St. Johns County commissioners on Tuesday will consider entering into a grant agreement with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to receive assistance for recovery efforts tied to Hurricane Matthew. <\/p>\n
Gov. Rick Scott in February allocated nearly $15.8 million in emergency beach restoration funds to St. Johns, Flagler, Volusia and Brevard counties through a pair of executive orders. St. Johns County secured and accepted a $3.75 million share of the pot, but the monies come with a 50 percent match requirement to make a $7.5 million project and the countys strapped for cash. <\/p>\n
The agreement would allow the county to use the $3.75 million toward addressing beach erosion via sand placement and dune vegetation planting along a critically-eroded area stretching from about 5,000 feet north of the St. Augustine Inlet to just south of the entrance of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. Funds will have to be disbursed prior to July 2020. <\/p>\n
Neal Shinkre, public works director, said next weeks discussion will include a review of potential funding mechanisms to cover the 50 percent cost share. <\/p>\n
He said the likely choice will be to create a Municipal Service Benefit Unit, which is a non-ad valorem assessment, not tied to the value of a property. <\/p>\n
He said he would expect to come back before the board in about two months to put the plan into motion. <\/p>\n
The whole process could take five to six months, and a project wouldnt come until after that. <\/p>\n
Thats just the way the process is, Shinkre said. I cant shorten it. <\/p>\n
He said the county has held two meetings with property owners in the affected area over the past few months and that they seem generally willing to go ahead with the assessments. <\/p>\n
If the community as a whole cant afford this, then there is no project, Shinkre said. But I want to give my best in terms of what we can do for the community. Its up to the community to agree, or not, to move forward. <\/p>\n
The county is also waiting for details on $13.3 million the Florida Legislature separately allocated for hurricane recovery on beaches in St. Johns, Flagler, Volusia and Brevard counties. It is still unknown how much will be allocated to each county, although Shinkre said he was hoping to get at least half of those monies. <\/p>\n
I wanted to wait, Shinkre said. It benefits us to wait till we know where the $13.3 million is, but I dont want to waste time considering that I need another five months to go through this legal process of the MSBU to establish that. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the reimbursement process with the Federal Emergency Management Agency continues. <\/p>\n
The countys official damage assessment to FEMA, originally submitted in the wake of the storm, totaled about $174.8 million and included about $120 million in sand and dune losses within the coastal region. In May, however, updated assessments came in around $112.7 million and included just $70 million in sand and dune losses. <\/p>\n
A county memo released last week outlining hurricane-related projects and funding sources says the storm resulted in about 1.4 million cubic yards of sand loss countywide and that the current going rate for sand replacement these days is about $50 per cubic yard. <\/p>\n
Shinkre has said just because sand is gone doesnt mean all of it is coming back. Still, the county is asking for the $70 million, which includes the $20 million that would be covered by the state-headed projects outlined above, at least partly in the hopes the local share will go down. <\/p>\n
Sand renourishment under the FEMA Public Assistance program is limited to improved, publicly-owned property, which, the memo says, accounts for just 160,000 cubic yards of the total sand lost. The estimated $8 million replacement cost for this portion of beach sand would require a county match of about $1 million. <\/p>\n
The memo says, from a coastal engineering perspective, re-nourishing only the sand lost intermittently on county-owned property would not provide any meaningful protection from future storms. <\/p>\n
Therefore, the County is challenging these limitations, stating the entire beach has public use, is an integrated system of protection and requires funding from FEMA, the memo continues. <\/p>\n
Were calling it a unified beach, Shinkre elaborated. <\/p>\n
Several projects are underway or have already been completed using a variety of federal, state and local funding. <\/p>\n
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Florida Inland Navigation District and St. Augustine Port, Waterway and Beach District recently redirected about $4 million of sand to a roughly 4,000-foot stretch of impacted shoreline in Vilano Beach through a navigation dredge project. Shinkre said completion of the project, in addition to not coming at a cost to the county, will also take some of the load off the incoming state-sponsored projects. <\/p>\n
In Summer Haven, a dredge of the Intracoastal Waterway has been completed while restoration of the Summer Haven River continues, but is expected to be done soon. Both projects are putting sand back on area beaches. <\/p>\n
Shinkre said the county is also working with FEMA on two projects worth about $9 million that would restore roadways in north and south Summer Haven. At least for now, a 12.5 percent local share is expected to come out out Transportation Trust Fund reserves. <\/p>\n
Either\/or, there are limited funds everywhere, Shinkre said. Well see what the board does on that. <\/p>\n
Additionally, a $75 million, 50-year beach nourishment program for South Ponte Vedra and Vilano Beach is closer to becoming a reality. The program, which would be similar to the one in place for St. Augustine Beach, got approval by a Corps panel and is headed to Congress by the end of the year. Shinkre said the proposed project area extends from about the middle of Serenata Beach Club down to about 5,000 feet north of the inlet. <\/p>\n
However, under current conditions, the program would only be 22 percent funded, compared to the 80 percent federal share for St. Augustine Beach. This is mostly due to lack of public access. <\/p>\n
Shinkre said the countys trying to work with the Corps and boost some local parking and access in the hopes of increasing that 22 percent federal share to 45 percent. <\/p>\n
Were optimistic on that number, he said, adding the county will also be lobbying the state to take on half the 55 percent remaining. <\/p>\n
He said if all goes well, design for an initial nourishment could commence by sometime next year. <\/p>\n
We are out but were not in doubt, Shinkre said. <\/p>\n
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Money for St. Johns County's beaches doesn't come without costs - St. Augustine Record<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" St. Continue reading