BRADENTON BEACH — Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby outlined what he said would be a long process to remove all debris from the city at an Oct. 21 emergency commission meeting.
Cosby said the mounds of sand and the lack of a temporary debris site in Bradenton Beach have impeded the city’s ability to remove debris.
“The latest issue we’re dealing with is the debris removal,” he said. “We have asked everybody that we can ask for assistance with the sand and it’s crickets in the field. Nobody is willing to help, we’re going to have to take care of it ourselves. I’m hoping to hear back from the DOT (Florida Department of Transportation) lead supervisor this week.”
He said debris pick-up is going slowly.
“We have a serious issue. We have nowhere in the city to set up a temporary debris site,” Cosby said. “We’re direct hauling to its final resting space which is over on the east side of the county 13 miles away and to complete the round trip it’s taking 2-21/2 hours with traffic.”
He said that many private residents and businesses are getting dumpsters to remove debris and that’s been a big help to the city.
“I don’t know if we can finish debris cleanup in 90 days which means we lose our 100% FEMA reimbursement,” Cosby said. “It is definitely going to be a long road.”
He said he asked FEMA for an extension because of the mitigating circumstances related to the sand after Hurricane Helene.
“When everybody else was starting debris cleanup the next day or two after the storm we could not get anybody out here because we had to get the sand out of the roadways,” Cosby said. “We allowed FPL (Florida Power and Light) to come in and we spent most of the day pulling FPL trucks out of the sand they were sinking in.”
He said the sand put the city a week and a half behind in starting cleanup, and then Hurricane Milton came in.
“As we were ready to bring the equipment in to do cleanup the next storm appeared so we had to stop,” Cosby said. “The second storm hit, our public works cleaned the roadways a second time, and got it again back open and debris cleanup is underway, but because of the sand it’s hard to get people to come in and they’re really trying to price gouge. And FEMA will not pay for that.”
He said some contractors want to charge 10 times the normal amount for debris removal.
“We can’t do that. Pinellas County tried it and FEMA came down and shut down their debris operation for two weeks,” Cosby said.
He said the 90-day deadline for FEMA brings the city to about Christmas.
“We’ll have to get creative and come up with grants or maybe have to do a bond,” he said.
“We have eight trucks now removing C and D items, which is furniture, and five trucks are hauling sand,” Cosby said. “They’re doing an awesome job; the problem is it took us two weeks to do one street. It’s tough to overcome and we haven’t even gotten to the south side where the sand is worse.”
The second debris pickup pass will be to get appliances and the third pass will pick up vegetation.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do about sand on commercial property,” Cosby said. “We’re going to have to make some decisions. And again, no one has had this amount of sand. Everybody that comes here is in awe, including the governor. We’re doing the best we can, I just don’t know what the end result’s going to be.”
Cosby said the debris removal may impede the development of the city.
“It’s sad because we’ve done so much,” he said. “This is going to be a long process; it’s going to be months and I know people want to get going.”
Cosby said they had considered a deal with developer Shawn Kaleta to use his parking lot at 101 Bridge Street as a temporary debris site, but the idea was rejected.
“That just really impedes the whole idea of cleaning up the city. Bridge Street looks good. Nobody wants to look at a big pile of debris, we’re just not going to do that,” Cosby said.
“Everybody is exhausted, some of this we’re going to miss, you can only handle people yelling at you every day for so long and that’s all we’re getting is yelled at,” he said.
Cosby said the massive amounts of sand on Bradenton Beach roadways following storm surges from hurricanes created an unusual situation.
“The other cities will probably be done by the end of November. We wanted to be close but now with the sand we’re dealing with, it looks like a desert and nobody wants to take responsibility for the sand,” he said.
Commissioner Debbie Scaccianoce asked if the sand could possibly be placed back on the beaches.
“The sand has to be sifted, it has to be tested for toxins and oil. I don’t think there’s any plan of putting this sand back on the beach,” Cosby said. “It’s going to another site. Once it’s down there the county’s taking responsibility for it.”
He said sinkholes are another issue.
“The problem is sinkholes are right up against the properties, but I can’t fill a right of way in without filling private property and that’s not allowed,” he said. “We are in a serious bind.”
The city commission renewed its storm emergency declaration for an additional seven days.
“We’ll do this every Monday until we can get some kind of a foothold,” Cosby said.
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