Bill With $6.3 Million for Tybee, Ga., Beaches Heads to Bush for His Signature
By Larry Peterson, Savannah Morning News, Ga.
Dec. 20–A bill that includes $6.3 million-plus to rebuild Tybee Island’s shrinking beaches is headed to President Bush for his signature.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted late Wednesday to approve a revised version of a massive spending plan that includes the Tybee item.
The U.S. Senate passed the bill late Tuesday, but added money for military operations in Iraq, which the House omitted in its version.
The measure was approved as part of an overall budget compromise that generally favored greater outlays.
Bush, who must either accept or reject the entire bill, had threatened to veto one that lacked the war-funding provision.
Asked Tuesday whether he would sign a bill that included the war funding, White House press secretary Dana Perino hedged a bit.
“I think it’s 3,000 or 3,500 pages … that we have to read,” Perino said, “and you have to turn over all the rocks to see what might be hiding under there.”
But when asked whether Bush will sign it if “there’s nothing particularly egregious that you don’t know about,” she answered, “Yes.”
Rob Asbell, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, who has long pushed for the Tybee item, predicted that Bush will sign the legislation.
Kingston, a Savannah Republican, said it “will provide the lion’s share of the funding” that Tybee needs for the project.
Tybee’s beaches, last renourished in 2000, are due for more sand because replenishments typically last about seven years.
Moreover, fierce storms have scoured the oceanfront, bunching up tourists on an unusually narrow strip of sand. Without renourishment for the beach, merchants there are worried that Tybee could become less of a magnet for tourists who pump millions of dollars into the local economy.
Kingston and the city had faced increasing resistance to their pleas for federal help. The mood in Congress had turned against to so-called earmarks — projects requested by one member.
But the current bill, which includes more than 9,000 individual spending items, appears to reflect a more relaxed view of earmarks.
Indeed, some lawmakers — but not nearly enough to block passage — claimed the measure is full of wasteful “pork barrel” projects.
In any case, Kingston predicted earlier this year that a new Army Corps of Engineers study could ease approval of the Tybee item.
The Corps concluded the federally dredged Savannah River shipping channel traps sand that normally would end up on Tybee’s shore. The channel causes 70 percent to 80 percent of the island’s beach erosion, the Corps said.
Kingston praised what he called “an aggressive and creative campaign” by Mayor Jason Buelterman to “get the word out” about the study.
The mayor’s presentation, distributed through YouTube, was “highly effective and ultimately successful,” Kingston said.
Even before the reversal of fortunes, Tybee officials have moved ahead with processing federal and state permits.
Although they already have lined up millions of dollars in state and local money, they still might need more, Buelterman said Tuesday. He added that the cost of the project, once estimated at $11 million, could climb because of higher fuel costs and additional erosion.
The mayor said current plans call for the project to begin in late September 2008, after the end of the turtle-nesting season.
Kingston, who voted Monday against the version of the bill that lacked funding for the war, voted yes on Wednesday.
So did Savannah Democrat John Barrow.
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