Posted on March 10, 2020
If the actual bids come in higher, the city would have to foot the rest of the bill.
SARASOTA — The city of Sarasota may have to pay more than it expected for a planned project to renourish the Lido Key shoreline.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently extended its bidding time frame for contractors that would help to dredge Big Pass. If the bids come in higher than the budgeted $19.6 million project cost, the Army Corps does not have authorization to allocate additional funding toward the project — meaning the city would have to foot the rest of the bill, city documents show.
A proposal that revises the agreement between Sarasota and the Army Corps to voluntarily contribute additional funding toward the project has been removed from the City Commission agenda three times since Feb. 13. The proposal would allow the city to voluntarily contribute additional funding to the project “if needed to meet the lowest responsive proposal.”
Bed-tax dollars, or tourist development taxes, are earmarked as a potential source of funding. There is about $1.3 million in unappropriated TDT funding held by the county, city documents show.
The city also hoped to reduce costs for the project by using a portion of Ted Sperling Park at South Lido Key as a staging area. That could result in about $1 million in project cost savings.
Although Sarasota County commissioners green-lighted that plan in December, complications over listing the county as an insured party was not included in the Army Corps’ bid packet.
The agreement with the county would be fine as it stands, said Sarasota Spokeswoman Jan Thornburg.
The only outstanding issue would be whether the contractor would want to stage at Ted Sperling Park, said Thornburg. If so, the contractor would need the necessary insurance as detailed in the city-county agreement.
Thornburg also said the city expects to begin work on the renourishment project shortly after the bids are unsealed. However, the timeline will be determined when the contract is awarded by the Army Corps.
An emergency project adding shoreline to the depleted beach was completed early last April, using sand from New Pass to protect structures, including the Lido Beach pool. The $4 million cost was shared by the city, county, the state of Florida and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
City officials have said that Lido Beach lost an estimated 15 feet to erosion from Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Subtropical Storm Alberto in 2018.
The much more extensive corps project prompted lawsuits by two groups, the Siesta Key Association and Save our Siesta Sands 2.
In October, the Siesta Key Association filed an appeal contesting a ruling that rejected the group’s lawsuit. The separate federal lawsuit Save Our Siesta Sands 2 is still awaiting a judge’s ruling.
Source: heraldtribune.com
