Chief Resilience Officer for Monroe County, Rhonda Haag, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Road elevation projects are a big topic of discussion. In fact, residents in Winston Waterways in Key Largo reached out to the county for help.
Haag said, “Several residents have called us, and we have a meeting scheduled with them next week. They’re very interested in the county hanging on to the state and federal grant funds that we have, because we don’t know yet if that’s going to be 100% funding, but if not, they said that they’re willing to look at helping to fund the differential, because this is going to really help their neighborhood. They already experience extreme flooding levels during these king tides, and it gets worse every year, and we get a lot of calls in that neighborhood. So this is a solution for them. They just have to be able to help participate in that solution. So we’re really happy. We hope we hear from other neighborhoods, like Big Coppitt and Conch Key and other ones.”
Living shorelines is another topic the county looks at.
Haag explained, “That’s where, instead of just using hard materials, like concrete or whatever, to reinforce the shoreline, you use natural materials like mangroves and plants. They’re wave attenuation things, so the different shapes of the concrete and the water will kind of roll up on them, and maybe through them. There’s different shapes, and helps break the waves from hitting the shoreline. That way, the plants have a chance to grow along the shoreline. This provides protection from waves during storm events and what I’m kind of interested also, there’s some research going on about how it can also help with sea level rise and stopping saltwater intrusion. I’m not an expert on that, but I saw an article on that yesterday. So we have two of these. One is for the Long Key, our transfer station up there. That’s in the final design stages, and we’re hoping to get that permitted very soon and go out for construction by the end of the year. Then there’s another one on Duck Key. There’s a combination breakwater repair and a living shoreline. That’s a big $3 million project, and that’s also in design. I just saw the final design yesterday. So we’re putting in for the permit applications today, and hope to be under construction with both of those projects by at the latest the beginning of the new year. So those are federal funds, and they have to be spent. So those are our top priorities to push those through, because if we don’t spend the money in time, then we lose it.”
A recent grant will help with a vulnerability assessment.
Haag said, “We got a $700,000 grant from the Department of Environmental Protection just last month. We took it to the board. We’re going to do work in the county and the municipalities, and previous vulnerability assessment told us where we’re vulnerable. Now we’re going to go back in and figure out, okay, what kind of projects do these areas need? This isn’t focused on roads. That was the road elevation plan. This is focused on everything else, like maybe fire stations need some kind of flood proofing. Maybe there’s some natural areas that need things and just, just basically everything you could think of that’s non road elevation related. So I’m really excited about that, because these are going to be smaller type projects, and not going to be a big $2 billion program, and we’ll be able to put some good project lists together, or some conceptual designs, and then next year and the years after that, we can start submitting applications for those type of projects.”
What’s happening with Flagler Avenue?
Haag said, “We actually have $54 million in reserve on federal funds. A couple of million of that is being used for the design and permitting, but we’re actually moving forward with a state application for state grant funds, up to $25 million to help fund the differential in that, so that’s the only one we’ll be submitting this year and the reason we’re doing that is because they are state funds, and the county is not going to be putting in any local funds in that. We’re also working with the city of Key West officials over there, making sure that we have a very good grant application, and that they’re working with us on potential, helping maybe to fund a differential for that.”
The Monroe County Vulnerability Assessment plan will be updated, too.
Haag said, “We have to update it for sea level rise and rainfall and things like that. But now we’re not just updating it, but we’re going to go in and make an actual list of projects too. So that’s where the big difference comes in. So when you do the original vulnerability assessment, it just identifies where you’re vulnerable and by how much and what you can expect, but it didn’t go through the extra step to develop a capital plan, so capital projects. So that’s the part that always excites me, because I like to build projects and get grant funds to do them, and so this is a big plus for the municipalities and county, because we’ll have some good projects there. We’re working on, which is $20 million in Stewardship funds for canals and water quality projects. So we’re putting our list together for that, as I know the municipalities are also, so we’re glad the state hasn’t cut those funds. Those continue to be funded at the $20 million level. That’s thanks to our legislative director, Lisa Tennyson and Christine Hurley, working with the state on making sure that those funds are available every year. So we’re wanting to give a shout out to Lisa and Christine for that.”