If U.S. Rep. Randy Fine kept at arm’s length Palm Coast officials’ hopes for federal financial help with the city’s utility infrastructure on Wednesday, he left county officials much more hopeful that he will help them with beach-management and beach-funding possibilities.
The county had two major asks. Fine said he’d help with both. “He seems very confident he can help,” County Commission Chair Andy Dance, who accompanied Fine on the tour, said.
Right after touring Palm Coast’s troubled but mending sewer plant in the Woodlands, Fine met up with top county officials at the edge of Bay Drive in the Hammock for what was to be a longish tour down the beach, to Flagler Beach.
He didn’t make it that far. The heat was too much, and he had a 4 p.m. flesh-pressing event at the Chamber of Commerce lined up. But by the time he was done, Fine left Dance and other county officials with the impression that he would help Flagler County get the necessary federal signature on an expected $7.5 million FEMA grant to help rebuild dunes from Marineland to Mala Compra Park.
And he would use his influence to help secure a roughly $4 million study through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that amounts to the first step toward federalizing the beach from north of the pier to Marineland.
Those would be two significant steps toward enacting the county’s long-term beach-management plan, even as county commissioners failed to agree on enacting the comprehensive, long-term plan that County Administrator Heidi Petito crafted earlier this year, and that would have ensured a steady, dedicated funding stream to rebuild and maintain all 18 miles of beaches for good. Whether the beaches are federalized or not, that plan is still essential, because the financing necessary even with a federalized beach is not possible without the local plan.
Fine may be a stranger to Flagler County in most respects, as the local candidates lining up to challenge him for the seat next year keep reminding him. But being from Brevard County, he is no stranger to coastal challenges. That was immediately apparent as he took the tour with Dance, Petito, Deputy County Administrator Jorge Salinas, and especially County Coastal Engineer Ansley Wren-Key, who rode with Fine in one of the ATVs ambling down the coast and filled him in on the local, granular details.
As they traveled, they could see the difference in lost sands simply by looking at the layers the ocean had carved in the dunes. They could see the segment where walkovers hang over the sand instead of sinking into it, erosion having been so severe. They could see portions under reconstruction, as the county continues to rebuild dunes.
“He’s a coastal beach resident, so it was remarkably familiar,” Dance said. “Ansley was out there as our expert”–she has a doctorate in coastal engineering–“and so the conversation between Ansley and Congressman Fine went great. He agrees with the approach we’re taking with a natural build-back of the dunes and the beach. He’s not a proponent of seawalls and other artificial barriers, so that’s all in alignment with our program as established by the Army Corps of Engineers and DEP,” the state Department of Environmental Protection.
It’s through DEP that Flagler has successfully secured most of the local grants necessary either to match federal grants or to build dunes as a local initiative. The state Department of Transportation has contributed large sums, but almost exclusively to its own “secant” seawall projects and for the rebuilds of State Road A1A.
“It was great. He did ask a lot of questions,” Dance said of Fine, who had also been inquisitive in his stop at Palm Coast’s sewer plant. “There was great rapport between him and Ansley, he understands the beach ecosystem, so it was refreshing to have that level of support behind our plan and what we’re doing to fortify.”
The 2.8-mile segment of beach from the pier down to South 28th Street in Flagler Beach is federalized. It was renourished by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the first leg of a 50-year contract with Flagler County to keep doing the periodic renourishments, with the Corps picking up 65 percent of the initial cost and Flagler County securing the 35 percent remaining. In case of severe, named storms (and declared disaster areas) that erode the beach, the Corps rebuilds the beach at no cost to Flagler County. In future renourishments, the Corps and Flagler County are to split the costs, 50-50.
All that applies only to those 2.8 miles. The Flagler County Commission would like to extend that federalized approach to most of the county’s 18 miles of shore. The first step, however, is a so-called “feasibility study.” It is costly, it takes time, and to go from a feasibility study to funding and beach-renourishment can take almost two decades. That’s how long it took for the 2.8 miles in Flagler Beach. Meanwhile, beaches are eroding. So the sooner the county gets going on a feasibility study, the better.
The necessary signature for that $7.5 million in FEMA money is a different story.
“FEMA projects are now going through additional review through the DHS,” Wren-Key said, referring to the Department of Homeland Security. The county is awaiting Category G FEMA funding, which reimburses local governments for damages to public parks, beaches, piers and so on. Some $10 million in Category G money is contributing to the $16 million reconstruction of the Flagler Beach pier (currently held up by a pair of turtle nests).
“The project would extend from the revetment at Marineland to the southern end of Mala Compra park (excluding Washington Oaks Gardens [State Park] as that would be a separate project funded by the state park,” Wren-Key wrote in an email. The estimated cost for the FEMA project is $10 million, with FEMA picking up 75 percent, the state Division of Emergency Management picking up 12.5 percent, and Flagler County 12.5 percent.
“With FEMA Category G funding, we can begin restoring and fortifying our dunes now, while the Army Corps’ feasibility study lays the groundwork for multigenerational resilience,” Petito said in a release issued this afternoon. “Congressman Fine’s perspective as someone who truly lives the coastal lifestyle in Florida is a powerful asset in championing these initiatives.”
