BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners have passed a request from Bradenton Beach Police Chief John Cosby to approve funding for the removal of derelict boats at the city pier following Hurricane Idalia.
A proposed motion was read by Mayor John Chappie at the Sept. 21 commission meeting to approve an invoice from SeaTow Sarasota Inc. for $10,397 for the removal of derelict vessels using city pier funds to come from West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND) grant money.
The motion was made by Commissioner Jan Vosburgh and seconded by Commissioner Ralph Cole.
It was passed unanimously by Vosburgh, Cole and Chappie. Commissioners Marilyn Maro and Jake Spooner were absent with excuse from the meeting.
“I want to thank you for getting on top of this and getting those boats out of there,” Chappie said. “Thank you to our public works department for all the work they’ve done with the whole mess with the storm.”
WCIND provides financial assistance related to navigability, recreational boater access, boater safety and the marine environment. It is a multi-county special taxing body covering Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee counties.
In other business at the meeting, City Attorney Ricinda Perry gave an update on city pier preparations for the water taxi.
“Duncan (Duncan Seawall) has been out there every day working on it… They were very close to finishing when I talked to the Duncan crew the other day,” she said. “I also got the quotes in from Duncan to do the expanded pier planking that would wrap around to the dinghy dock and put in the waiting area for the water taxi down at the cistern area.”
Perry reported that the city has obtained approval from the Southwest Florida Water Management District to remove the cistern adjacent to the city pier.
Chappie had presented a proposal at the Aug. 2 Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) meeting to discuss having an elevated small park created at the end of the Bradenton Beach pier in the spot where the fenced, unused cistern is located.
“The cistern project area is the center point of what we’ve been doing for the last several years – this 1,800-foot-long walkway,” Chappie said in August. “We have the city pier that has been totally rebuilt with 630 linear feet, we’ve added the 36 feet of floating docks, we’ve added the finger docks which expanded our docking facilities for up to 21 boats.”
“The mayor has been working on getting that set up and taken care of, which I think is going to be happening within the next few weeks,” Perry said at the Sept. 21 meeting.
Perry said the next step is to get the project funding in place.
“This was a project that was budgeted to be funded by the CRA,” she said. “But in the hopes the TDC (Tourist Development Council) funds would be used for this particular area, I’m pleased to tell you Mayor Chappie and I have been working very diligently with the TDC for the water taxi that is coming in.”
She said the CRA approved up to $15,000 for a ramping system or connection to get into the water taxi. She said it’s still being worked on.
“We have an interim potential solution,” Perry said. “It will be in combination with using the floating dock with a leased-out handicap-accessible piece of equipment while potentially making it full-time coming off the dinghy dock… It looks like we’re going to have that particular issue resolved.”
The lease amount is $1,000 a month for the handicap lift, which will be temporary, Perry said.
