BRADENTON BEACH—The city’s hurricane-related debris and vegetation pickup is complete, and homeowners are responsible for any further post-storm debris removal. The city’s focus is now on sand removal.
“All debris is done, no more C&D, no more vegetation, no more white goods, everything has been picked up,” Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby updated city commissioners at a Nov. 4 emergency commission meeting. “We did two passes, we do have a few down on the south end that we’re finishing up today and the only thing we have left is the sand removal and that is starting today.”
Cosby said the debris removal timeline exceeded his expectations.
“Ashbritt (Debris Removal Company) did an awesome job for us,” Cosby said. ”We thought it would be mid-January before we were done and they did it in five weeks.”
Cosby said FEMA provided guidance regarding debris removal on private and small commercial property.
“Basically, what they have said now is we can get right of entry to go into the trailer parks and clear the debris from the private roads,” he said. “We are allowed to pick the debris for small commercial, such as the Moose Lodge and Bridge Street vendors. Under their guidance, we still cannot remove any debris from Runaway Bay. That’s considered large commercial and they will not allow us to go in there and do debris removal.”
The city right of entry ordinance pertains to city workers entering private property to remove storm-related debris in an emergency situation. Under that ordinance, the city must have written consent from the property owner before entering the property. The owner must also sign an affidavit stating they do not have insurance that covers debris removal.
“We’ve gotten the go-ahead to do right of entry for the structures that have collapsed or have been marked as unsafe,” Cosby said. ”We’ll need the property owner to give us the right to go on the property. Ricinda (City Attorney Ricinda Perry) is working on that, and trying to get as many as we can.”
Cosby said that once the sand is removed from city streets, public works will begin sweeping the streets.
“The crew is taking the loader and scraping some of the sand off, because there’s still quite a bit of sand on the road, and the street sweeper is going in behind them and will take a few passes,” he said. “Now that I know there’s going to be rain coming potentially Wednesday and Thursday we’re going to do one pass and get as much as we can before things get wet.”
Cosby said the city is in the process of getting contractor bids for stormwater drain clearing.
“There is no sense in doing that until we get all the sand because the sand is going to wash right back in,” he said. “When the sand goes this week, then we’ll be in a position to start that.”
Cosby said the Florida Department of Transportation will begin sand removal on Gulf Drive, which is a state road, in Bradenton Beach around mid-November.
“They started north and did their first push going south to the end of Longboat, now they’re turning around and headed back this way,” he said. “They’re estimating the week of Thanksgiving they’ll be in the city and starting that.”
Cosby said storm debris remains on the rocks by the city pier.
“We don’t have the equipment to get that close,” he said. “I’m going to reach out to Duncan (Duncan Seawall) because they have the correct equipment to get close in shallow water and see if they can help us clear that stuff out of there.”
Mayor John Chappie said Cosby and the public works department have done an amazing job in post-storm cleanup.
