BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners conducted a May 19 work meeting as they continue working toward fulfilling the program requirements to receive county-controlled Community Development Block Grant disaster relief funds.
In January, Manatee County was identified as a direct recipient of CDBG-DR funds to address unmet needs resulting from Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton in 2024.
“Lasting Manatee” is the name of the Manatee County allocation program that will distribute the $252.7 million Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grant the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the county.
Bradenton Beach commissioners previously met with Manatee County Grants Manager Michelle Davis on May 8 to learn more about the CBDG-DR funds to be shared with the municipalities in Manatee County, including the three Anna Maria Island cities.
The funds for specific storm-related projects are to be allocated in proportion to each city’s percentage of the total county population, which is currently 441,095 residents. With 916 residents, Bradenton Beach will be allotted .21% of the $252.7 million awarded to the county, which equates to $530,069 for the city.
The program requirement timeline is:
- Allocation of unmet needs: current
- County commission approval of draft action plan: May 20
- Draft action plan published for public comment: May 21
- Public hearings for comments and feedback: May 21-June 20
- Submission of action plan to HUD: June 20.
“This is our road map for the next several years,” Mayor John Chappie said.
Commissioner and CRA Chair Scott Bear updated the commission on the project and priority list for the city. He said the first issue would be undergrounding the electrical lines in the portions of the city where that has not yet been done.
“The second one was the Bay Drive resiliency and shoreline protection that was brought up at the previous meeting,” Bear said. “The next one is there were some issues about the sand and inlets getting inundated – here’s a filter system you can install to prevent the pipes from clogging.”
Bear said even if the project costs exceed the allocated $530,000, the city may have options to pursue additional grants to help fund those projects.
“We’re just trying to get the most done in the city with the funds that we are expecting,” Bear said.
Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby asked the commission to consider including existing issues in the city’s priority list.
“I’d like to look at correcting the (drainage) issue at 24th street. I’d like to look at cleaning all these dams out. I would also like to reconfigure the piping on Bridge Street so the street properly drains,” Cosby said. “I’d hate to see us start a new project when we already have issues. I think we should correct these first before we try to go out and do anything else.”
Cosby said not everything should be based on hurricane flooding.
“I’m talking more about those sudden downpour storms in the summer that cause all this backup,” he said.
“I know Helene was one of the biggest tidal surges we’ve had since 1921, but if everything was built up in the right way we could minimize some of the damage,” Commissioner Ralph Cole said. “12th Street North is a hot spot as far as the water running though there. All that sand, with the rocks and everything piled in there at the end of the street, blocked that totally; and when it rained afterwards in the next event, it flooded real quickly. It’s just like the one on Bridge Street – opening up the pipe and putting the drainage back.”
“We’re only really dealing with, at a maximum, $530,000 and we talked at our last meeting about trying to get the biggest bang for the buck,” Chappie said.
“I would like to see us take some of this money and fix some of these problems that were created by erosion and the storm,” Cole said. “It will help for resiliency next time.”
Bear said the list of projects was essentially a wish list to be submitted for county review the following day and a motion to approve the city’s project category list for the CDBG-DR funding was passed unanimously.
Learn more about CDBG-DR funding at the Lasting Manatee webpage.
