By Rich Pollack
It took three tries, but Highland Beach finally has its first legislative appropriation in the town’s more than 70-year history.
Town leaders were recently notified a request for $650,000 to fund two projects through the Florida House of Representatives Local Support Grants has been approved.
The funds, according to town Commissioner Peggy Gossett-Seidman, who led efforts to secure the money, will help the town with plans for a new fire station and will be used to enhance a part of the town’s preparation for the potential impacts of sea-level rise.
“It’s nice to have recognition from the state that our residents deserve a fair share of state appropriations,” she said. “These grants will help ensure their safety and security and also help provide a cleaner environment.”
Highland Beach will receive $375,000 that will be used to create an Emergency Operations Center in the proposed new fire station.
It will also receive $275,000 to rehabilitate its six lift stations to ensure that wastewater removal systems operate efficiently even as sea levels rise.
Town Manager Marshall Labadie said that an Emergency Operations Center will make it safer for people coordinating rescue and cleanup efforts following a hurricane to remain in Highland Beach during the severe weather.
“The station will be a full EOC up to Category 5 hurricanes, allowing staff to remain on the three-mile barrier island during storms,” Highland Beach leaders wrote in the application for the funding.
In the request for dollars to rehabilitate the lift stations and prepare them to operate despite threats of rising seas, the town wrote that residents could be subjected to lower water quality without the improvements.
“Compromised lift stations can lead to sewage backups and leakages to the environment,” town leaders wrote.
The lift stations serve as sewage collection points throughout town and pump gathered wastewater under the Intracoastal Waterway to Delray Beach, where it is pushed through to a regional treatment and disposal facility.
The town will use the state funds to raise the levels of some lift stations and strengthen others to ensure they are impervious to rising sea water and other challenges.
Gossett-Seidman, who worked closely with state Rep. Mike Caruso (R-Delray Beach) to get the funding, said that appropriations are funds that come to a community as a result of requests for a specific project made to a local legislator.
“They are for projects beyond what the state would fund in the budget,” she said.
Earlier this year, Highland Beach suffered a setback in its efforts to win appropriations from the state when Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed requests for three projects, including the Emergency Operations Center.
The town had also asked for money for drainage improvements along State Road A1A and for additional crosswalk lighting.
Gossett-Seidman said the town decided not to ask again for help with the latter two projects in its request for money from the House of Representatives because drainage issues are being addressed in a Florida Department of Transportation A1A resurfacing project scheduled for 2024.
Embedding crosswalk lights in the pavement, she said, would have to wait until after the roadwork is completed.
An earlier appropriation request from the 2019-2020 budget year also made it through state committees and the Legislature but were axed by the governor. That year, most appropriations were cut so that the money could be used for efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19.
“We were approved both times up until the request got to the governor’s office,” Gossett-Seidman said.
The latest appropriation was from a fund controlled by the House of Representatives and didn’t require approval by DeSantis or the state Senate.
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