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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20070419BeachTaskForceMinutes.pdfTybee Island Beach Task Force Minutes April 19, 2007 Members Present: Berta Adams, Helen Downing, Amy Lanier, Henry Levy, Harvey Ferrelle, Mary McCracken, Walter Parker, Freda Rutherford, Wick Searcy, John Wylly, and Lou Off Ex-Officos Present: Hampton Spradley, ACOE; Jason Buelterman, Mayor; Paul Wolff, City Council; Diane Schleicher, City Manager; and Jill Andrews, DNR Members Absent: Cecil DeLorme, William Sprague, and Mark Smith Visitors: Kevin Haas, GA Tech Consultant Lou called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone to the meeting. Lou provided information from the April 10th and 17th of Coastal Connections published by Marlowe. See attached. Water Parker, a member of the Governor’s Advisory Committee, reported on the Comprehensive Coastal Plan. This should be completed by September 30, 2007. Recommendations for the barrier islands included an attempt to coordinate zoning for all communities up and down the coast. There will be another meeting next meeting to finalize plans. This plan deals with economic development, tourism, traffic and the protection of the inhabited islands. Walter hopes it will include a permanent funding base for protection of the beaches. Lou stated that Jason and Berta have also been working with Lt. Governor, Casey Cagle on a bill to set up a committee made up of 5 from the House and 5 from the Senate to look into a permanent funding source for Jekyll and Tybee beach maintenance. Lou asked for a motion to approve the March Minutes. Henry Levy motioned to accept the March minutes and Wick gave a second. The March Minutes were approved. Henry stated that there were 4 items in the minutes that the Task Force were anticipating action on: 1) Due to the article written in the Savannah Morning news, “Port teammates,” the Beach Task Force was to write a letter to the Mayor and Council requesting them to make an official notice to the Governors and/or Representatives that all future agreements that affect the maintenance or improvement to the Savannah River Shipping Channel must include language to properly protect the Tybee beaches and near shore. Lou stated that was done. 2) The Fort Screven Seawall – Henry asked if James Dalton visited Tybee. Lou stated that this is being addressed by the COE. See their report below. 3) Sand Relocation Procedure – Lou stated that Berta is working on this. 4) The dune on Bill Sprague’s property – Henry wanted to know if his problem was corrected. Bill was not at the meeting to report on this. COE April Report Hampton Spradley was representing Dan Parrott as he was in Atlanta. See attached report for that information. Savannah Channel Maintenance Contract: Lou stated that we were promised a report on the amount of material, quality and quantity that came out of the bar channel and asked Hampton if he would make sure that we receive that report. Channel Impacts Feasibility Study: Hampton stated that the final report should be completed by August 31st. Jason was concerned about this deadline. Jason stated that President Bush did not have any re-nourishment money in the budget and Congress is submitting a list of the beaches that are negatively impacted by a federal shipping channel and we are not on that list. After this study is complete, we should be on that list. Jason’s concern is that the budgetary decisions will be made at the same time so as soon as we can get anything from the COE that there is an impact and we get on that list we will have a much better chance of being placed in the budget. Lou suggested to Jason to write a letter to the Colonel to see if there is any possibility of getting us on that list in advanced before the completion of the study. We know there is a negative impact, but it has not been quantified. Fort Screven Old Seawall Demolition: Hampton did see something that came back that did not seem to indicate there is going anyway to get more federal money for this through DERP. Mr. Dalton, COE from Washington, was supposed to visit Tybee after last month’s meeting. Jason asked Hampton to have Dan Parrott call him concerning this. YouTube Beach Re-nourishment; Diane Schleicher. Jason did a YouTube for Beach Re-nourishment to send to Jack Kingston. This was played for the Task Force. Jason also commented that Senator Chambliss is coming to visit Tybee’s beaches at the end of May. SEG Beach Erosion Committee Action Lou reported last month that the SEG had gotten a study from the COE on sand placement when they do the deepening of the channel. Lou requested that this be made an official part of the scope of work. To do that, Bill Farmer, held a meeting of the beach erosion committee. Bill Farmer will present a motion to enter the proposed work to the full body of the SEG. All members received a copy of the minutes from this meeting. Lou stated that there is no action needed from the Beach Task Force at this time. Lou would like to send this along with a letter from Erik Olsen to the City and the City will eventually need to send a letter on to the SEG. Lou read Erik’s letter to the members. Erik has 3 concerns: 1) The Plan as written proposes to address beach quality sand dredged from the existing federal navigation channel northward to only 4000 ft upriver from the point artificially defined as 0+0. 2) The Plan attempts to codify (incorrectly) the definition of beach quality sand by indicating that the threshold be desirability is a 95% sand fraction. 3) In their rationale for the operational feasibility of near shore placement options, the District maintains that a 30” seagoing cutter suction dredge can only effectively move excavated material 3 miles – without a booster. A more reasonable number is 4 to 4.5 miles – particularly for the types of sediments involved. Henry had made a motion earlier concerning this. Lou asked Henry to hold his motion until he talks with Erik to see if it could be modified. Freda discussed her concerns about the SEG meeting. The last time that the beach erosion committee met was several years ago when the ATM study was done by the GPA which was withdrawn. This SEG Beach Erosion Committee met two weeks ago for the first time to address the new study. She felt that it was a sense of urgency about approving that study as the subcommittee so that it can go to the Stake Holders Evaluation Group. Lou told them that we were not going to have City of Tybee approval before the Stake Holders Evaluation Group approval. The minutes did not reflect some of the concerns of the people that attended. Jason stated that what concerns him that this is the cheap way of dealing with HB727. Lou stated that the amount of good quality sand that is coming here will be 20-30%. The poor quality material that they will be putting in here will leave immediately because it’s so fine that it will float to the surface. Lou reiterated that the city should let them know that this does not take away any obligations for HB727. Lou asked Jill from DNR to check on the limits of the CZM requirements for channel deepening or maintenance. Lou is not sure if this has officially been stated. Brad Gane was working directly with the COE on this. Old Business Lou shared the newspaper article concerning the 6 people that were appointed to the Task Force for the Jasper County port and urged everyone that knew them to make them aware of Tybee’s presence. Lou wrote a letter to the Mayor urging him to write to those involved with the new port facility and encourage them that all future agreements that affect the maintenance or improvement to the Savannah River Shipping Channel include language that properly protects Tybee beaches and near shore. The Mayor wrote a letter to Governor Sonny Perdue concerning this and copied: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, State Rep. Burke Day, State Sen. Eric Johnson, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Senator Johnny Isakson, Congressman Jack Kingston, Congressman John Barrow, Governor Mark Sanford, Tybee Island Beach Task Force, and City Attorney Edward Hughes. Lou appointed Walter Parker to head a sub-committee to come up with a strategy to remind the above people that the channel has an effect on Tybee each year. They can do this either by phone calls, letters or both. Lou added Wick and Berta added Helen to be a part. New Business Kevin Haas, Georgia Tech Consultant, will be doing several projects, including ship wake analysis, that would be beneficial to the Beach Task Force with under graduates helping, at no cost to Tybee. He would like to place instruments out in the water to help with this. Sand samples taken out of the shelf about 20 ft is going to be the second project. Hopefully this will give some indication of what type of sand is there. Lou added that perhaps they could check the sand quality on the sand bar that is visible on a very low tide that goes from the Cockspur Lighthouse at an angle that meets at the end of the jetty. If there was adequate sand there, this could be a place to borrow from to get sand back on North Beach. The third project is a continuation of the project that they did last year of adding along the entire profiles of the beach shore lines that map the high tide mark. Mayor and Council are working on another change to the Shore Protection Line. Lou gave his thoughts on it at a Planning Committee. He wanted to bring this to the member’s attention. Meeting Adjourned.