March Meeting

Hello to all Sunny Beachers

Haven’t updated the blog for a while, there wasn’t that much to talk about but that has changed.

First, check out the new sign. It was a great project. Thanks to those of you that took a roll in the design and construction. We have had compliments of the highest sort from other communities on the west end. They are wondering who made our sign; they would like to hire the company that was responsible. It really is a nice looking sign and it took a neighborhood to make it happen. I especially want to take this opportunity to thank Jacqueline Beckham the landowner that allowed us to put the sign on her property. The old sign was in a state of Texas’ easement and illegal.



On to other things;

The Rita replacement sand is finally on it’s way. It should happen very soon now, certainly before turtle nesting season in the spring. If you are new to Sunny Beach we applied for a state/federal grant in 2003. We were awarded a grant to do beach re-nourishment. It was matching funds grant, which meant we had to raise some of our own monies as a match to get the larger amounts from the CEPRA II (coastal erosion and protection response act) grant cycle. We had a very successful project. We raised $7500 and were able to place almost 10,000 cubic yards of sand on the beach in front of our neighborhood. Hurricane RITA (2005) did some damage to that sand placement. Because there were federal funds in the original grant, the project was protected by FEMA. We thought we would have to raise another match to get FEMA to help, but that is now not going to be necessary. FEMA will replace the sand that was taken during the storm event in 2005, which was about ½ of the original placement. So when you see the new placement it won’t be quite as much as you saw the first time but, it will be substantial. Surveyors were out just prior to the storm and just after so they have great data to rely on.

Now there is another large beach re-nourishment project in the works that you may have heard of by now. The state is going to widen by 200 feet and re-nourish the beach from the seawall to beach pocket # 3, about 3 Miles that includes Sunny Beach. That project will be happening next winter. They are trying to expand the project to include the entire island. One of the big stumbling blocks has been sand source but that now has been resolved. The 3-mile project WILL happen. The state needs to find additional sources of revenue to make the entire island project happen.

The coastal coordination council has asked us directly if we would be willing to donate the funds we would have had to collect for the RITA replacement sand match. That would be 10% of our project cost of $75,000 or $7,500. We need to discuss this at our March meeting and give them an answer. Included is the email from Jerry Mohn where the council made this recommendation.

Hi Tom – Glad to see the concrete structure removed. We are getting there.

At the Galveston County Beach Erosion Task Force meeting last week, we discussed the possibility of those subdivisions and condos who will receive sand to replace the material lost during Hurricane Rita, to consider the match funds they planned to use to go for the CEPRA V sand nourishment project from the end of the Seawall to 3 miles, which includes Sunny Beach. Initially, FEMA’s program in replacing the CEPRA II sand was 75/25 match then they changed to 90/10 and then 100% with no funds from the subdivision or condos.

The Task Force would like to recommend to the subdivisions and condos rather than use funds for any additional sand now to use the funds for this massive CEPRA V sand nourishment project planned by the GLO starting the end of this year. Since FEMA is paying 100% of the cost to replace the CEPRA II sand, your 10% or $7,710, that Sunny Beach planned as the match could be used for CEPRA V. Since Sunny Beach had these funds set aside, the GLO is looking for funds and this would be a great way to support their efforts. The GLO is waiting on an amended permit and they are ready to go with the sand replacement.

Appreciate if you could review with your Board to consider using the 10% match funds for the CEPRA V program. No problem if you would like to contribute more.

Many thanks again and please let me know if you have any questions or need additional information.

Jerry

We can talk at the meeting about how I responded. We were thinking the second weekend in March, Saturday March 8, 2008.

Feel free to post opinions or comments.