Sunny Beach Neighborhood Celebrates 10th Anniversary!

We have very important issues to deal with so please everyone please stay tuned. We will do our very best to keep everyone up to date. I will try to place them here in order of time sensitivity.

City Council Vote!!!!
Thursday July 24Th the city council will vote on the bond issue that will fund our sewer project. The vote will require a super majority of 6 votes. There is one new council member Elizabeth Beeton that has voted against a previously planned project that they nearly lost. If she does it again we will have a problem. She is taking issue with process, not the bond issue itself apparently. Given the issue with the proposed rules from the GLO, some of you may have issue with any further delay. If it goes through as planned, we will have sewer construction beginning in about 6 months. If you are considering a construction project please consider and watch this carefully. For those of you with perfectly working, maybe even new septic systems, there is a proposed rule change to allow you to keep using your system for 5 to 10 years in order to see your investment through. This is a very nice compromise by the city. With our new sewers we need a lift station. The land where the old water tank was on the west side of 8 mile road is being considered. They will deal with that as well in the Thursday meeting. A land swap is being constructed between the city and Marquette Development. Our new representative on the council is Karen Mahoney. She is aware of our issue.


HB-2819 The proposed rules by the GLO!
If you haven't kept up with this you need to. Check the previous posts. Read all you can. On July 8Th, Jerry Patterson explained the new proposed rules for building set backs from the beach. As of right now he is saying these are voluntary rules that the local governments can comply with or not. However compliance will be tied to grant funding for CEPRA (Coastal Erosion Protection and Response Act)Funding. It is currently scheduled to take affect July 2009. It will not affect the current project re nourishment from being funded. That project will place sand 200 feet south of it's current position from the Seawall to 11mile road. A nice project for us. The City and County of Galveston, are opposed to the rule changes as you might expect. At the meeting County Judge Jim Yarborough as well as county commissioners verbally opposed the rules and said they could not support them as written. The WGIPOA is working with our local governments to come up with our own proposal to bring to them that may be a little less debilitating for land owners. Jerry Mohn has advised my that for now we should do nothing with this until they are further along. I will keep you posted PLEASE STAY TUNED. Any public comment must be to the GLO by August 15Th.

Tied to all the funding mechanisms for our re nourishment and other projects is the 4B Sales tax extension the city is asking for in the upcoming election. It will be on the ballot as a charter amendment. This sales tax is already being charged but the authority to charge it will run out in 2009. The amendment will authorize an extension of that authority. This needs to pass. YOU NEED TO VOTE. If one of your family members is not claiming voting rights in this city....YOU NEED TO. The west end now makes up approximately 48% of the tax base on the island but very little in registered voters. We need you. In order to take on big issues we need to have influence with our vote. A husband and wife can have one vote here and another in your other city and county. All you need to do is register to vote in this city. Please see the link. http://www.galvestonvotes.org/english_index.htm You can claim a homestead exemption on your home here too. Slow the tax man down a little.


At the Sunny Beach July 5Th Meeting we discussed the HB-2819. We are still in the same wait and see pattern for now but the announcement of the sewer project may influence some of the discussion.

It looks like we may get the long awaited for sidewalk along 8 mile road. The city is in budget cycle now and we reminded Steve LaBlanc (City Manager)of our request last year. We got a favorable response. It may well all happen at the same time as the sewer then roads etc.

Our new directory is going to print. Dues are due now. If you haven't payed them yet please do so.

The next WGIPOA meeting should be interesting. The General from the Army Corps of Engineers will be a guest. Many westenders believe that corps projects are at the core of our erosion issues.

Please also two committees that the WGIPOA has set up to watch legislation keep us current are the windstorm insurance committee and the tax valuations. They need help volunteers for these committees would put a nice foot forward for Sunny Beach. Any one interested please see the WGIPOA Website and call the committee chair. Hope all is well I will update you as I know more.