Rhonda Haag, chief resilience officer for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
The bidding process is starting for some county projects, including canal restoration.
Haag said, “We’re actually ready to go out now on the street for bids so we can start the construction work. I’m excited. That’s always the best part of the whole process. And so we have two canal projects at opposite ends of the county. One is canal 82 which is up on Key Largo, on Lobster Lane. That’s a $3 million project. That’s a back fill and muck removal. That’s funded by state funds, state stewardship funds. We have a similar project down on Big Pine Key. It’s one of the six federally funded restore projects from the BP oil spill money. There’s six of those on the Avenues. We’re going to start with canal 293, that’s the one between Avenue H and I, and that’s also a muck removal backfill. They’re also getting an air curtain. So we’re really excited about these projects. What they do is we take that organic muck out and I know that Big Pine one that might have up to four or five feet of muck on the bottom of that. That decaying muck sucks the oxygen out of the water and makes it smell and it just leaves a really nasty canal. All those canals on the Avenues need restoration, so we’re going to take that out. We’re going to do a backfill, so it’s the appropriate depth. We’re going to put an air curtain in. Then when we’re all done with that, people are going to see a much improved water quality in the canal and the near shore waters, because the canal water quality affects the near shore waters. So the canals will be clear, they’ll have more sea grass on the bottom that will ultimately bring in more marine life. There won’t be any more of those dead zones in the canal. And overall, better water quality for the residents and the environment.”
The design phase for canal restoration was already completed.
Haag explained, “First of all, we had to get the grants to do the designs. That always takes a long time. Canal 82, that’s been ongoing for about six years. So we’re finally glad to get to this spot and the Big Pine ones too. So we’re ready to go out for bed, and hopefully by January, February, we’ll have awards and be under construction. I want to have them done by next summer.”
An assessment ordinance will be discussed at the November 12 county commissioners meeting.
Haag said, “Up to this point when the county has its basic level of services, we do road maintenance and then, when we wanted to do the Resilience Program, when we had road elevation projects that we wanted to do, we went ahead and applied for grants. We then did the design, and then finally, when we got to the end of the design process, we were able to give details to the residents about what the proposed assessment would be, because it takes that long, because you have to figure out what the design is and how big the pump station is and how high the road is going to be and all that. So we did a lot of work ahead of meeting with the neighborhood. Now it’s going to be reversed. So this is going to provide an opportunity to give more control to the residents. So if they want a Resilience Project, for instance, some type of flooding problem happens on their roads, or it could be canals or anything else, I just talk about roads, they’re going to come to the county and say, hey, county, we want more than just your basic service of road maintenance. We want some type of road adaptation project here, because we have flooding, and we don’t want to do it anymore. So what that would mean is the county would meet with the residents, hear what they have to say, discuss about what the proposed cost would and then if the residents are willing to move forward, we would let them know what the cost would be. And then take a vote amongst the residents, and so if 51% are willing to move forward, then the county would work with the residents to apply for grants to do the project. But the big difference with this is now the residents, because they’re getting more control, they’ll also be more responsible. They are going to have to pay for the work. So we would apply for grants to help fund the project if we could, but the county is no longer going to fund these big differentials in grant prices, like we had to do on a couple of our other projects. So it is a little more funding assessment help by the residents, but it also can mean that they’re going to be working closer with the county on helping to get their projects to move forward.”
Are there grants available for these type of initiatives?
Haag confirmed, “The state Resilient Florida program, that’s an annual program, and they do fund design and construction, but there’s always that 50% match, and so that’s where the match probably is going to have to come in by the homeowners. In the first couple of projects that we did, the resilient projects, we heard a lot like the Twin Lakes project, we had to put in, I think $9 million of county funds to help fund that project, even though we had a lot of grant funds to fund it. We heard from a lot of residents that they didn’t want their taxpayer dollars going in to fund resilience projects that only benefited a few residents in one area. So we listened to this and so now this is a way to for those residents that are specifically benefiting from a particular project that will also be the ones that are helping to pay, and not the county residents overall.”
Did the Stillwright Point project in Key Largo move forward?
Haag said, “No. Neither did the Sands project neighborhood in Big Pine Key because a they did not want to fund the assessment in Sands. We understand that, so we terminated that. But so from now on, rather than going out for grants ahead of time, if a neighborhood wants a project, they can let the county know. Then we work with the residents and let them know how much the design will cost, and grant applications and all that, and then we work with the residents on how to move forward. So a little more benefit, but also a little more cost to the residents.”
Could the projects that were terminated come back?
Haag said, “Absolutely, yes. We already have residents from those areas approaching us about how to move forward, maybe with an alternate project.”
Will the ordinance come up for a vote by the commissioners in November?
Haag said, “It won’t be a vote in November because we’re not ready to propose the whole ordinance yet. It’s in development, but we wanted to get the conversation started with the community. So it’ll just be a discussion item on the November 12 agenda. It’s in Key West, but residents can attend by virtual participation and speak through the internet, they don’t have to attend in person if they can’t, but it’s really important, because this is going to now set the precedent for how different types of projects move forward with the county, not just road elevation, but other types of things that people want, street lighting or beach maintenance, improvements to any type of basic level of services at the county.”