By Mary Thurwachter
Some good news on the beach front. The long-awaited project to add sand could begin as soon as January. South Palm Beach Mayor Bonnie Fischer made that announcement during a Town Council meeting on Aug. 13.
“I spoke to Public Works Director H. Paul Brazil of Palm Beach and he’s starting the dune restoration project probably in January,” she said. “One hurdle they have to get through is to get permission from Lake Worth Beach in order to get access for the heavy equipment to come down south of Lake Worth’s beach to get to South Palm Beach.
“If this is accomplished, and we get the project going, I was told they will not charge South Palm Beach anything for placing the sand. All we have to pay for is the sand, and I thought that was very generous.”
Fischer said she would be in close contact with Palm Beach and find out more as January approaches.
The first phase of the town of Palm Beach dune restoration project was completed in May 2021 for $739,000.
The second phase has been planned for several years, the result of an interlocal agreement among Palm Beach, South Palm Beach and Lantana. Since South Palm Beach has no public beach, truck access had previously been planned by way of Lantana’s public beach. But the latest proposal would utilize Lake Worth Beach for that purpose.
Trucks will likely transport the sand from a stockpile at Phipps Ocean Park.
Lantana has yet to decide if it will participate in the project, but its town manager, Brian Raducci, is optimistic.
“Assuming it is economically feasible for the town of Lantana, it is my hope to be able to participate in this exciting and important project and bring about this vital beach improvement to our residents and visitor,” he said.
Since the current plan is to use Lake Worth Beach for access, Raducci said “they should not need beach access through Dorothy Rissler (Lane) as originally planned.”
Raducci, like Fischer, is awaiting an estimate of what should be expected for a unit rate for sand and an estimate of the quantity that each would need based on current conditions.
“Everything will be based on how much dry beach they have to work with in both the town of South Palm Beach and Lantana,” Raducci said.
Raducci said Lantana did not anticipate reimbursing the town of Palm Beach for the cost of the sand; that was originally proposed in exchange for the use of Dorothy Rissler Lane for access, “which apparently is no longer needed.”
“They are going to reach out to Palm Beach County ERM to see if they have any funds available to help place sand in Lantana,” he said. “Once that is all worked out, we would need to enter into a new interlocal agreement in order to move forward.”
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