beach renourishment - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T02:17:18Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/beach+renourishmentLantana: Town considers partnership with neighbors to restore beachhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-town-considers-partnership-with-neighbors-to-restore-beac2021-12-01T17:12:55.000Z2021-12-01T17:12:55.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9868336501,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9868336501,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="9868336501?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>On Nov. 8, Lantana’s public beach was scoured by a heavy storm. This shows the beach south of the Imperial House. </em><strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p><strong>By Mary Thurwachter</strong></p>
<p>Lantana’s public beach is sand-starved, and a plan spearheaded by the town of Palm Beach aims to assuage that hunger.<br /> Lantana officials and residents heard of the proposal during a special meeting on Nov. 3 hosted by Brian Raducci, Lantana’s new town manager. He said the town has an opportunity to partner with Palm Beach, South Palm Beach and Palm Beach County to enter an interlocal agreement for a dune restoration project.<br /> Rob Weber, the coastal program manager for the town of Palm Beach, said the program would add sand to Lantana’s beach, similar to what had taken place in South Palm Beach earlier this year.<br /> “There are opportunities that if we are impacted by a storm the sand can be replaced with FEMA funds,” he said. “So we are trying to work together, trying to be as smart as we can and judicious with our funds and to be able to have a program to have a beach that is healthy for everyone to enjoy.”<br /> Palm Beach has been doing beach renourishment projects since the 1940s. The sand flow, which goes from north to south, was interrupted in the 1920s when the Lake Worth inlet was trenched.<br /> “Ever since that point, there was noticeable erosion that occurred south of the inlet and then we started doing beach nourishment in the 1940s,” Weber said. “It wasn’t until the 1970s, when environmental regulations really took hold, that we started getting projects permitted. Our first permitted project was in midtown (Palm Beach) in 1995.” <br /> The first project in the southern area near South Palm Beach was the Phipps Ocean Park project that was constructed in 2006.<br /> “Each time we’ve done a beach renourishment project in the south end, we’ve also had a dune restoration, and a dune restoration is not just building a dune, but adding sand above the knee-high water line, not just placing sand into the water,” Weber said. “When you place sand in the water, you need a federal permit from the Corps of Engineers; when you’re placing sand above the knee-high water line, you only need a permit from the state of Florida.”<br /> In 2013, a beach management agreement, the only one of its kind in Florida, was signed for Palm Beach island, regardless of municipal boundaries. <br /> “We started implementing our program,” Weber said, “and after we had it signed in 2013, and most recently this year, we did a partial beach nourishment project in Phipps Ocean Park to restore some of the impacts we had from previous hurricanes.” At the same time, they did dune restoration south of the Lake Worth Pier between the Bellaria and La Bonne Vie condominiums and placed sand in South Palm Beach. <br /> “The ultimate goal here is to keep adding as much sand as we can to the system to be as healthy as possible,” Weber said. “The beaches overall will perform better with more sand. … If the beaches are healthier here in South Palm Beach and Lantana, then our program will be that much better and we’ll be stronger altogether.”<br /> Mike Jenkins, the engineering consultant for Palm Beach, said if dune projects are done in concert together over a larger area, they tend to perform better.<br /> The proposed project would involve transportation of sand from an existing stockpile at Phipps Ocean Park and placement on the beaches of South Palm Beach and Lantana.<br /> Jenkins said that within last year’s major nourishment project, some extra sand was reserved on the beach to distribute in dune projects this season. The work can only be done outside of turtle nesting season.<br /> The project, expected to take two weeks, would require access to the beach to truck in and place the sand. <br /> “South Palm Beach can’t resolve the issue just by themselves,” Jenkins said. “The town of Palm Beach really can’t solve it just by themselves. We’re going for a regional response.” <br /> Construction would happen in January or February and would require beach closures.<br /> “One of the critical aspects of this is if Lantana joins in this program to maintain a beach through repetitive dune projects, those projects would then become eligible for FEMA funds if there’s a declared disaster after a hurricane,” Jenkins said.<br /> The beach at Lantana is a public beach, unlike the private beaches in South Palm Beach, and more likely to receive government money.<br /> Some residents at the meeting didn’t like the idea that access to Lantana’s beach would be over the existing sea wall, but Jenkins said he did not anticipate damage to the sea wall. Covering it with sand and mass, he said, would preserve the wall during the process. “The contractor would be contractually obligated to repair anything if he were to damage it.” <br /> Weber said the cost to Lantana would be zero.<br /> “The idea is that the town of South Palm Beach would be covering that cost,” Weber said. “The town of Palm Beach is obviously doing the work, but South Palm Beach are the ones that would take on that cost in exchange for the access.” <br /> South Palm Beach Town Manager Robert Kellogg said: “The current proposal calls on us to pay for the sand at Lantana Beach for providing access for our project.”<br /> Kellogg said the king tides and northwest winds in November washed the sand from the first phase of the project away from the beach.<br /> “We are assessing the volume of sand we will need in January-February. The second phase will include both us and Lantana,” he said. “As I don’t have an idea of the volume of sand needed, I can’t give you a cost.” <br /> South Palm Beach Mayor Bonnie Fischer implored Lantana officials to consider the proposal.<br /> “I don’t see any downsides other than a little inconvenience,” she said. “It’s just a win-win for us.”<br /> However, some residents pointed out that closing the public beach during peak season is not ideal.<br /> Raducci said he expects the proposal to come before the Town Council soon. </p></div>South Palm Beach: Joy, relief greet long-awaited dune restoration on beachhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/south-palm-beach-joy-relief-greet-long-awaited-dune-restoration-o2021-04-28T17:01:28.000Z2021-04-28T17:01:28.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8862813068,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8862813068,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="8862813068?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>Palmsea condo residents Carmine (foreground) and Bob Scalia watch a dump truck and bulldozer work on a project that calls for delivery of up to 1,000 truckloads of sand to the dune line of South Palm Beach. As the project progressed in the cousins’ backyard on April 21, Carmine said, ‘I hope this is a once-in-a-lifetime event for us.’</em><strong> Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p>Hundreds of truckloads of dredged sand arrived from Palm Beach in April, bolstering South Palm Beach’s dune line and buffering condo buildings from the relentless seas.<br /> For Mayor Bonnie Fischer, it has been an often excruciating and frustrating journey that at times seemed impossible to complete.<br /> Fischer has spent more than 10 years pushing the project. She attended dozens of meetings and environmental conferences, made hundreds of phone calls and twisted more arms than an army of chiropractors to get the work done.<br /> But the most important thing she did was make a friend — former Palm Beach Mayor Gail Coniglio.<br /> “An engineer told us, ‘If it wasn’t for the relationship between their mayor and your mayor, all this would never have happened,’” Fischer says. “That touched my heart.”<br /> Coniglio and her council allowed South Palm Beach to purchase as many as 1,000 truckloads of sand that Palm Beach dredged as part of the town’s extensive beach renourishment project.<br /> And when things got tough, Coniglio was unwavering in her support for her southern neighbors. Two years ago, Palm Beach County abruptly pulled out of a project to install groins on the South Palm beaches, citing rising costs and objections from communities to the south.<br />Conigilio stepped in to offer South Palm Beach a piece of her project. It will cost the town somewhere between $700,000 and $900,000, money that has been saved in reserves for years to repair the beach.<br /> Fischer is the first to admit it’s not a perfect solution. One strong storm could wash away much of the work.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8862821066,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8862821066,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" width="102" alt="8862821066?profile=RESIZE_180x180" /></a>“The groins would have been a better option,” the mayor says. “I was really disappointed that didn’t happen. But we had two options left — do this, or do nothing.”<br /> Finding some sort of strategy to deal with the eroding beachfront became an inescapable issue in South Palm Beach in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma tore through Florida.<br /> By the time the hurricane left Palm Beach County, South Palm Beach’s coastline was devastated and several condo buildings had nothing but battered seawalls to stand up to the relentless waves.<br /> It took more than 10 years to actually develop the groin plan with the county and win the approval of state regulators. The original cost for deploying the network of a half-dozen concrete sand holders on South Palm’s beaches was estimated at $5 million. The state was to pay half, the county 30% and South Palm 20%.<br /> By 2019, however, that price tag ballooned to something closer to $10 million and the county abruptly pulled out of the project. It didn’t help that both Manalapan and the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa threatened to sue over allegations the groins would steal sand destined for their beaches.<br /> The Town of Palm Beach offered its alternative a few months later — a much more modest plan but one that was clearly more practical. Rather than a beach stabilization project, Palm Beach offered a dune restoration project, with sand and sea oats restoring what nature had eroded away.<br /> It’s not a small paradox that South Palm wound up getting more help from Palm Beach than its own residents. Despite years of trying by Fischer and three city managers, South Palm Beach never did get all the easements it needed from condo associations and homeowners to work on the beach. They, too, lawyered up, expressing worries about damage liability and opening access to the public.<br /> In the end, Palm Beach gained access to haul in the dredged sand on its side of the border line between the two towns.<br />Fischer said that the contributions of Robert Weber, Palm Beach’s coastal program manager, were invaluable. Weber effectively became South Palm’s project manager and saw the work through. <br /> After five terms in office, Coniglio decided not to run for re-election in March. Fischer said she’s grateful Coniglio stayed long enough to help her friends in South Palm Beach.</p></div>Delray Beach: Unusual ship is surveying sand on ocean floor for future projectshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-unusual-ship-is-surveying-sand-on-ocean-floor-for-fu2019-04-03T16:38:41.000Z2019-04-03T16:38:41.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960863291,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960863291,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960863291?profile=original" /></a><em>The Rachel K Goodwin, a specially outfitted 121-foot research vessel, is working in advance of planned beach renourishment in Delray this year and in 2020. <strong>Photo by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Stephen Moore</strong><br /> <br />Jim Gammon and his wife, Margo Stahl-Gammon, are not ordinary South Florida beach lovers. They treasure the view from their beachside condo in Gulf Stream.<br /> And when something upsets this scene, they want to know why.<br /> On March 16, a strange-looking vessel appeared on the horizon. The Rachel K Goodwin is a 121-foot ship registered in the United States. It has a large, U-shaped extension on the stern with an iron beam across the top. This device seems to hold a litter of pulleys and ropes. It has been zigzagging less than a mile offshore up and down the coast, from just north of Briny Breezes to Highland Beach. <br />“We thought it was a fishing boat at first,” said Stahl-Gammon. “And we thought they were pulling seine nets. But then we found out it was surveying the sand in the area.”<br /> Delray Beach has contracted with Aptim Environmental & Infrastructure, LLC to survey the ocean floor for two beach renourishment projects, set to begin in November 2019 and October 2020. The chartered boat serves as a marine platform to assist in data collection tasks. <br />The survey effort, which includes the contracting of the boat, costs approximately $670,000, according to Cynthia Fuentes, the manager for both renourishment projects.<br /> “It arrived the second week in March. The boat is surveying the floor of the ocean by dragging it. The extension on the boat has a bunch of pulleys that are used to drag the floor of the ocean,” said Fuentes, the engineering division chief in the city’s Public Works Department.<br /> “It tells us about not only sand, but reefs and other ecological aspects of the ocean floor. We will also drill into the floor to see how deep the sand is.”<br />Jim Gammon said that during the first days, “we tracked its path on our computer and it was 500-800 yards off shore.”<br /> Fuentes said the work is doing no ecological damage.<br /> “I can understand the concern for the environment,” she said. “Our office has received many calls about the boat and what it is doing. Right now all we are doing is dragging the bottom to see where the sand is. After the calls, we posted on our Delray Beach Facebook page information about the boat and what it is doing.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960863473,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960863473,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="400" alt="7960863473?profile=original" /></a><em>The graphic traces the ship’s zigzags.</em></p>
<p><br /> The Facebook post reads, “Ahoy, Delray Beach! Over the next few weeks, you might see this boat in the ocean waters off our city. It’s actually a hydrographic survey vessel that will be going back and forth gathering information the city needs about the ocean floor as we prepare for a possible beach renourishment project.”<br /> Stahl-Gammon worked for the Army Corps of Engineers in Hawaii from 1988-1993 and was manager at the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge from 2000-2011. She is familiar with renourishment projects.<br /> “We are concerned about the effects this renourishment project could have on our environment,” she said.<br /> “How would it affect turtle nesting, the reefs and plants on the dunes? We have a natural ebb and flow of sand that has been working in this area for a long time. The Anastasia Rock Formation is also a concern since it attracts lots of fish.”<br />Anastasia runs from South Palm Beach to Jacksonville. The Blowing Rocks Preserve in Jupiter-Tequesta is part of it. <br /> Brian Choate, the Corps of Engineers project manager for Palm Beach County, said the project is safe.<br /> “There is usually no ecological damage done to these environments,” Choate said. ”All these projects are licensed and permitted through all the pertinent agencies. And if anything does go wrong, we work to mitigate the damage.”<br /> Fuentes said the survey should finish by April 30 “if the weather cooperates. We lost a few days due to high winds.”</p></div>Boca Raton: City digs channel through inlet shoal after finishing central beach projecthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-city-digs-channel-through-inlet-shoal-after-finishing-2017-03-29T17:00:00.000Z2017-03-29T17:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960718499,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960718499,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960718499?profile=original" /></a></strong><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960718499,original{{/staticFileLink}}"></a>Contractor Weeks Marine pumps sand from the shoal just outside the Boca Raton Inlet on March 28. The shoal sand was placed on beaches south of the inlet. <strong>Photo by Palm Beach County</strong></em></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> The city’s dredge contractor was asked to cut a 20-foot-deep channel through the ebb shoal just outside the Boca Raton Inlet that has been giving boaters fits since last summer.<br /> But Weeks Marine Inc. was not going to remove as much sand as the city originally planned because of uncertainty over a legal challenge lodged by Hillsboro Beach, said Jennifer Bistyga, Boca Raton’s coastal program manager.<br /> “Only a portion of the ebb shoal will be dredged,” she said. “I cannot stress enough that this is only in one small portion of the shoal.”<br /> The contractor finished the renourishment of the central beach area from the inlet north to Red Reef Park before tackling the shoal problem. It moved 530,000 cubic yards of sand from borrow areas offshore to make a 1.45-mile stretch of the beach 170 feet wider. <br /> The renourishment was interrupted in April 2016 by weather delays.<br /> The city announced that Weeks Marine had finished the central beach project and was moving to work at the inlet March 18, a day after the state Department of Environmental Protection dismissed Hillsboro Beach’s amended challenge. The town just south of Deerfield Beach had failed a second time to demonstrate “substantial environmental interests,” the DEP rul<br /> “The petition is devoid of any facts that exceed the general interests of the citizens of the town of Hillsboro [Beach], other than the economic interests that are not protected by this proceeding,” the department said.<br /> But Hillsboro Beach filed a notice March 20 that it would contest the dismissal in the Tallahassee-based 1st District Court of Appeal.<br /> A total of 80,000 cubic yards of sand from the shoal was to be placed on Boca Raton’s south beach, from the inlet south to the Deerfield Beach city limits. The DEP had given the city permission to move up to 100,000 cubic yards of sand south of the inlet and up to 80,000 cubic yards of sand north. Hillsboro Beach, which counts on the natural flow of sand south to help maintain its beaches, complained that no sand should go north. <br /> “Hillsboro Beach does not object to the dredging, only to the placement of the material north of the inlet,” said Kenneth Oertel, that town’s Tallahassee-based environmental-law attorney. <br /> Bistyga said the shoal sand would be moved by about April 1, weather permitting.<br /> Boaters took pictures last summer of one another standing waist-deep in the middle of the Boca inlet. Operators leaving the inlet had to make a sharp turn south to avoid bumping or worse on the shoal, then watch carefully for swimmers and snorkelers at South Inlet Park before heading east into the ocean.<br /> The Boca Raton City Council approved spending up to $2.4 million in February to move the shoal sand. That total will be prorated, Bistyga said. <br /> “The city will only pay the contractor for the sand that was placed on the beach and the other project-related components associated with south Boca,” she said.<br /> The central beach renourishment was estimated to cost $11.3 million with the state and county contributing about $4 million. The city and the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District split the bills 50-50 for beach renourishment and dredging.</p></div>Boca Raton: Beach and park officials hail new spirit of cooperation with cityhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-beach-and-park-officials-hail-new-spirit-of-cooperatio2016-09-29T13:41:21.000Z2016-09-29T13:41:21.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /><br /> There’s a definite thaw in the cold war between the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District and city officials.<br /> “There’s more of a mood of cooperation,” Steve Engel, the district’s vice chairman, said Sept. 23 after he and fellow commissioners adopted a budget that trimmed nothing from the city’s request.<br /> Other actions point to a clear effort to improve relations. Arthur Koski, the district’s attorney, will step aside as its interim executive director in January after city officials insisted that the district have someone on the job full time.<br /> And the City Council on Sept. 27 approved an interlocal agreement, comparable to a treaty between the independent governments, calling for a 50-50 split on the costs of beach renourishment. The district had agreed to pay half instead of its customary one-third at a joint meeting in June 2015, but both sides balked at written proposals drawn up afterward.<br /> “I’m happy that we put this one in the books,” District Chairman Robert Rollins said when first announcing the pact.<br /> Under the agreement, the district will send Boca Raton $1.5 million, half what the city already paid for last spring’s partial renourishment of the central beach, between Red Reef Park and the Boca Inlet. <br /> But the agreement is for 10 years instead of 30. <br /> “They’re getting what they want, and we’re getting what we want. I see good things coming,” Engel said.<br /> Koski told commissioners in September that he had met with City Manager Leif Ahnell for “a very extensive conversation” on the beach agreement as well as on a “master” interlocal agreement the city has proposed to replace six or seven other pacts governing operations and capital improvements at parks.<br /> The news heartened Engel. <br /> “Before it was difficult to get Art and the city manager’s office together,” Engel said.<br /> Koski also said he had researched 18 months of emails and found that city officials and district officials communicate regularly.<br /> “There were 2,600 communications between the city and the district during that period of time. There is communication,” Koski said.<br /> The $50.4 million budget commissioners approved uses the rollback rate, about 91 cents for $1,000 of taxable value, what’s needed to raise the same amount of revenue as the previous year.<br /> New construction on the tax roll then lowers taxes for others. In Rollins’ case, for example, he will pay $451 in beach and park taxes on his $493,000 home, down from $474 a year ago.<br /> Most district residents also pay city taxes.<br /> When Koski first presented the city’s proposed recreation budget in mid-July he told commissioners, “We have our work cut out for us. The budget that’s being requested is $1.1 million higher than what was spent last year for operation and maintenance.”<br /> Boca Raton officials also wanted $350,000 more for administrative, supervisory and technical costs, a 33 percent boost.<br /> But two weeks later, Koski had juggled the district’s budget and revised his outlook. <br /> “We have acceded to their requests and are giving them every dollar that they are asking for,” he said.<br /> The district pays for the operation and maintenance of some city-owned facilities along with district-owned parks. <br /> It also funds capital projects at the city sites.</p></div>Boca Raton: Beach and park district seeks audience with City Councilhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-beach-and-park-district-seeks-audience-with-city-counc2016-03-02T18:48:07.000Z2016-03-02T18:48:07.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /><br /> The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District plans to hand-deliver a check for $3.7 million — as soon as the City Council finds time to accept it.<br /> The money is half the local cost of renourishing the city’s beaches from the Boca Raton Inlet north to the southern end of Red Reef Park. District commissioners decided at their Feb. 16 meeting that they would pay for half of the bill, up from their previous contribution level of one-third of costs.<br /> But District Chairman Robert Rollins added one stipulation: “Let them know I’ll deliver the check at the time I address the council.” <br /> The district and the council have been going back and forth since mid-August trying to schedule a joint meeting. In January the district put the joint meeting on a back burner and asked Boca Raton to schedule an appearance by Rollins at the council’s Feb. 22 workshop. Whenever he appears before the council, he plans to talk about what he and his fellow commissioners call the “strained” relationship between the two government bodies.<br /> Arthur Koski, the district’s executive director, emailed and phoned City Hall to confirm the Feb. 22 appearance, but did not receive a reply. Rollins said he, too, got the cold shoulder.<br /> “I placed a call to the mayor’s office last week. No communication from their office regarding that,” Rollins said. <br />He did not speak at the workshop.<br /> Boca Raton has been counting on getting the $3.7 million from the district since a joint meeting in June, when district commissioners informally agreed to pay the higher amount. The district had budgeted $2.6 million for the beach project and will dip into reserves for the difference.<br /> But district commissioners said the 50 percent contribution was for this project only, and that they will consider future renourishment projects on a case-by-case basis. Boca Raton has proposed the district commit to paying half of all beach costs for 30 years.<br /> The dredging is scheduled to start this month and should be completed by the end of April. <br /> “The week of March 6 they’ll start pumping sand on the beach,” said Jennifer Bistyga, the city’s coastal program manager.<br /> Photos of the work will be posted at <a href="http://www.myboca.us">www.myboca.us</a> under “Central Beach Renourishment Project.” <br /> Bistyga said under the permit granted by the state Department of Environmental Protection, workers must take “every precaution possible” to protect nesting sea turtles. Sea turtle nesting season begins March 1.<br /> The renourishment will cost $11.3 million, with the state and county paying about $4 million. That left about $3.7 million each for the district and the city if they split the local share.<br /> Koski also told commissioners he had received bids for the first phase of rebuilding the boardwalk at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center but he had not yet evaluated them. The bids range from $581,000 to $1.2 million, he said.</p></div>Boca Raton: City repays district for beach renourishmenthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-city-repays-district-for-beach-renourishment2015-02-04T18:02:47.000Z2015-02-04T18:02:47.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p> All’s square between the city and the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District for the first time in years.<br /> The district paid an unexpected almost $2 million for a beach renourishment project that Boca Raton thought the federal government would cover in 2010, when governments at all levels were battling the recession. The city found out last summer it would get the money from Washington after all.<br /> But the check to repay the district did not come immediately, prompting Commissioner Earl Starkoff to complain Jan. 20 that the district should withhold $2.4 million to Boca Raton for park operations and maintenance. Fellow commissioners approved the payment anyway.<br /> On Feb. 2, District Chairman Susan Vogelgesang announced the city had sent a check for $1,927,056.76 for the beach project.</p>
<p><em>— Steve Plunkett</em></p></div>Boca Raton: Central beach renourishment nears completionhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-central-beach-renourishment-nears-completion2014-12-03T17:59:35.000Z2014-12-03T17:59:35.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Cheryl Blackerby</strong><br /><br /> Rough seas halted dredging for the renourishment project at Boca Raton’s north beach Nov. 15. More bad weather delayed dredging during Thanksgiving week.<br /> “We only have eight full days of work left,” said Jennifer Bistyga, coastal engineer with the city of Boca Raton. “We will absolutely be finished before the end of December.”<br /> The project has been plagued by bad weather. Strong winds, rain and rough seas stopped the effort several times early this year. The project came to a halt at the beginning of turtle nesting season at the end of April, with only about 50 percent of the dredging completed. <br /> The north beach, which was hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy, starts 1,000 feet north of Spanish River Boulevard and runs south to just north of Red Reef Park. The dredging project started March 23.<br /> The dredge company picked up where it left off in early November at the end of turtle season. The Army Corps of Engineers, the city of Boca Raton, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection are paying for the $4.1 milion project.<br /> Another beach renourishment project, Boca’s central beach, will be put to bid in late spring 2015.<br /> “We hope to start dredging on central beach in November or December 2015,” she said. <br /> Central beach starts just south of Red Reef Park and runs to the Boca Inlet. The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, the city of Boca Raton and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection will pay for the project.<br /> Although the central beach didn’t lose as much sand to Hurricane Sandy as the north and south beaches, a recent survey showed the beach needs sand.<br /> The central beach hasn’t been replenished since 2006 and is due for regular sand maintenance, usually done at 10-year intervals, said Bistyga.<br /> Central beach actually gained some sand since Hurricane Sandy because of the downward drift of sand from the north beach, but the beach still needs more sand due to natural erosion, she said. <br /> Boca’s north beach as well as beaches in Ocean Ridge and Delray Beach that were renourished early this year are U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects. The south Boca Raton beach was not an Army Corps project, but the city used the same contractor to save money.<br /> The city had hoped the central beach could have been done soon after the north beach to save more money using the same contractor, which had the dredge in place, but that didn’t happen.<br /><br /></p></div>Along the Coast: New artificial reef created off Boynton Inlethttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-new-artificial-reef-created-off-boynton-inlet2014-10-01T14:30:00.000Z2014-10-01T14:30:00.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960525257,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960525257,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="538" alt="7960525257?profile=original" /></a></em><em>Tons of limestone boulders and recycled concrete slabs were sunk to re-create the Goggle Eye Reef.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Cheryl Blackerby<br /> <br /></strong> About 700 tons of limestone boulders and scrap concrete were dumped into the ocean about a half-mile northeast of the Boynton Beach Inlet to rebuild a natural reef that had been degraded by storms and shifting sand.<br /> Workers on a tugboat and a 200-foot barge spent most of the day Sept. 15 at the reef site. J.D. Dickenson of the South Palm Beach chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association Florida, which spearheaded the project, and Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management engineers monitored the reef construction.<br /> CCA Florida raised $85,000 in grants and donations to build the reef, which will provide ideal habitats for fish on the natural limestone Goggle Eye Reef, which was covered by sand. <br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960525054,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960525054,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="207" alt="7960525054?profile=original" /></a> Most of the money for the project came from the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties, which contributed $55,000, and Impact 100, which awarded a grant of $17,000. The project also received funding from CCA’s Building Conservation Trust Fund, the Merrill G. and Emita E. Hastings Foundation, and individual contributors.<br /> “I think it’s important to recreate habitat that used to be here by building artificial reefs that will be sustainable. The more of these we can plop down the more marine life we can create,” said Dickenson, who is the founder and past president of the South Palm Beach chapter of the CCA Florida. <br /> The new reef, which is about 1,000 feet offshore in 15 to 20 feet of water, will be an underwater attraction that can be easily seen by snorkelers. Covering about a quarter-acre, the reef is 5 to 6 feet tall at the highest spots. <br /> The Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management department researched the project and oversaw the placement of the boulders.<br /> The shallow reef, a “step reef,” will immediately attract marine life — its nooks and crannies serving as homes and stop-off points for fish such as snook and tarpon, juvenile reef fish including snapper and grouper, and numerous other marine species such as crustaceans, turtles and corals.<br /> “There are probably baitfish on it right now,” Dickenson said the day after the barge unloaded the boulders. <br /> Eventually the reef will recruit sea fans and live corals, he said. Based on other artificial reefs in Palm Beach County, it’s expected to attract as many as 60 species of fish. <br /> “It will be a bit of an oasis in the desert, a magnet for marine life,” he said.<br /> Artificial reefs are badly needed from Palm Beach to Boca Raton, since many natural reefs have been eroded and covered by sand. There are more inlets in the southern part of the county coastline and more beach renourishment projects, which dump sand on the reefs, Dickenson said. <br /> Goggle Eye Reef was a productive reef that was completely smothered by sand 10 to 15 years ago.<br /> CCA, a marine conservation organization made up primarily of anglers, has 100,000 members nationwide, and educates the public on conservation of marine resources. The CCA Florida has 10,000 members statewide in 29 local chapters.<br /> Dickenson, an attorney with Cozen O’Connor, grew up in Boca Raton and lives in Delray Beach. He has been a lifelong snorkeler and angler. He and wife, Maggie, daughter Sophia, 10, and son Henry, 7, plan to snorkel the new reef frequently and watch it grow. <br /> “We will monitor the impact of the reef on a monthly basis with underwater video and photography over the coming months and years,” he said.<br /> The site is permitted for an artificial reef by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and by the Army Corps of Engineers, which will also monitor the growth of the reef.<br /> The South Palm Beach chapter of the CCA Florida plans to construct other artificial reefs. <br /> “We’re constantly evaluating new habitat and hoping to build more reefs,” Dickenson said. “The next ones may be off Delray Beach and Boca Raton. We just have to raise more money.”</p></div>Along the Coast: Beach sand projects move along, after weather-related delayshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-beach-sand-projects-move-along-after-weather-rela2014-01-02T19:35:46.000Z2014-01-02T19:35:46.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960480082,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960480082,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" class="align-center" alt="7960480082?profile=original" /></a></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Pipes and heavy equipment needed for the renouishment project</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>have been staged on the beach in Ocean Ridge waiting for calmer seas.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><b>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</b></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p><span><b>By Cheryl Blackerby</b></span></p>
<p> A sand dredge moved from the Port of Palm Beach to Ocean Ridge Dec. 19, but the beach renourishment project was delayed by weather and the holidays.</p>
<p> The dredge returned to the port and is expected to start work in Ocean Ridge Jan. 3, according to Dan Bates, deputy director of Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management.</p>
<p> After delays from bad weather including high winds during most of November, the beach renourishment project in south Boca Raton finally started the day before Thanksgiving and finished pumping sand on 0.9 miles of beach Dec. 9.</p>
<p> “The dry beach was widened 60 feet on average the entire length,” said Jennifer Bistyga, engineer with the city of Boca Raton.</p>
<p> The dredge is expected to go to the north Boca Raton beach at the end of February and early March after finishing beach renourishment projects in Ocean Ridge and Delray Beach, she said. </p>
<p> Sand will be dredged from borrow areas about 1,800 feet offshore onto 1.1 miles of beach in Ocean Ridge, said Tracy Logue, coastal geologist for Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management. </p>
<p> The Ocean Ridge project is expected to take 34 days barring any weather delays. Sand will be put on the Ocean Ridge beach starting at the Ocean Club just south of the southernmost groin and end at Edith Street, she said. </p>
<p> Another Ocean Ridge project, the modification of five T-head groins, was completed in mid-December. These are the southernmost of eight groins south of the Boynton Inlet. </p>
<p> The groins were built to keep sand to the south of the inlet from eroding too much. “The sand, which comes from the sand transfer plant and is deposited on the south side of the inlet, is supposed to filter through,” Logue said. However, “the groins were trapping too much sand.” </p>
<p> About two feet of the top layer of rocks of the groin “stems” perpendicular to the beach were removed to lower the groins and allow more sand to drift over them to the south. </p>
<p> “We took one rock layer off the top so sand can go through more easily,” Logue said. </p>
<p><span><b>Erosion a problem</b></span></p>
<p> Beaches located directly down-drift of inlets can experience persistent erosion, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Recession of the shoreline can occur at a high rate, and breaching becomes a possibility at inlets on barrier islands.”</p>
<p> The groins are built of granite boulders, about 2 to 3 feet wide and tall, and are sunk into the ground about 8 feet below the sand floor and stand about 4 and a half feet above the sand. </p>
<p> All eight groins are south of the inlet, and the five that were modified are south of the sand discharge pipe. The modified groins are all behind private property. </p>
<p> The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers managed the project and used seismic testing to monitor vibration from the excavation, she said. “Since they were running heavy equipment on the beach, they wanted to make sure there was no damage to a house, and no vibrations that could cause a crack in a pool, for instance.”</p>
<p> Excavators were used to remove the big boulders, some of which were deposited inside concrete panels to help reinforce the north jetty.</p>
<p> “Rocks had settled inside the concrete panels and there was space to put more rock in. The more rock you have, the more it weakens the force of the waves. The rest of the boulders will be stored and will probably go into artificial reefs,” Logue said.</p>
<p> The beach renourishment projects in Ocean Ridge, Delray Beach and north Boca Raton are U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach projects. The Army Corps deadline for those projects is April 30, and the work should be finished well before the deadline if seas remain calm, said Bistyga. </p>
<p> The south Boca Raton beach renourishment is not an Army Corps project but the city used the same contractor to save money, she said.</p>
<p><b> </b></p></div>Along the Coast: Beach projects move along, after weather-related delayshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-beach-projects-move-along-after-weather-related-d2014-01-02T17:35:52.000Z2014-01-02T17:35:52.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><span><b><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960481652,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960481652,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" class="align-center" alt="7960481652?profile=original" /></a></b></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Dredge contractor Marinex Construction Inc. positions boats</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>to dredge material </em><em>from near the Boca Raton Inlet to widen the beach to the south.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><b>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><span><b>By Cheryl Blackerby</b></span></p>
<p> After delays from bad weather, including high winds during most of November, the beach renourishment project in south Boca Raton finally started the day before Thanksgiving and finished pumping sand on 0.9 mile of beach Dec. 9.</p>
<p> “The dry beach was widened 60 feet on average the entire length,” said Jennifer Bistyga, engineer with the city of Boca Raton.</p>
<p> The dredge is expected to go to the north Boca Raton beach at the end of February and early March after finishing beach renourishment projects in Ocean Ridge and Delray Beach, she said. </p>
<p> The dredge moved from the Port of Palm Beach to Ocean Ridge on Dec. 19 to start pumping sand from borrow areas about 1,800 feet offshore onto 1.1 mile of beach, said Tracy Logue, coastal geologist for Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management. </p>
<p> But the project was delayed again by weather and the holidays. The dredge returned to the Port of Palm Beach and is expected to start work in Ocean Ridge on Jan. 3, according to Dan Bates, deputy director of Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management.</p>
<p> The Ocean Ridge project is expected to take 34 days, barring any weather delays. Sand will be put on the Ocean Ridge beach starting at the Ocean Club just south of the southernmost groin and end at Edith Street, she said. </p>
<p> Another Ocean Ridge project, the modification of five T-head groins, was completed in mid-December. These are the northernmost of eight groins south of the Boynton Inlet. </p>
<p> The groins were built to keep sand to the south of the inlet from eroding too much.</p>
<p> “The sand, which comes from the sand transfer plant and is deposited on the south side of the inlet, is supposed to filter through,” Logue said. However, “the groins were trapping too much sand.” </p>
<p> About two feet of the top layer of rocks of the groin “stems” perpendicular to the beach were removed to lower the groins and allow more sand to drift over them to the south. </p>
<p> “We took one rock layer off the top so sand can go through more easily,” Logue said. </p>
<p><span><b>Erosion a problem</b></span></p>
<p> Beaches located directly down-drift of inlets can experience persistent erosion, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Recession of the shoreline can occur at a high rate, and breaching becomes a possibility at inlets on barrier islands.”</p>
<p> The groins are built of granite boulders, about 2 to 3 feet wide and tall, and are sunk into the ground about 8 feet below the sand floor and stand about 4 and a half feet above the sand. </p>
<p> All eight groins are south of the inlet, and the five that were modified are south of the sand discharge pipe. The modified groins are all behind private property. </p>
<p> The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers managed the project and used seismic testing to monitor vibration from the excavation, she said. “Since they were running heavy equipment on the beach, they wanted to make sure there was no damage to a house, and no vibrations that could cause a crack in a pool, for instance.”</p>
<p> Excavators were used to remove the big boulders, some of which were deposited inside concrete panels to help reinforce the north jetty.</p>
<p> “Rocks had settled inside the concrete panels and there was space to put more rock in. The more rock you have, the more it weakens the force of the waves. The rest of the boulders will be stored and will probably go into artificial reefs,” Logue said.</p>
<p> The beach renourishment projects in Ocean Ridge, Delray Beach and north Boca Raton are U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach projects. The Army Corps deadline for those projects is April 30, and the work should be finished well before the deadline if seas remain calm, said Bistyga. </p>
<p> The south Boca Raton beach renourishment is not an Army Corps project; but the city used the same contractor to save money, she said.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: Renourishment project coming to Ocean Ridge in Novemberhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-renourishment-project-coming-to-ocean-ridge-in-novemb2013-10-30T19:19:39.000Z2013-10-30T19:19:39.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><span><b>By Steve Plunkett</b></span></p>
<p> A federal contractor could have its dredge off Ocean Ridge’s beach before Thanksgiving.</p>
<p> The shore protection project, another in Delray Beach and a third in Boca Raton make up a $10.8 million contract the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded in September. Boca Raton is paying for a fourth segment at its southern end. Work was to begin Nov. 1 in south Boca Raton, then move to Ocean Ridge around Nov. 20.</p>
<p> Part of the Ocean Ridge job includes removing the top layer of armor stone from the stems of five T-shaped groins. That is expected to lower the crests of the dunes about 2 feet. The excavated armor stone will be removed from the beach.</p>
<p> The Ocean Ridge segment is 1.1 miles of oceanfront, as is Boca Raton’s main project. The Delray Beach work stretches from George Bush Boulevard south also about a mile, city Planning and Zoning Director Paul Dorling said.</p>
<p> Dorling said Delray Beach qualified for $4 million in Hurricane Sandy relief money. That storm passed through just months before the city started a renourishment project in March for the beach south of Atlantic Avenue.</p>
<p> “The reality is [the March project] had nothing to do with the storm,” he said.</p>
<p> The Ocean Ridge project is estimated to cost $6.9 million with 48.7 percent paid by the Corps of Engineers and the remainder split between the state and the county, said Leanne Welch, the county’s shoreline program supervisor.</p>
<p> Charleston, S.C.-based Marinex Construction Inc. will be the only contractor operating a hydraulic dredge in Palm Beach County from November to April, said Jennifer Bistyga, Boca Raton’s coastal program manager.</p>
<p> Bistyga said Marinex’s dredge will start off in south Boca Raton, then work in Ocean Ridge and Delray Beach before returning to north Boca Raton. Dorling said he expects the Delray Beach work to take place in January.</p>
<p> Welch said, “The borrow areas for these projects are located very close to the beach, and because of this a hydraulic dredge will be able to take sand from the ocean floor and pump it directly to the beach.” </p>
<p> Boca Raton will pay $1.7 million for the south beach work but expects the state to pick up 48.9 percent of the cost and the county to pay for 20 percent. That will leave the city’s share at $547,000.</p></div>Boca Raton: Beach & Park District looking for better partnership with cityhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-beach-park-district-looking-for-better-partnership-wit2013-09-04T15:39:50.000Z2013-09-04T15:39:50.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><b>By Cheryl Blackerby </b></p>
<p> Boca Raton Beach and Park District commissioners are willing to pay a greater share of the city’s beach renourishment bills. But before they start writing bigger checks, they’d like to start playing a bigger role in shaping the projects. </p>
<p> “We’re not the city’s daddy,” said Commissioner Steve Engel, who says the commission often feels like the parent of college kids who constantly come asking for money without saying what it’s for. </p>
<p> “The basis of the problem we have is they don’t see this as a partnership, but rather see us as a tax-raising facility, a fund-raising facility for them,” Engel said. “For us to really go forward, that’s going to have to change somehow. They’re going to have to understand that we’re not trying to work at cross-purposes. We’re not trying to defeat what their objectives are. We want to be part of them.” </p>
<p> At issue is a $6.1 million renourishment project for the city’s north beach from Yamato Rock to the northern boundary of Red Reef Park. </p>
<p> The federal government is expected to pay about $3.4 million of the bill through the Army Corps of Engineers, with the state, Palm Beach County, city and beach district covering the rest. </p>
<p> Together, Boca Raton and the district will have to come up with about $943,000. In the past, the city has paid two-thirds of renourishment bills and the district one-third. </p>
<p> But the city wants to change that precedent and make the partnership 50-50, meaning the district would pay about $471,500 for the north beach project. </p>
<p> “We have told the city we would consider an inter-local agreement in which we’re a 50 percent partner with the city,” said Arthur Koski, the district’s acting director, “with certain provisos that we would be involved in the projects from the beginning so we learned about issues early on, rather than learning about them at the commencement of the project.” </p>
<p> Koski says the city hasn’t responded to his requests to give the commission more input on projects in the new inter-local agreement. “The city disregarded our request for greater participation,” he said, but added he’s hopeful that the partnership can be redefined as the summer budget process grinds on. </p>
<p> Koski says the north beach project won’t begin before November, and the start date will depend on the Army Corps’ scheduling of two other renourishment projects in northern Palm Beach County. He said the plan is to have north beach completed before turtle nesting season begins next spring. </p>
<p> Boca Raton has another major renourishment project to address after that. Koski said early estimates are about $9 million to rebuild the district’s southern beaches, with the city and district’s partnership expected to cover about $3.5 million of that total. </p>
<p> Koski said that, depending on logistics, scheduling and finances, it might be possible to “piggyback” the work on the southern beaches immediately after the north beach is completed. </p>
<p> But it won’t be possible to figure out the whole renourishment picture until after bids come back from contractors with hard numbers. </p>
<p> Commissioner Earl Starkoff says he is optimistic that the city and district can redefine their partnership and improve their working relationship by then. </p>
<p> “We’re not talking about warring parties here,” Starkoff said. “We’re talking about willing parties who want to do this — us and the city.”</p></div>Along the Coast: Renourishment starting on Boca, Delray beacheshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-renourishment-starting-on-boca-delray-beaches2013-02-27T19:01:37.000Z2013-02-27T19:01:37.000ZJerry Lowerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/JerryLower499<div><p><strong>By Cheryl Blackerby</strong><br /> <br /> In March, Boca Raton will be trucking in sand to repair damaged dunes on the north beach. The 5,000 tons — 3,600 cubic yards — of sand from an inland mine will cost about $170,000.<br /> “It’s a small dune project. It’s 2,000 feet in length. It starts at the northern end of Red Reef Park and runs south,” said Jennifer Bistyga, coastal program manager for the city of Boca Raton.<br /> Sand is expected to be delivered in the first part of March. “It shouldn’t take long, at most 10 days,” she said. <br /> The city is trying to speed up beach repair for the north and central beaches. Getting permits for beach repair is not easy, she said.<br /> “We’re planning to fast-track permits — it’s going to take a lot of permits — from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers.That usually takes about two years, but we’re hoping for September and October this year,” she said. <br /> In the past, the cost for restoration of the north and central beaches has been paid by the Boca Raton Beach and Park District, and the cost for the south beach is paid by the city with state and county reimbursement, she said, and additional federal funding for the north beach project.<br /> Some sand will shift back to the beach, so the need for sand may not be as great as it appears now. On the other hand, if Boca Raton’s beaches get hit by another storm, the city will already have the permits in place, she said.<br /> The city has not applied for permits yet. “We’re developing documents to apply for permits,” she said. <br /> Boca’s beaches are broken into three areas and are on different renourishment schedules: The north beach is on a 10-year cycle, the central beach is on an eight- to 10-year cycle, and the south beach is between six and eight years. <br /> And, of course, storms may accelerate those schedules, like Hurricane Sandy did for the north and central beaches, which are still recovering from erosion from Sandy. <br /> “But we’re seeing sandbars offshore, and some of that sand will be coming back. And we look a lot better than beaches in other areas such as Fort Lauderdale,” she said.<br /> At least part of the reason Boca’s beaches fared so well was the dunes. “We have such a great dune system, and that took a beating but that’s the dunes’ purpose,” she said. <br /> Many residents are worried about how beach restoration will affect turtle nesting season, which starts March 1 and lasts though Nov. 1. <br /> “In Boca, they won’t be doing any work at night and so that will have no impact. If they have a dredge in Delray, they will be pumping 24 hours a day, and generally for a project that size they will allow nests to be relocated,” said Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.<br /> The first turtles to arrive on beaches are leatherbacks, but those are very few. Rusenko counted 33 leatherback nests last year from March to June, and 994 loggerhead nests from May 1 to Oct. 31. Rusenko said the permit from the Department of Environmental Protection allows him to move turtle nests if necessary.<br /> Sandy’s surge left escarpments as high as 4 and 5 feet on Boca and Delray beaches. If turtle nests are found at the foot of cliffs and are in danger of being washed out, those nests will be moved, Rusenko said. And turtles will likely move along the shore until they can get onto the beach and find a place to nest. <br /> Turtles will often avoid sand dredged offshore for the first year after it is placed on beaches.<br /> “It’s something about the sand taken off the floor of the ocean, perhaps the saltiness of the sand. We do know that turtles know where the high tide line is. And they nest in sand that has been washed out by rain,” said Rusenko.<br /> And turtles do come back the second year after offshore sand is placed on beaches.<br /> In Delray Beach, a convoy of trucks lined up on A1A Feb. 19 to deliver 2,500 cubic yards of emergency sand to the beach and dunes north of Delray Municipal Beach. <br /> The north beach, badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge, is outside the routine 10-year renourishment plan that will start in March. That project, costing $9.2 million, will include beaches that run from just north of Atlantic Avenue south to 700 feet south of Linton Boulevard. More than 1 million cubic yards of sand will come from offshore dredging.</p></div>Delray Beach: City pursues beach project as necessity, not nicetyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-city-pursues-beach-project-as-necessity-not-nicety2012-10-03T16:40:40.000Z2012-10-03T16:40:40.000ZDeborah Hartz-Seeleyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/DeborahHartzSeeley<div><p><span><b>By Margie Plunkett</b></span></p>
<p></p>
<p>A $9 million beach renourishment project will proceed, after Delray Beach commissioners committed to spending the money even though anticipated federal financing has not been allocated.</p>
<p>“It will cost us way more if we don’t,” said Commissioner Al Jacquet, echoing the sentiment that the beach is the city’s most important resource.</p>
<p>In August, commissioners questioned whether Delray Beach could afford to pay for the project itself, given extensive budget-cutting. But at a special meeting in September, City Manager David Harden explained that the general fund debt service would shrink by about $1.4 million in the 2014 fiscal year, providing leeway to finance beach renourishment.</p>
<p>Commissioners gave their thumbs-up after city staff assured them it would pursue federal reimbursement, which represents about $5.2 million — or 56 percent — of the cost. The state and county have committed money to pay the balance, amounting to about $2 million each.</p>
<p>“We would make every effort to get the funding — the authorization is there,” Harden said. “We would continue to lobby the delegation.”</p>
<p>Great Lakes Dredge & Dock LLC, which was the successful bidder in a fall competition for the beach work, was awarded the contract at the special meeting. The work was expected to begin in November.</p>
<p>The Beach Property Owners Association had urged city lawmakers to go ahead with beach renourishment in a letter from President Mary Renaud.</p>
<p>Beach renourishment was essential not only for the recreation and beauty the coastline provides but also to stave off storm erosion or a breach that could mean the loss of millions of dollars in property value and revenue to Delray Beach, the BPOA said. </p>
<p>“This is not money being spent on an extra ‘nice’ item the community can enjoy,” the letter said. “It is money being spent on the backbone of our town. Without the beach, we could easily see our town underwater and have the sea claim our town.” <span>Ú</span></p></div>Boca Raton: Big check to boost beach renourishment projecthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-big-check-to-boost2011-06-01T17:37:01.000Z2011-06-01T17:37:01.000ZDeborah Hartz-Seeleyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/DeborahHartzSeeley<div><p><span><b>By Steve Plunkett</b></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District has given the city $2 million to help pay for a 2010 beach renourishment project that fell victim to federal budget-cutting.</p>
<p>Boca Raton officials expected to get $5.3 million from the federal government for the nearly 1.5-mile project just north of Red Reef Park. But three months before the project began, federal officials told the city it would receive only $531,000. City officials asked the beach and park district for help.</p>
<p>They got it at May’s joint meeting of the district and the Boca Raton City Council.</p>
<p>“We thought that a good way to start this meeting on a friendly and cordial, wonderful basis would be to present you with a check … for $2 million,” Commission Chairman Dennis Frisch said.</p>
<p>The North Beach area initially got 1.1 million cubic yards of sand in 1988, followed by 680,000 cubic yards in 1998. The 2010 project deposited 780,000 cubic yards of sand on the shoreline at a total cost of $9.3 million. <span>Ú</span></p>
<div><span><br /></span></div></div>