1-year delay requested for sand haul

By John Morton

The crunch of time slipping away finally forced the hand of Sarasota County regarding its plans to provide sand renourishment to Turtle Beach, and on March 7 at the county commission meeting its representatives announced it would seek a year extension until April 30 of 2024.

Many factors played into the decision. The county is at the mercy of what it hopes is the approval of FEMA for the delay, which last fall suddenly and unexpectantly gave the county a June 30 deadline to complete the project, after noting it was the last entity in the nation to have yet to use FEMA grant funds (roughly $4 million in this case) to replace sand that was washed away during 2016’s Hurricane Hermine.

Basically, FEMA wanted to clear its books on the matter. Originally, the county believed it had as long as 2026 to complete the work on what is calling the South Siesta Beach Repair

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