Stars align: Berms set up for Jetty East, Destin Pointe
It's now possible to walk around Jetty East without wading into the Gulf of Mexico, Destin Pointe's Rick Chappell says.
"There's sand that will get you around the end of the building," Chappell told the City Council Monday night. "It's a substantial difference."
Chappell told the councilors that the May dredging of parts of East Pass had provided badly needed sand for the eroded beaches at the end of Holiday Isle, even though 20,000 cubic yards will have to be left where the dredge deposited it for the time being.
Even that, Chappell said, was more than some people at City Hall expected: "There were comments like ‘the stars must align' ... I'm very happy to say (the berms) were completed Saturday the 31st."
The City Council voted last year to pay the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers $75,000 to dredge the East Pass navigation channel and deposit the sand on Holiday Isle. Although the Corps has a dredging permit for the project, the Corps' Washington headquarters didn't authorize work to begin until this year.
With the help of a $229,000 federal earmark, the Corps finally authorized two separate dredging projects in May. The end result was a deposit of between 30,000 and 50,000 cubic yards on the end of Holiday Isle.
Unfortunately, while the Corps has an easement to deposit the sand, it requires permission from the landowners to remove it. Chappell said one property owner has refused to grant it, so 20,000 cubic yards of sand remains sitting on his beach.
Chappell said the project has given Destin Pointe and Jetty East at least a small degree of protection until the city's major beach-restoration project gets under way.
For the future he suggested, given how vital the beaches are to Destin's economy, the city should treat the beach as part of its infrastructure to be maintained and managed like roads and utilities. That could include creating a staff position to oversee beach maintenance and dredging permit applications.
"Beaches, like water and electricity, need management and need budget," Chappell said.
Over the past year, the council has considered steps in that direction, such as buying a dredge for the city's use. The city rejected the $320,000 cost estimate in favor of continuing contracts with dredging companies to be on call for when the city needed them.