ANNA MARIA – City officials are seeking $105,000 in county commission-controlled surplus beach concession funds for a study of the Lake La Vista inlet.
Mayor Dan Murphy presented the funding request to the Anna Maria City Commission on Thursday, Oct. 13.
Murphy said the study would assist the city in its efforts to find a permanent solution that would alleviate the need for the city to pay $250,000-$300,000 every few years to dredge the jetty area that extends into Tampa Bay and connects with the channel that provides access to and from the inland Lake La Vista.
The funding request will be made in the form of the city commission-approved resolution to now be forwarded to the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) advisory board and then the Manatee County Commission will ultimately approve or deny the funding request.
Murphy said the city would contribute $105,000 in matching funds for the Lake La Vista inlet study which he estimated would cost approximately $210,000.
Murphy said the study would also require input from the Army Corps of Engineers and the West Coast Inland Navigation District.
Additional state and county funds would be sought later for the actual construction or implementation of the long-term solution or solutions identified by the study.
Murphy noted the city submitted a jetty/inlet study-related appropriation request to the state earlier this year. That $207,450 request for state funds was supported by the Florida Legislature but later vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Murphy noted the surplus beach concession revenues are generated by the concessionaires that lease space from the county at the county-owned Manatee Public Beach in Holmes Beach and the county-owned Coquina Beach in Bradenton Beach.
Murphy also noted a project funded by surplus beach concession funds is supposed to benefit the entire Island and a city’s request for the use of those county commission-controlled funds requires the support of all three Anna Maria Island cities.
The cities of Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach have or will adopt similar city resolutions for their cities’ individual $105,000 funding requests. Murphy said the county commission can approve or reject any or all of the funding requests sought by the three Island cities.
