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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20060420BeachTaskForceMinutes.pdfTybee Island Beach Task Force Minutes April 20, 2006 Members Present: Berta Adams, Cecil DeLorme, Helen Downing, Amy Lanier, Henry Levy, Mary McCracken, Walter Parker, Freda Rutherford, Wick Searcy, William Sprague, John Wylly, Lou Off Ex-Officos Present: Paul Wolff, City Council; Jason Buelterman, Mayor; Hampton Spradley, ACOE; Pat Farrell, County Commissioner; Ann Thran, DNR; Mark Williams, Director of DPW-Water/Sewer Members Absent: Richard Grosse, Dick Magune Visitors: Lyle Maciejewski Lou Off called the meeting to order. He welcomed the group from Advanced Coastal Technologies. Freda motioned to approve the minutes from March. Wick seconded the motion. Minutes were approved with the correction that Henry Levy be marked as an excused absence. Lou received a letter from Dennis Barnett, the Acting Chief for Planning and Policy from the ACOE South Atlantic Division approving the LRR.. Hampton stated that this means as soon as the money is available, we can place sand on the beach. Jason asked what would happen if we only receive a portion of the money. Hampton stated that we may have to decide if we would want to do a partial re-nourishment. Berta spoke with John Boehner, House of Representative Majority Leader, and Joe Wilson, Representative from South Carolina. Berta was cautioned not to talk with John Boehner concerning our re-nourishment directly because even though we are an authorized project we are not in the OMB budget document. Berta did communicate that Tybee was an authorized project through Tim Baker, Max Burns’ Campaign Manager, to Boehner’s staff. Representative Joe Wilson asked for the dollar amount that we were requesting. She felt like he was on our side. Berta stated that when the follow up visit occurred to Washington, John Boehner needed to be visited. Berta stated that she had a list of people that we need to thank from the State of Georgia that were very instrumental in getting the $2.93 million for the beach. Ben Harbin is at the top of the list as well as Representative Jan Jones. Berta is to give the list to Jason. Lou and Berta will write a thank you letter. Janice will send the letter. Berta also suggested that the city write a separate letter of thanks. Marlowe and Company/LRR Mayor Jason Buelterman gave an overview of the meeting with Howard Marlowe and Paul Ordal. They spoke to the City Council and explained what they do for us. Jason toured the island with them. They offered suggestions about what else we could do at the federal level to get funded. There is an email going around for those people who visit Tybee to send an email to their representative in support of our re-nourishment. Lou asked how we can market that. Jason responded that he had Freda send it out on her email list. He has talked with the realtors and had them send it out to their clients, and Katrina Murray from Tybee Tourism. Lou suggested to him to contact the Savannah Chamber also. Berta stated that she felt that we are getting support from them for our beach re-nourishment and one thing she liked was that they are helping us to plan ahead. They strongly suggested that a follow up visit to Washington be done and the timing of the visit would depend on whether money was allocated for this project in the House Budget or not. We should know by the end of May or June whether it’s in the budget. During the next visit, meetings should be set with staff members who are particularly responsible for specific tasks with appropriations or overseeing beach funding so that they understand our perspective and the success that we have had and the needs that we have. There was also talk of extending our re-nourishment contract and Marlowe would like for us to join with other coastal communities that are in the same situation. Jason commented that Marlowe and Company were also helping us find funds for a waterline project in Fort Screven. Pat Farrell, County Commissioner, was in Washington, DC, the first of March for a Conference and while he was there he met with our Senators and Representatives and discussed the Tybee re-nourishment with them. Channel Impact Study According to Hampton, everyone but Erik Olsen has finished their review of the Project Management Plan (PMP). The City Attorney is still looking at the cost share agreement. Unless Erik has any major problems with the plan or if the City attorney has any problems then it’s good to start. It’s a standard agreement and any changes must go to Washington. He sees us getting started in the up comings weeks or in the next two months at the latest. With the Katrina and other hurricane related work being priority, the ACOE is looking at alternative ways of getting the study done. Lou stated that Erik has a major problem with the PMP and would like for the ACOE to talk directly with him. Hampton suggested that he and Dan Parrot will get the engineers involved in a teleconference. Lou asked who will be the deciding authority on the percentage of impact the channel has on the Tybee beaches for the ACOE. Hampton stated that the decision document will mainly be engineering driven. ERDC and Wilmington will be the main ones unless it is contracted out. Lou will talk with Eric tomorrow. Sand Quality Definition Lyle Maciejewski from the ACOE is working on the sand quality definition. He stated that there was a lot of detailed information and not the same percentages. They have to go back manually and do a lot of work. They are going through reorganization with new rules. He stated that they should have the preliminary work done by next month. Lou asked Lyle that they coordinate efforts with Brad Gane with DNR. Lou asked Lyle if it was true that the Harbor Maintenance had been shut down. He said that right before the job was completed 3 turtles were killed and so by the rules the project had to be shut down. There is still about 400,000 yards left in the channel, but it is open. Next year they will need to hit it hard, but they are finished for this year. Lyle talked about the Widener Project. He stated that the design is within a month or two of being complete. They are trying for the FY08 budget. Lou asked how much they were asking for. Lyle stated that it was a 6 million plus project, but it could be considerably higher in 2008 due to the fuel cost. Beach Master Plan Paul stated that the city is involved in a study with UGA and CRD to see what can be done primarily in buffer areas, but it also apply to any kind of vegetative trimming or landscaping or trail blazing that is going on. At the end of June they will have their first draft proposal. Lou talked about the restroom situation. Jason stated that in the next SPLOST negotiation that more and newer restrooms be part of that in the long term. In the short term, better maintenance, etc. Lou asked if the BTF needed to be involved in sand dune that is taking over houses on the Back River. Berta stated that she thought the Beach Master Plan gave us the ability to come up with a way to move sand? Bill Sprague stated the he had talked with Brad Gane and DNR do not have any emergency procedure. They have hired two coastal engineers working on his situation and should be finished with their findings in the next week. At that point they will submit their findings to the coastal committee which meet every 6-8 weeks. Berta stated that DNR was to sanction us to relocate sand once we established a Beach Management Plan. Berta asked if we now have permission to move excessive sand to a more needed location since we have a master plan. Lou stated that we do not because the plan was only signed a month ago and we have asked city council to start the process. Jason called Susan Shipman concerning this, but has not heard anything from her as of yet. Lou stated that we need to come up with a plan of defining where we have excess sand and where we need sand. Lou will prepare a letter to City Council outlining a request to go to DNR. Once the city council and DNR approves this, we will contract Erik Olsen to help us set up a plan. Freda asked if DPW had the equipment and the expertise to move the sand if we get approval. Mark stated that we could. Paul is to draw up a resolution to bring to council on Thursday asking their support to have the BTF draft a plan that will specify the parameters within which we want to move sand that we can submit to DNR. Paul understood from Brad that we will have to have a plan drawn out. But if we establish a parameter then we can possibly create a blanket form. Ann Thran stated that Brad had given her permission to grant permitting for the present Back River problem. She has been working with Courtney, Bill Sprague’s daughter. She has an application and what she will need is Shore Protection Application just as we have for the beach re-nourishment. They are good for 5 years and can be extended for 5 years for a 10 year total. Erik Olsen was recommended since he knows Tybee. It has to be a plan as to where the sand coming from, how many cubic yards, where is it going to be placed, and it has to be monitored. Each property will need to get a separate application. She is not sure they can get an application for the entire shoreline. Mary asked that each time we need to move the sand will we need a separate application. Ann stated that DNR has never let people move sand from their foundation. This may be a new thing. Bill stated this was the first time since the house was built in 1902 that there has been a problem. Now the sand has moved off the beach passed the easement line underneath the house. All he wants is to get a permit to temporarily move the sand 50 to 75 feet and worry about where to place the sand later. It seems to him if there is some type of emergency there should be some way of handling it and by going through all the paper work. Ann stated that there is an emergency order, but Susan Shipman would have to declare it a state emergency. This is mainly written for a hurricane disaster. Helen stated that she received a call from Courtney the other day because she owned property in the area and a retaining wall must be built by the residents if sand was going to be moved. Ann replied that in the application that it should include moving the sand and some way of containing the sand from future recurrences. Berta stated that there should be some way for City Council to process this rather quickly and not have to treat is it as a re-nourishment process or emergency hurricane process, and then the city could take action as long as they preserved the basic profile of the beach. Old Sea Wall Hampton has brought in all the information that the COE has at their office. Lou asked Jason if he would authorize the BTF to find someone to give us prices to have the debris removed. Mary will help Lou and Mark also stated that he would like to be involved also. Tybee Funding Sources There is a standing committee with GPA – Lou, Paul, Jason, Berta, Hope, Lee, and Robert Morris. They will meet every couple of weeks or so. They have been giving us help including help in Washington. Lou asked about the parking fees. Jason stated that it will remain the same this year, but they are looking into it for the budget for next year. Lou asked about the Beach Business Committee. Jason stated that the committee has to do with small businesses not the beach. They are looking at the revitalization of Tybrisa. Old Business Lyle stated that there are significant survey documents on the seawall at the COE – probably in engineering. Hampton is to look into this. New Business John Wylly presented a pottery platter from the BTF to former Mayor Walter Parker for all his efforts to place sand on our beaches. Meeting Adjourned Presentation given by Advanced Coastal Technologies on dune building and stability.