FORT PIERCE \u2014 A resident\u2019s complaint during public comment Oct. 6 prompted an impromptu discussion among commissioners and staff, offering an update on a long-delayed Lakewood Park stormwater project that is still awaiting final grant approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.<\/p>\n
Ocala Avenue resident David Alice served as the catalyst for the project update that evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here to complain again about the structure on Kings Highway,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had the drainage done, and now, it\u2019s eight years. We\u2019ve got a FEMA grant for this \u2013 they haven\u2019t even started yet \u2013 and I think they need to do an audit to find out if they\u2019ve still got the money. I really don\u2019t want to go that way because the next time you need a FEMA grant for Fort Pierce, they\u2019re not going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alice even made reference to former Public Works Director Donald West with whom he had dealings prior to the latter\u2019s retirement and eventual replacement with Patrick Dayan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting so short-tempered after eight years,\u201d Alice explained. \u201cI spent over two years coming back and forth getting this thing passed. When West was here, he said the whole project was going to take two to three years. Here it is eight years, and it hasn\u2019t even touched that structure. The canal was already done by the Department of Transportation. I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing there, but you need to put a fire under them and get something going.\u201d<\/p>\n
District 5 Commissioner Cathy Townsend, in whose district the project lies, responded immediately afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s odd that he\u2019s here, [because] I was going to bring that up under comment,\u201d she said of the Board member\/staff comment portion of the meeting. \u201cHe\u2019s actually correct. That was the first, fully funded project the county ever did under Don West coming out of the half-cent sales tax. It\u2019s a fully funded project and was supposed to happen. Every year we pay thousands of dollars for a pump to sit on that canal to pump it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Townsend noted that Lakewood Park residents were originally left out of the loop in early discussions because they did not initially participate in the Fort Pierce Farms Water Control District like other nearby property owners. That changed after she and staff held a series of community meetings to inform them of the stormwater issues being addressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it took about three or four townhall meetings for everybody to understand,\u201d Townsend explained. \u201cThey willingly joined the District. They\u2019ve been paying into the District now all these years, thinking that pump was going to come out of there and everything was going to be in place. I have asked where the money is, and I believe the money\u2019s been spent for other projects. So, he [Alice] is absolutely correct in what he is stating.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat FEMA money was supposed to be for this project,\u201d Alice chimed back in. \u201cIf FEMA\u2019s got to come and do an audit, so be it. You\u2019ve probably already spent $16,000 every month on that pump, so look at the money you guys are wasting. This isn\u2019t right \u2013 this is public money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Immediately afterward, Chairwoman Jamie Fowler asked Acting County Administrator Mayte Santamaria for more details.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is to replace the control structure at the southern end of Green Dolphin Canal and upsizing three downstream culverts along Kings Highway,\u201d Santamaria said as she also sought confirmation from Dayan who was present in the Chambers that night. \u201cJuly 27 is when we received approval from FEMA, and we are going through the process to accept that grant and bring it to the Board. So, it\u2019s not that we\u2019ve had it for many, many years; we\u2019ve been working for years to try to secure the grant and only recently received it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dayan then came to the podium to respond.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been equally frustrated with the speed at which FEMA has moved,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Lakewood Park grant came in two separate phases. We were issued the Phase 1 grant for the design around 2019 or 2020. We completed the design and spent down that grant. We have been waiting for the Phase 2 grant since that time, which is the construction funding from FEMA. To date, we have not received that contract. We did receive an email from the Florida Department of Emergency Management, indicating that everything had been checked off and we should be seeing the contract very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dayan also described the next steps.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we receive that contract, we can bring it to this Board for execution,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt can then go back to FEMA for final execution, at which time we would advertise the project for construction bid. We would receive the bid, receive the award and have everything reconciled by FEMA and then hopefully get into construction. Until that time, we are waiting just like the residents of Lakewood Park.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chairwoman Fowler then wondered about further contact with FEMA since that July email.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave we followed up with them?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d Santamaria replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave we tried to reach out to Congressman [Brian] Mast\u2019s office for some assistance?\u201d Fowler prodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have not done that, but I can,\u201d Santamaria answered.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Townsend admitted this particular Lakewood Park project had been an odyssey.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore Donald West left, I was told the funding was there and in place,\u201d she said. \u201cI agree FEMA takes a very long time: It took 20 years to get reimbursed for the \u201904 hurricanes. So, if it\u2019s that we\u2019re waiting on the second part of the grant, I can believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chairwoman Fowler made a final nod toward the speaker who\u2019d launched the discussion that night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll expect an update on that soon and be sure to share that with you, Mr. Alice,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2014 A resident\u2019s complaint during public comment Oct. 6 prompted an impromptu discussion among commissioners and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-424971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-st_lucie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}