Lido Beach Reality Check Follows Meeting with City Manager

Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin meets with concerned LSPOA members at the Pavilion

Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin knows North Lido Key well.  In fact, as he's done many times over the years, Barwin walked north Sunday morning ( May 7) from the public beach at mid Lido Key, dodging fallen trees and passing heavily eroded dunes,  to what's left of our once expansive beach in front of the Pavilion.   It's a stretch of beach that the lanky politician has walked often to relive stress.  And Barwin admits he's also frequently used Lido Shores' Pavilion as a rest stop before heading south again.

But this time, Barwin was an invited guest.  In shorts and tennis shoes, he stayed for nearly an hour, speaking candidly to 18-concerned Lido Shorians gathered on a hazy, overcast Sunday, fueled by coffee and donuts, to quiz him about the future of our beach, and by inference, our pavilion.

Tom Barwin talks candidly about beach erosion 

Are we going to get sand, and if so, when?
Those were the two key questions that prompted the impromtu meeting.  After summarizing the ongoing sand standoff between South Lido Key and Siesta Key,  Barwin sighed, and basically said,  "...you need to get in line.  North Lido hasn't been nourished (mechanically received sand) in the past 30-plus years."   And reading between the lines, the likelihood of that happening now or in the near future, it appears, is nil.  Zero.  Zilch.  Nada.

What started out as a collectively hopeful meeting soon turned to the stark realization that the fate of our long-ignored, tiny slice of paradise is not in our hands.  Mother Nature's to be sure.  Or some far, far away governmental solution.  But to date, we in Lido Shores and North Lido Key have not been an active part of the conversation.

South Lido Key has parlayed the squeaky wheel theory, a desperate need for sand, and an ongoing dispute with their island neighbor to the south, into an emergency sand renourishment this coming fall.  Barwin says some 200-thousand cubic yards of sand will be dredged from nearby New Pass and pumped miles down to literally shore up the sand starved south end of the island.  The city placed about 226,000 cubic yards of sand on that same shoreline in 2015 to combat erosion, but that has already disappeared.

LSPOA member Richard LaBrie points to our rapidly eroding dunes

So, why can't we simply siphon off a portion of that precious sand to be dredged this fall for our rapidly dwindling beach?  According to Barwin—easier said than done.

That plan is already in the works, and for us, at this late hour to attempt to adjust or amend the permit to get our share would stall the emergency plan.  It would have to be re-applied for and re-permitted, costing valuable time and possibly jeopardizing the permit itself.  On top of that, the $2-3-million dollars of New Pass dredged emergency sand will barely make a dent in the south ends ongoing erosion woes.

There is some light at the end of the seemingly endless tunnel, as least for South Lido.  A Florida state judge just this week rejected the Siesta Key Association residents lawsuit, allowing a more extensive $22-million dollar joint Federal, State and local renourishment plan to proceed.

Desperate situation on South Lido prompting need for emergency sand

The judge ruled that the City of Sarasota and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should be issued the necessary permits by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to dredge up to 1.3- million cubic yards of sand from Big Pass to rebuild parts of Lido Beach.  That does not include North Lido.

The Siesta Key Association will likely appeal the decision, which will more than likely trigger the emergency dredging of New Pass this fall.


Where does all of this leave us?
Barwin urged us, as the Lido Shores Property Owners Association, to speak up and become part of the equation.  Perception often trumps reality, and the perception among some city and state leaders is that our portion of the beach is private.  We don't really disavow that notion with our Private Property sign posted in capital letters on our receding dunes.  But it is public beach, all the way to the seawall north of the Pavilion.

LSPOA sign moved to higher ground...again.

And even on this cloudy Sunday in May, tourists and other beach walkers were carefully winding their way through the tangled underbrush to reach that seawall, turn around, and weave south again along the narrow shoreline.

Marg & Dan Mills create alternate path to access the beach during high tide

Barwin urged those in attendance to write letters to city and county leaders, join or form a citizens committee and get involved with other Lido Key neighborhood associations to become part of the public discourse.


He said to play up the tourism angle, along with the imminent danger of salt water crashing through our diminishing dunes and encroaching upon our homes— infiltrating our streets and sewer system.  Not to mention the potential loss of our iconic neighborhood meeting place and symbol, the Pavilion.

Private sand solutions appear to be virtually useless.  Just mobilizing one of 4-nationally available dredges qualified to do the work is more than one-million dollars.  And lets say even if we could magically dump several feet of sand onto our beach, in reality, how long would it stay there?

Pavilion now just 10-feet to edge of dune

LSPOA member Diane Desenberg's masterful chart (see Monday, May 7th blog at lido-shores.com) showing some 20-feet plus of dune loss over the past four-years, is enough to dissuade even the most ardent proponent of the "something is better than nothing" approach.

Although it does further the theory by some of our members that sand last dredged from the large Gulf ebb shoal off our shoreline in 2015 has precipitated our rapid erosion woes by redirecting sea flow.

Talk has also turned to the possibility of hardening the area around, or even moving the Pavilion, further from the shoreline.  Currently, just 10-feet of dune stand between the Pavilion and Gulf waters.

"Take it to the next level," Barwin encouraged.  "Get involved with the inlet management plan and the overall beach strategy.  Become part of the conversation.  We need to change the mindset of going from emergency to emergency," Barwin said, before he too would leave our somber group and amble south along the narrow sliver of our endangered beach.

For many of us on this recent Sunday morning, reality had set in.

~Bob Thill
bthill@icloud.com
________________________

Editors Note:  At the May board meeting, a special Beach/Pavilion Committee was formed, to be headed by former LSPOA treasurer Elliott Himelfarb.  Interested LSPOA members who want to become involved are invited to attend the first scheduled meeting Wednesday, May 16th at 5:00 pm at Elliott's home, 1235 Center Place.