The water tank is coming out! Check the Galveston Daily News 5/16/07!

The water tank on 8-mile road is coming out as I write this post. Check the Daily News today for an article on the planned development to our west! Use the link on the left hand side of the blog. Looks as though we will have neighbors soon. We are working to find out more on how this will affect us.

Re-zoning letter update

As we understand it the property owners to our west will have to resubmit the re-zoning request and the letters will be resent.
T

City Re-zoning Letters

Hi all,

I know most of us received letters concerning a re-zoning request for a large section of property immediately west of Sunny Beach, from the beach to the bay. It is a fairly complicated and total re-zoning request of the area. You can view the proposed plat at the city planning department, forth floor of city hall. The city is requesting any protests to occur in writing before a scheduled public meeting at 4pm Tuesday May 15. I believe this is a standard occurrence, however it is rather short notice. Gerri stopped at the city on Friday to view the proposed plats and discovered a rather glaring error out of the gate. The proposed plat had the lots coming all the way to 8-mile road. An obvious error, as we all know, there is an easement on the west of 8-mile that runs the entire distance of the road, at least from 3005 to the beach. It contains a petroleum pipeline as well as the old city water tank and infrastructure. Gerri informed the planning department and they acknowledged the error and said they would move accordingly. This should make us immediately suspect and watch carefully. We don't have a good sense of whether this is good for us or not. Immediate concerns are the drainage plans. This area drains through our neighborhood and on into the pond system. Are there any engineers out there that know a little about hydrology, and drainage? What are the concerns that you all have? Thanks for listening.

Tom Empey

Sand Update

Hi All - This is an update from Ray Newby, at the Texas General Land Office, to Tom:

The current status of the WGI repairs is that Shiner Moseley is working on the amendment items for the WGI Beach Nourishment permit from the Corps ofEngineers to add additional sand sources available to the project. The most significant source is the South Jetty Sand Source that may hold enough volume to meet our short and medium term sand needs. We're still shooting for the next construction window next Oct. through March after turtlenesting season ends. Please let me know if you need any additional info on this.
Ray Newby, P.G.Geomorphologist/Project Manager
Texas General Land OfficeCoastal Resources Program
ph. (512) 475-3624, fx (512) 475-0680

So we have been delayed until, the earliest, October ... which means we willgo through this hurricane season without the sand placement. Sorry wedidn't have better news!

Meeting-3/3/7

Thanks to the Byerly's for hosting the March meeting for the Sunny Beach Neighborhood Association. Thanks to everyone who participated in the meeting. Next time we will have to check Eric Clapton's schedule before planning our meeting. :)

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Neighborhood Meeting Tonight !!!! 3/3/2007

If your logging on to check the meeting status... It's Tonight at 5:30 at the Byerly's Home 11205 Bernice. Bring Yourselves, a light agenda follows but an important one as always. T.

CEPRA re-nourishment update

Just a note to everyone. There will be an update on our project in the coming week. I will update this blog as we get new information. It looks like the permits and engineering will start shortly. For those of you who have already donated to the re-nourishment fund, look for e-mailed invoice/receits. Thanks to all of you, we will be on our way shortly.

CEPRA Beach Project 2007

Hi Sunny Beach Home Owners

The Speed Humps are in! It's already working to slow traffic.

For those of you that were here in 2002-2003 you will most likely remember
our beach re-nourishment project. We applied for and received a
state/federal grant to place re-nourishment sand on the beach in front of
our neighborhood. The program title for the grant we received is called
CEPRA, "Coastal Erosion Planning & Response Act". Our project was quite
successful and placed a nice amount of sand. The sand is meant to slowly
wash into our beach area and naturally keep the beach in a healthy state.
During Hurricane Rita, two summers ago, much of the sand was lost. Because
it was originally placed under a federal grant program and was lost during a
catastrophic event, we are eligible to get a little help from FEMA for
repairs. What was there pre storm is eligible. The area was surveyed
before and after the storm. We applied for and received the funding for the
repairs.

The original project was quite large and we had to raise matching funds for
that project. We originally placed almost 100 thousand cubic yards of sand,
about $95k worth. The amount of sand was based on sand price last time as
well as this time around. We will have to pay a bit more for the sand this
time but it is still a very worth while project. It is also a matching
project just like last time. This time our neighborhood needs to raise
$1,930 for our match portion. Please review the attachment on your e-mail that is a repeat of this post to see how the
math worked. I will post the excell spread sheet as soon. We will place approximately 4,500 cubic yards of sand.

History: In 2002-2003 we raised about $9,000 for our match funds. We
raised money on a sliding scale the first time, assuming people up front get
the largest benefit. During the last meeting we decided a sliding scale
would again be the best way to raise the money.
I'm sure your all aware that during Rita, at least partly due to the placed
sand, the erosion we experienced to our dunes was minimal. Any and all we
do to help our beach is a step in the right direction. We all benefit from
having a healthy beach.

This is a great opportunity for us and we hope everyone will participate.

This is the suggested donation:
1st and 2nd row pay $100 (Odd numbered houses or South Side of Bernice Drive
and Garfield Way)
3rd and 4th row pay $50 (Even numbered houses or North Side of Bernice Drive
and Beard Street)
Reagor Way and Schwartz $25

Please make checks payable to:
Tom Empey/SBN
11221 Bernice Drive
Galveston, TX 77554

As always we work on a voluntary basis, so in order for this to work we need
everyone to participate.

Thank you for your dedication to our neighborhood.
Any questions please call Tom or Gerri Empey 409-741-2455.

Tom Empey
President
Sunny Beach Neighborhood Association
11221 Bernice Drive
Galveston, TX 77554
409-741-2455