September 18, 2023 • 7 mins
The dunes that protect the beachfront in the Pinellas County beach town of Treasure Island suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Idalia, and the city is launching an emergency dune restoration program that means some disruption for beach access. We speak with Treasure Island city commissioner Beth Wetzel.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. The City of Treasure Island is conducting
an emergency beach restoration because Hurricane andDahlia, which we all remember from a
few days back, has done somedamage to the dune system there. We
have Treasure Island City Commissioner Beth Wetzelhere with us to talk about this.
Commissioner Wetzel, welcome to Beyond theNews. Thank you, Gordon, thanks
(00:22):
for having me. Now, howbig an area, how much of a
stretch of the beach are we talkingabout, and what kind of damage have
you seen to the dunes. Sofor the actual area of the beach,
it's about one mile more or lessof the area on Treasure Island known as
Sunset Beach, and so it startsabout the ninety nine hundred block going south,
(00:46):
and so it is it is apretty big area. And we've got
about sixty plus different properties that weneed to get the easements for in that
area. And the damage that we'veseen is we had a forty year old
dune system that was very well establishedand the storm surge from Hurricane and Dahlia
(01:07):
just it blew out a lot ofour dunes that were so well established,
so it really is an emergency projectthat is specific to this storm. And
not to get too scientific here,but obviously the purpose of the dunes is
to protect the beach so that youcontinue to have a beach there, and
(01:29):
presumably also for the properties that arejust landward of the beach exactly. So
the dune system is really what protectsIt protects both the beach and it protects
property upward of the beach or landwardof the beach, and so a lot
of that is for the vegetation thatgets established on the dune system is what
(01:52):
holds the dunes in place. Sothere is a symbiotic relationship between all of
it. But the first step isis that that's there is just it ended
up everywhere but the beach to befrank, we had. We've got a
lot of sand and a lot ofplaces it's not supposed to be and there
is definitely some parameters that you haveto follow environmental regulations where you can't just
(02:17):
take sand from the parking lot andPLoP it back onto the beach because it
gets contaminated. So you have tohave clean sand that gets out there for
that dune system. But it doesit. It acts as a barrier to
the from the wave action from thestorm surge to the property that's upland now
(02:38):
it sounds like quite the project.Do you have an idea how much this
is going to run and are youexpecting to get state or federal aid for
this? Okay, So this isfunded by Penellas County. And one thing
that the county recognizes is that sundsUp Beach is such a public amenity.
(02:58):
People love it out here. I'mnot sure if you've ever done, but
it's absolutely gorgeous. It's a quaintlittle town, and it's it's a unique
part of Penellas County. And wegot hit very, very hard, to
the extent that there really is nobeach there, no sand dunes are parking
lots were affected. So one thingthat the funding of this is separate from
(03:22):
beach renourishment. This is an emergencydune restoration funded by the county and using
emergency funds in that it's not thisportion, to my knowledge, is not
being funded by the state. Andit's separate, completely separate from the federally
funded beach renourishment or mostly federally fundedbeach renourishment. Now, of course you
(03:46):
do mention that it's an amenity thata lot of people go to, not
just from your community, but elsewhere. What are we talking about now as
far as when this project is goingon, as far as access to each
parking or anything like that. Howwill access by the public be affected by
this project. Well, while it'sgoing on, it certainly will affect the
(04:09):
public access. So our beach parkinglots, some of them will be closed.
Some of them have not reopened sincethe hurricane just because of the damage
that was sustained in the amount ofsand on them. But the county will
use our parking lots as a stagingarea to bring in the sand, to
bring in the dump trucks. I'mnot sure of the volume of sand.
(04:30):
I've just heard that it's going tocreate quite an impact. But the rest
of Treasure Island is open. Sowe just asked that people understand that Sunset
Beach needs a little time to heal, to let us get back on our
feet, and we will be openfor business as usual, but we want
everything to be as it should asfor the length of the project, they're
(04:51):
hoping to get the truckloads starting,or at least the staging area started by
the end of this week, andI'm not sure how long it will take
to complete the whole project, AndI honestly do not know if we're talking
weeks or months. We really don'thave that information yet. No, I
(05:15):
understand that there is the deadline ofcourse, that you need to have signatures
from the property owners as far asgiving the authority to go ahead and participate
in the beach restoration. When isthat deadline? And how is that process
moving along? It's moving along veryIt's moving along very well. The residents
(05:40):
and property owners on Sunset have beenextremely responsive and optimistic that we are going
to get full cooperation. It's thereare challenges in that we have a lot
of people who have second homes here, so we are relying on neighbors social
media to get the word out thatif if they know somebody who's who's not
(06:02):
here, who's out of the country, who's out of state. We are
working on all of that. Butthey've been very responsive. And it's a
three year temporary construction easeman, andreally it goes it's pretty specific, so
it regards property line seaward of thisline that's called the Coastal Construction Control Line.
(06:27):
It might be kind of a foreignconcept to people who don't deal with
coastal communities all the time, butfor those of us who who are on
the beach, it's a very thisline. Although it, you know,
may be considered an imaginary line,it's a very real line. But our
goal is to have everything done byWednesday, and we have we have neighbors
reaching out to the neighbors that theyknow, so it's it's a community effort
(06:51):
and I think that it's going reallywell, and hopefully we will get it
all done by Wednesday, all right, and then the heavy equipment can move
in and the process can begin well. Commissioner Wetzel, we appreciate your taking
the time to talk with us onbeyond the news and certainly best of success
(07:12):
as your city works to restore thedunes. Thank you so much, Thank
you for your time.
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. The City of Treasure Island is conducting
an emergency beach restoration because Hurricane andDahlia, which we all remember from a
few days back, has done somedamage to the dune system there. We
have Treasure Island City Commissioner Beth Wetzelhere with us to talk about this.
Commissioner Wetzel, welcome to Beyond theNews. Thank you, Gordon, thanks
(00:22):
for having me. Now, howbig an area, how much of a
stretch of the beach are we talkingabout, and what kind of damage have
you seen to the dunes. Sofor the actual area of the beach,
it's about one mile more or lessof the area on Treasure Island known as
Sunset Beach, and so it startsabout the ninety nine hundred block going south,
(00:46):
and so it is it is apretty big area. And we've got
about sixty plus different properties that weneed to get the easements for in that
area. And the damage that we'veseen is we had a forty year old
dune system that was very well establishedand the storm surge from Hurricane and Dahlia
(01:07):
just it blew out a lot ofour dunes that were so well established,
so it really is an emergency projectthat is specific to this storm. And
not to get too scientific here,but obviously the purpose of the dunes is
to protect the beach so that youcontinue to have a beach there, and
(01:29):
presumably also for the properties that arejust landward of the beach exactly. So
the dune system is really what protectsIt protects both the beach and it protects
property upward of the beach or landwardof the beach, and so a lot
of that is for the vegetation thatgets established on the dune system is what
(01:52):
holds the dunes in place. Sothere is a symbiotic relationship between all of
it. But the first step isis that that's there is just it ended
up everywhere but the beach to befrank, we had. We've got a
lot of sand and a lot ofplaces it's not supposed to be and there
is definitely some parameters that you haveto follow environmental regulations where you can't just
(02:17):
take sand from the parking lot andPLoP it back onto the beach because it
gets contaminated. So you have tohave clean sand that gets out there for
that dune system. But it doesit. It acts as a barrier to
the from the wave action from thestorm surge to the property that's upland now
(02:38):
it sounds like quite the project.Do you have an idea how much this
is going to run and are youexpecting to get state or federal aid for
this? Okay, So this isfunded by Penellas County. And one thing
that the county recognizes is that sundsUp Beach is such a public amenity.
(02:58):
People love it out here. I'mnot sure if you've ever done, but
it's absolutely gorgeous. It's a quaintlittle town, and it's it's a unique
part of Penellas County. And wegot hit very, very hard, to
the extent that there really is nobeach there, no sand dunes are parking
lots were affected. So one thingthat the funding of this is separate from
(03:22):
beach renourishment. This is an emergencydune restoration funded by the county and using
emergency funds in that it's not thisportion, to my knowledge, is not
being funded by the state. Andit's separate, completely separate from the federally
funded beach renourishment or mostly federally fundedbeach renourishment. Now, of course you
(03:46):
do mention that it's an amenity thata lot of people go to, not
just from your community, but elsewhere. What are we talking about now as
far as when this project is goingon, as far as access to each
parking or anything like that. Howwill access by the public be affected by
this project. Well, while it'sgoing on, it certainly will affect the
(04:09):
public access. So our beach parkinglots, some of them will be closed.
Some of them have not reopened sincethe hurricane just because of the damage
that was sustained in the amount ofsand on them. But the county will
use our parking lots as a stagingarea to bring in the sand, to
bring in the dump trucks. I'mnot sure of the volume of sand.
(04:30):
I've just heard that it's going tocreate quite an impact. But the rest
of Treasure Island is open. Sowe just asked that people understand that Sunset
Beach needs a little time to heal, to let us get back on our
feet, and we will be openfor business as usual, but we want
everything to be as it should asfor the length of the project, they're
(04:51):
hoping to get the truckloads starting,or at least the staging area started by
the end of this week, andI'm not sure how long it will take
to complete the whole project, AndI honestly do not know if we're talking
weeks or months. We really don'thave that information yet. No, I
(05:15):
understand that there is the deadline ofcourse, that you need to have signatures
from the property owners as far asgiving the authority to go ahead and participate
in the beach restoration. When isthat deadline? And how is that process
moving along? It's moving along veryIt's moving along very well. The residents
(05:40):
and property owners on Sunset have beenextremely responsive and optimistic that we are going
to get full cooperation. It's thereare challenges in that we have a lot
of people who have second homes here, so we are relying on neighbors social
media to get the word out thatif if they know somebody who's who's not
(06:02):
here, who's out of the country, who's out of state. We are
working on all of that. Butthey've been very responsive. And it's a
three year temporary construction easeman, andreally it goes it's pretty specific, so
it regards property line seaward of thisline that's called the Coastal Construction Control Line.
(06:27):
It might be kind of a foreignconcept to people who don't deal with
coastal communities all the time, butfor those of us who who are on
the beach, it's a very thisline. Although it, you know,
may be considered an imaginary line,it's a very real line. But our
goal is to have everything done byWednesday, and we have we have neighbors
reaching out to the neighbors that theyknow, so it's it's a community effort
(06:51):
and I think that it's going reallywell, and hopefully we will get it
all done by Wednesday, all right, and then the heavy equipment can move
in and the process can begin well. Commissioner Wetzel, we appreciate your taking
the time to talk with us onbeyond the news and certainly best of success
(07:12):
as your city works to restore thedunes. Thank you so much, Thank
you for your time.
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