Posted on December 1, 2016
The State Department of Environmental Protection will be holding a meeting Wednesday night to discuss the progress of the Lido Beach Dredging Project.
The meeting will take place from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 30 at the Waldemere Fire Station in Sarasota. The public is invited to attend the open meeting to participate in the conversation and ask questions about the project.
The Lido Beach Dredging Project aims to re-nourish a mile and a half along Lido Key Beach by digging up more than a million cubic yards of sand from Big Pass and relocating the sand to the Lido Key shoreline.
The project has received various feedback from community members.
Siesta Key native Mark Smith, along with other residents, worries that could damage the Bay and leave Siesta Key exposed to storms.
“Once man touches it, he has to keep touching it,” said Smith of dredging the untouched Big Pass Shoal.
City Engineer Alexandrea DavisShaw says this project is years in the making and urgent as Lido Beach continues to wash away.
“It’s not only for the people that live there,” said DavisShaw, “but turtles nest there, birds nest there, so for everybody that uses that beach for their habitat, we want to make sure that they have a safe place for them to live.”
Source: MySuncoast
