Chief Resilience Officer for Monroe County, Rhonda Haag, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to preview what’s in store.
Road elevation has been a pretty big topic of late.
Haag reminded, “We do have a road adaptation program for 97 projects at a cost of about $1.8 billion, which is very expensive, but it does keep the homes resilient for 25 years to the year 2045 where there wouldn’t be any water on the road. So there’s some cost, of course, associated with that. They’re expensive. Then there’s other things, like operations and maintenance, and who should pay for that? And in the case of, like, a particular neighborhood in StillWright Point, we had that special commission meeting. Because they have very narrow roads, there wasn’t room to elevate and widen the road without using 10 foot of easement from the private property. So we had a big discussion about that on June 17. The residents, even though they have up to a foot and a half of sea water on their roads during the fall king tides, did tell the commission that they didn’t want to give up that 10 foot easement. Also, there were some that said they didn’t want to pay an assessment either, to pay for the operations and maintenance. So after much discussion, the Commission directed staff to finish the engineering and design, because that is grant funded, and we have to finish that work in order to get reimbursed. But they also directed staff not to proceed with construction. So we have $41 million in grants out there, state and federal funds that have been identified, and hopefully would have been provided for this project that may not be used now and instead, the residents asked for a paving project, which would be about maybe an inch, inch and a half of paving. So the staff was directed to see if there’s potential funds in the budget for that.”
Could the grants be redirected toward paving?
Haag said, “No, absolutely not. They have to be a 20, 25 year lifespan, because they’re resilient funds. They’re not for short term maintenance. So if they do the paving, it’ll have to be local county funds that pay for it. I know it’s a tight budget year, this year and next year, because they’re cuts from Tallahassee, and they’re trying to increase our reserves because there might be federal cuts for hurricane, so it’s a very, very tight year, so very difficult decisions to be made.”
How much of the $41 million grants have been acquired?
Haag said, “There’s 20 million at the state level. We’re number seven, which is a very high level. They just haven’t made the award yet. They haven’t gone down the list and made the awards. We are expecting that to be awarded. Then the 20 million in federal funds are on reserve for this project. They have been approved and are on reserve. We get those funds when we finish the design and permitting. So those federal funds wouldn’t be used for this either. So what happens with the federal funds now, we did identify, there’s four projects that they can be applied to, so the federal funds can be reassigned and help pay for other projects. But the state funds, once we receive that document, if the commissioners stick to its discussion and not going to move forward with construction, they’ll be returned to the state.”
How will the maintenance for road elevation projects be handled?
Haag said, “Twin Lakes is under construction, and at the commission meeting last week, they did approve a final resolution where the residents will pay for the operations and maintenance. It’s about $2,100 a year. So a little over 160 some dollars a month to maintain their road elevation project. They need to pay the electricity and maintain the pumps and things like that. We’ve had a lot of comments from residents who aren’t on road adaptation projects. They say they don’t want to help pay for the projects, or for their operation maintenance, for the people who are benefiting directly from these projects. So it’s a little point of discussion there.”
Could we use Lee County’s model for road elevation?
Haag said, “What Lee County does, they have their routine roadway maintenance, just like we do, basic level of service and then if there’s a neighborhood that is experiencing flooding, and want to increase their level of service and have better flooding control. They make a request to the county and say, hey, we want increased service and then if the county approves it, then they move forward and they figure out what’s needed, determine the cost, and then the residents in that neighborhood vote, and if they vote to move forward, then they are assessed for that cost, and then the project can move forward. So that is what we’re looking at here. The residents would vote and request these additional services. So we are looking at that and it doesn’t have to be limited to road elevation, it could be used for other things too. I think Lee County uses it for lighting projects and whatever. But it’s to be determined. But we are definitely looking at that model. Because the residents who benefit directly from the projects, those are the ones that the county feels should help pay and also have a vote in whether they want the project.”
The flooding issue won’t really go away without some kind of intervention.
Haag said, “We do have just about 300 million in state grant funding anticipated for the existing projects. So I say, if there are residents in any of those neighborhoods, I would hope they would start banding together. I know some have said they don’t want the projects. But these are the one time opportunity where we have grant funds. These are not just to stop tidal flooding from coming in from the bay. These are heavy drainage projects, so when rainwater continues to fall on these roads as seas rise and underground water levels rise, there’s going to be nowhere for that rain to go. So forget about tidal flooding, just this plain old rain falling on the road is going to be more and more hard to control, because there’s going to be nowhere to go, and so the water in the roads are going to get wider and deeper and occur more often and last longer, and so you’re going to see more and more of this, and the county is not going to be able to do anything on these projects if we don’t do some adaptation, because the water will not be able to drain away. So I really want residents to think about that and not just think that these are to stop tidal flood, because they’re not. They do double duty here. It’s for storm water, rain water and tidal flooding.”
The six areas for road elevation projects are Twin Lakes, which has already begun, Winston Waterways in Key Largo, Big Coppitt in the Lower Keys, Conch Key, Sands neighborhood in Big Pine Key and Flagler Avenue in Key West.
Haag said, “They’re all under design right now, but I think we’re going to need neighborhood buy in to move forward with the construction, and we’re probably going to need some neighborhood funding to help with the grant funding. So like I said, I want residents to really think carefully, because these help with the rain flooding too and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity where we have that 300 million in grant funding potentially available. Once that goes away, it’s going to be routine maintenance only and once the road starts to crumble from being underwater for so long, the county won’t be able to do anything. We will only be able to do routine maintenance.”
How can people in the neighborhoods start the conversation?
Haag said, “They can contact me or contact their local commissioner, if they’re more comfortable with that, and we’ll get together with them and see how to move forward. I’m also working on that program that Lee County is working on also, where people would request it, but these neighborhoods are already in the hopper, so to speak. So I’m hoping that these residents will hopefully step forward and say they want to proceed, because there’s a lot of grant funds out there to help pay for this.”