95 per ft.Current Monthly Rates

May 1 - Oct. 31 - $14 per ft.

Annual rate - $11 per foot annuallyCable, Water & WI-FI included

Call for more info.

Uncle Henrys Marina5820 Gasparilla Road, Boca Grande

941-964-0154 unclehenrysmarina@comcast.net

Price Rollback on Marina Rates

Kids, start thinking about your costumeand decide if you are going to be scary,funny, cute or adorable for the Annual

Boca Grande Community Center Halloween Carni-val. The carnival will be held on Saturday, Oct. 26from 2 to 4 p.m.

The carnival will start off with a costume contestat 2 p.m. sharp. The age groups will be infants - 3,4-5, 6-8, 9-12 year olds and of course thefamily/group division. Registration will take place infront of the outside stage from 1:30 to 1:50 p.m.Awards and ribbons will be given to every child.

Following the costume contest, the carnival will

include homemade carnival games, two gigantic in-flatables, a dunk tank, the cake walk and carnivaltreats. Food and activities held at the carnival aresponsored by the Friends of Boca Grande Commu-nity Center and are free for everyone to enjoy.

They are always looking for volunteers to staffthe game booths, pass out food, and help out withoverall preparations of the carnival. If you wouldlike to volunteer or donate a cake, please call theCommunity Center at 964-2564.

STAFF REPORT