News

By Steve Plunkett
    
The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District and the city have hammered out an agreement that will have the district paying 50 percent of all beach renourishment projects and Intracoastal dredging in Boca Raton.
    District Chairman Robert Rollins happily announced the meeting of minds Aug. 26. The pact will officially be signed at the district’s Sept. 6 meeting.
    “I feel pretty good that we were able to get that done,” Rollins said. “The city’s happy with it and we’re happy with it.”
    The agreement will also enable the district to send the city a $1.5 million check for last spring’s partial renourishment of what the city calls its central beach, between Red Reef Park and the Boca inlet.
    Arthur Koski, the district’s lawyer and interim executive director, told commissioners in July that city officials had requested the money. But his advice was not to pay without an agreement in place.
Members of the City Council and the district commissioners informally agreed at a June 9, 2015, joint meeting that the district would pay half of beach renourishment costs, up from its customary one-third share. Three weeks later, commissioners approved a document saying just that, and another concerning a second phase of building sports fields at DeHoernle Park.
    But the city said both needed revisions. In November, it returned a new proposal that combined the two documents and six other contracts between Boca Raton and the city into one “master” agreement.
Among other things, the district objected to the proposed life of the agreement —30 years — and said one year was more palatable.
    The new beach agreement, which will stand alone from the proposed master pact, compromises at 10 years.
    “That’s a time frame we can live with,” Rollins said.
    The city’s dredge contractor left Boca Raton April 25 after completing about 20 percent of the central beach renourishment. Weeks Marine Inc. will return in December to finish. Ú