Beach Road drainage fix faces delay

Tropical Storm Debby caused significant flooding on Siesta Key throughout the beginning of the week and even forced the closure of Beach Road Monday and Tuesday. But plans to improve stormwater drainage on that road could be further delayed due to blueprint changes.

Sarasota County Commissioner Nora Patterson told the Pelican Press before the Sarasota County Commission’s June 26 regular meeting that the expected July 7 start date of the $2.8 million Beach Road drainage-improvement project will likely be delayed. The location of a proposed retention pond was altered, which required subsequent permit changes from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, she said

Sarasota County deputies closed nearly one mile of Beach Road Monday, June 25 due to flooding, and the county water reclamation facility on Siesta overflowed the same day.

“We have several lift stations on Siesta Key without power ... and staff is responding to the alarms,” wrote Director of Environmental Utilities Theresa Connor in an email to County Administrator Randall Reid.

The county has appropriated all of the funding required for the project, $2.4 million of which is earmarked for construction costs, according to the Sarasota County preliminary budget for the 2013 fiscal year. Public works is expected to spend $18,000 in 2014 and 2015 to monitor water quality of affected areas and $3,200 the following two years on general operations.

The design and planning portion of the project began in 2007.

“The (stormwater runoff) situation has existed for years,” Patterson said in an email exchange with a concerned Siesta resident, “although this is the worst I have seen.”