WALTON RESUMES BEACH RESTORATION NEAR POMPANO JOES

And so it begins...again. The long awaited, oft maligned, Walton County/Destin joint beach restoration effort has cranked back up again with an onslaught of piping and conduit freshly laid in front of the Pompano Joes beach access. And what a welcome sight it is. Here's the latest...

SANTA ROSA BEACH -The beach restoration in Walton County has resumed after months of delays, and the project will move into Destin next spring.
Work to pump sand from the East Pass onto beaches began in South Walton behind Pompano Joe's restaurant on Scenic Gulf Drive on Saturday.

Employees at Pompano Joe's have eagerly awaited beach restoration, said restaurant manager Vicki Berfanger. "We can already see a difference," she said. "It's definitely making a big improvement." Beach erosion had so narrowed the shore behind the eatery that storm surge routinely caused water to rise to the building's back deck, Berfanger said.
"We're ready for it to be done," she said. The final 6,300 feet of beach in Walton County should be finished by the middle of January, said Brad Pickel, director of beach management for the Walton County Tourist Development Council. "We're very happy to see the project back under way," he said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shut the project down in May after several endan- gered sea turtles got caught in equipment and died during sand dredging. The Corps later reversed its decision, and the TDC has spent the past several weeks working out a contract with Great Lakes Dredge and Dock for work to restart. The project, which covers about four miles of beach in Walton and two miles of beach in Destin, originally had a price tag of $22.8 million.

Delays and the expense of getting Great Lakes to come back after shutting down in May have added almost $5 million to the cost. The price now stands at roughly $27.7 million. Walton's share of that is $19.1 million. The TDC is using state grant money and tourist bed-tax revenue to fund the project. Part of the cost increase includes measures to reduce the risk of another sea turtle death. The TDC has hired a trawler to cast nets near the East Pass and collect and relocate any sea turtles in that area.

The trawler starting working Friday before the restoration resumed and had a close call when and endangered leatherback sea turtle got caught in the net and drowned, Pickel said. It happened when the net got snagged on what the TDC believes is a sunken boat in the East Pass, he said. That turtle death does not count against the restoration project because it happened during trawling and not during sand dredging, Pickel said.

Walton County has had to contend with not just sea turtle deaths but a legal battle over the project since it began in February. The case has reached the state Supreme Court, which will determine whether the project unconstitutionally violates private-property rights, as several Walton residents claim. There is no timeframe for when the court will issue a ruling. The TDC has said the restoration will continue as planned unless the court says otherwise.

Plans call for the project to start on two miles of beach in Destin early next April. That should take about 45 days to complete, Pickel said. He said he expects the Walton project to go smoothly and finish on time. "We've had no delays yet," he said.

Northwest Florida Daily News