Firm to Compile Funding Options for Okaloosa Beach Restoration

By Jeff Ayres, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach

Mar. 11–Okaloosa County has contracted with a firm to develop a plan to pay for a multimilliondollar beach restoration effort. The county will pay Coastal Tech $49,844 to develop a funding feasibility study to restore the county ‘s 7.8 miles of eroded beaches.

The money will come from Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council funds. The TDC has estimated it could cost $25 million to $30 million to restore beaches from one end of the county to the other.

Coastal Tech did similar work for Navarre Beach’s restoration.

"They’ve done this in four or five places," said Jim Trifilio, the TDC’s beach projects manager. "They’ll look at a whole range of (funding) options."

Those could include adding a penny to the county’s 4 percent bed tax on rentals or establishing a municipal services benefit unit, in which properties benefiting from the restoration would pay a fee for the work.

Four swaths of beach will be included in the study: from the Walton County line to the east end of Henderson Beach State Recreation

area; from the west boundary of Henderson Beach for 1.6 miles to the west; Destin’s East Pass; and Okaloosa Island.

Most of those beaches are critically eroded from hurricanes in 2004 and 2005.

The small section that is not critical doesn’t qualify for state funding to help for restoration, so other funding options must be explored, Trifilio said.

Two public workshops will be held to outline restoration projects and offer cost estimates and potential funding sources. Three public workshops will follow to review Coastal Tech’s draft funding feasibility report.

A final report will be prepared after that.

Restoration of beaches in eastern Okaloosa County is ongoing, and officials hope to begin moving sand onto the other beaches in early 2008, Trifilio said.

If the county can partner with Eglin Air Force Base to share one consultant or obtain joint coastal permits to restore their respective beaches, the price tag would drop, he added.

The county and Eglin are now searching for suitable sand.

Daily News Staff Writer Jeff Ayres can

be reached at 863-1111, Ext. 444.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach

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