Why not form a ‘secret group’ to fund inlet dredging? If Jupiter Island Mayor Harry Charlston has his way, residents will see the following “Want Ad” posted soon on the Martin County website: “WANTED: The Martin County Commission is seeking applicants for a secret organization. Prospective candidates should possess CIA experience and be skilled at finding large stashes of money. A background in finance is imperative. Qualified applicants must be able to operate in the shadows and eschew public recognition. The funds obtained by this group will be used to dredge the St. Lucie Inlet. “Interested? Please submit a résumé to the appropriate county official. A skilled applicant will quickly deduce the identity of this individual — and how to transmit the information without being detected.” Yes, the decadeslong discussion about inlet dredging — and creating a dedicated funding source for these much-needed projects — has reached the point of absurdity. Since 2011, when Charlston was elected mayor, he has been an outspoken advocate for routine maintenance of the inlet. Jupiter Island has a vested interest. Sand dredged from the inlet is placed on beaches at St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park and Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge. The natural down-drift of the Atlantic current carries the sand to beaches farther south on Jupiter Island. Ideally, the inlet should be dredged every three years — about the time it takes for the impoundment basis (inside the north jetty) to fill with sand. However, the interval between dredging projects has been about five years. These delays have periodically reduced the navigability of the inlet as sand spills into the main channel. The delays have increased the amount island residents have had to spend on beach renourishment: $46 million in 37 years, town officials say. In 2012, Martin County commissioners created the St. Lucie Inlet Advisory Committee. It’s tasked with devising recommendations to facilitate — and fund — inlet dredging. Charlston addressed the committee Wednesday. “What should this committee do?” Charlston asked rhetorically. “Recommend that a secret organization be set up to find some mysterious, magic way county commissioners can step up and pay for this — and no one will know they did it? “The second thing you should do? Resign. Stop the committee, evaporate it, so the commission is faced with what they’ve known all along they have to do: Step up and pay for this. And commissioners can still hire the CIA committee to find a secret way (to fund it). ” Clearly, Charlston isn’t advocating the creation of a secret organization. Instead, he used the See CAMPBELL, 4B COLUMNIST RICH CAMPBELL Article Continued Below See CAMPBELL on Page B04 CAMPBELL from 1B ridiculous to reinforce the sublime: Its time for county officials to quit kicking the can down the road and take responsibility for dredging the inlet. For decades, the federal government - through congressional earmarks dispersed through the Army Corps of Engineers - funded the lions share of dredging projects in the inlet. However, these discretionary funds evaporated in 2010 when tea party-backed Republicans successfully stripped earmarks from the federal budget process. This bait and switch by federal lawmakers has left Martin County officials high and dry - and scrambling to come up with other funding sources. (Note: The federal government is funding the current dredging project, but only because these funds were part of an emergency appropriation for damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.) Martin County needs $3 million to $4 million a year to dredge the inlet. Several ideas have been proposed, including property taxes; an inlet taxing district (legislative approval required); a special assessment on waterfront property owners and inlet users; a sales tax (voter approval required), and an idea introduced Wednesday by County Administrator Taryn Kryzda: a countywide Community Redevelopment Agency that would use tax increment financing to fund inlet dredging. Charlston has a strong opinion about these proposals, too. The (funding) options are just the means of not telling the public they have to pay to dredge the inlet, Charlston told the committee. Charlstons logic is incontrovertible. As a shallow-draft commercial inlet, the St. Lucie is no longer a funding priority for the Corps. County commissioners can continue hoping against hope our federal partners will resume funding such projects. This aint gonna happen. Or they can demonstrate real leadership by tackling the issue head on and establishing a dedicated funding source. The only other alternative is setting up a secret organization to find a mysterious stash of cash. Résumés are now being accepted. rich.campbell@scripps 772-221-4207 Twitter: @RCampbellmc58
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 14:18:34 +0000
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