by SC Reporter Emilie Alfino
The City of Sanibel will hold a public hearing on August 19 to consider establishing and implementing the Wulfert Dredging Assessment District.
In June, the Council voted to declare its intent to dredge the channel and assess the property owners who benefit from the public improvements. Council excluded the Dinkins Bayou area from the resolution in June.
The proposed dredging footprint for the Wulfert Channel was also reduced to the area within the City’s jurisdictional boundaries.
The City will fund 33.33 percent of the project cost, and the property owners who will benefit will pay the remainder (66.67 percent).
Since then, the cost estimates have had to be amended because a portion of the entrance to Dinkins Bayou needs to be dredged as part of the project to enable the barge to navigate between Wulfert Channel and the Henderson Road boat ramp, where trucks will pick up the dredged material for transport. That increased the total cost from $598,555 to $748,065.
Based on the new cost, each property owner within the assessment district, excluding owners of vacant parcels without development rights, would be responsible for paying $2,544.57 for this dredging project.
The resolution amending the project’s cost was passed unanimously by the Council, as was a resolution approving a budget amendment to appropriate the funds for the contract, and an award of the contract to Bayside Dredging, LLC.
City Manager Dana Souza stressed that this is a one-time assessment and a one-time project.
What is the estimated cubic yardage to be dredged and what dredging method is being proposed? Also, where will the dredged material be trucked to for disposal? Finally, was any testing performed on the proposed dredged material to ensure it will be disposed properly?