BRADENTON BEACH – Beach renourishment after Hurricanes Helene and Milton is planned for 2026, city commissioners learned on Nov. 21.
“We talked to (Manatee County Director of Natural Resources) Charlie Hunsicker today and the Army Corps is going to put the beach back, but it’s not going to happen until 2026,” Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby said.
“Charlie did indicate today that it’s going back to the original beach the first time, in 2009, then 2014 was the extra,” he told commissioners. “It’s going to go back to the ’09 and that’s important because that’s when the dunes were put in and that will include replanting (sea oats) there also.”
Cosby said the beach is insured through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“That’s why we’re getting it back,” he said.
Commissioner Deborah Scaccianoce asked Cosby about the status of the beach walkover replacements.
“We discussed the walkover with Charlie. I don’t want to put them in and you come back in a year or year and a half and say you’ve got to move them because we have to put the dunes in, so we would be better off to wait,” he said. “There’s no sand dunes, there’s nothing to walk over.”
Cosby said there will be a meeting after the first of next year to discuss a solidified plan for restoration of the beaches and replacement of walkovers.
“We’re going to have some conversation about that, and we need to get some preapproval for that from DEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) to say this is hurricane-related, but it doesn’t make sense to do those until the work is done,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re duplicating efforts, putting it in and taking it out; that’s a waste of taxpayer money.”
Cosby said the walkovers are insured and a claim has been filed.
“Once we get those insurance proceeds, I’ll have Shayne (city treasurer Shayne Thompson) set up a separate line item within the budget for the capital improvements and we’ll just put the money in there until the dunes are put back and there’s actually some kind of dunes to walk over,” Cosby said.
The walkovers ended at the erosion control line.
“That line’s probably going to shift a little until the beach is back in and we cannot go past that,” Cosby said. “So I have to wait until that’s done or I see the plan for the beach renourishment, which they’re still working on.”
