By Rich Pollack
Highland Beach got a little help from the state in its efforts to ensure its wastewater system is better prepared to function should rising seas lead to flooding.
Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a $116.5 billion state budget that included $250,000 for an upgrade to the town’s wastewater removal system.
At the same time, the governor shot down a request for $875,000 for a major sewer-pipe-lining project the town has been struggling to get started for years.
Town Manager Marshall Labadie said that despite the governor’s veto, Highland Beach will continue to move forward with the lining project after a preliminary inspection showed weakness in the aging sewage pipes.
Labadie said that the town will continue to seek outside funding for the $3.5 million project and will move forward even if state or federal funding is not available.
The sewer-lining project was approved by voters in March during a special referendum.
State Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a former Highland Beach town commissioner whose district includes the town and Boca Raton, said she is hoping to help the town find funding for the sewer lining project from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.
“They have a grant funding program that has money available,” she said.
Gossett-Seidman said she is already in the process of filing paperwork for the grant and has told DEP officials that the project is a priority.
The $250,000 wastewater improvement appropriation that avoided the governor’s veto marks the second time in as many years that funding for improvements to a town sanitary lift station was included in the budget.
Labadie said that two of the town’s lift stations were vulnerable to flooding and needed to be raised to prevent sea water intrusion. Were the sea water to get into the lift stations, he said, the town would likely end up paying to unnecessarily treat the extra water.
The town also will raise electronic components of the lift station to ensure they are not damaged by sea water in the future.
The back-to-back appropriations are the first in the town’s almost 75-year history, and town commissioners and Labadie credit Gossett-Seidman and the town’s lobbying firm, Capital City Partners, for the success.
“Now that we are a full-service community, we’re capitalizing on the opportunities that are available to us,” Labadie said.
Gossett-Seidman said that the two direct appropriations fit well with the overall objective of the appropriations system.
“Appropriations are designed to assist municipalities with their imminent needs so the state doesn’t have to come in and fund even more later,” she said. “They can prevent a bigger disaster later.”
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