By Steve Plunkett
Town residents, acting as shareholders of Briny Breezes Inc., strongly endorsed allowing the town government to proceed with its plan to make “material alteration” of Briny Breezes, meaning its drainage and sea wall project.
The Feb. 26 vote was 65% in favor and 12% against, with 23% of shares not voting. The measure needed 51% to pass.
“I’m so thrilled that we were allowed to go forward with this project,” Council President Liz Loper said at the council’s regular meeting the next day.
But a month later, at their March 27 meeting, the aldermen were dismayed by news of the status of the town’s $1.4 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Our federal grant is paused,” Town Manager Bill Thrasher said. “I’ve received a letter from the Treasury Department that our grant is in pause. Our grant has not been denied or pulled back as of this moment.”
Thrasher did not consider the federal action to be a setback.
“We’re not quite ready to move forward anyway,” he said. “The Resilient Florida grant, we’re trying to modify it to achieve some of our purposes. … But there is a pause on the federal side. I’ve not been given any notices whatsoever from the state side.”
Briny Breezes qualified for a $7.2 million grant from the Resilient Florida program. The town hopes to build a comprehensive, townwide drainage system and raise its sea walls to fight perennial flooding and expected sea-level rise. The total project cost is $14.4 million.
In February, Palm Beach County rejected the town’s request for a $5 million grant to help pay for the project.
But County Commissioner Marci Woodward “was very impressed with your dedication and efforts, and asked our resilience team to continue exploring other potential options for the town moving forward,” Caitlin Joyce, Woodward’s chief of staff, wrote in an email to Thrasher.
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