The news about a $60,000 project to dredge and clear some shallow canals and areas of Anna Maria’s Lake LaVista grew more curious Jan. 29.
Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy met that day with concerned residents of Lake LaVista’s canals at city hall to explain why he halted the project.
Murphy told the residents he knew nothing about the project or who ordered it before C&M Dredging showed up Jan. 21 with its equipment.
He was ready at first to go along with the project after he called the West Coast Inland Navigation District and learned the $60,000 project would last 30 days, including storage of the dredged sludge at City Pier Park at the corner of Pine Avenue and North Bay Boulevard.
WCIND said the project was approved in 2012.
But WCIND had failed to keep the city informed of how the project was progressing, Murphy said.
“That was done in a vacuum of miscommunication with the city,” the mayor said. “Nobody here knew anything.”
Murphy also learned C&M planned to mail a letter to property owners along the canals offering to dredge any shallow areas at their property that fell outside the scope of the WCIND project — at a reduced rate. But C&M also planned to store that sludge at the park for up to seven months, and that’s when the mayor halted the entire project.
“They wanted to use the City Pier Park to store the additional material. They told me when they arrived they were going to use bladders for storing the affluent and the bladders would remain on the property until August,” he said.
“What a stink that would have caused.”
Murphy said the offer to Lake LaVista homeowners involved unauthorized use of city property. “They were trying to make extra money using our property,” Murphy said.
Murphy told the residents he was “all for cleaning out the canals. I just don’t like the miscommunication or non-communication, and use of city property to make extra money. I want to get it done, just not this way.”
George Talbot, a Lake LaVista resident, said he and his wife waited years for the canals to be dredged. Knowing the canals would be cleaned contributed to their reasons for purchasing the property.
Murphy assured the Talbots and other residents he would take charge of getting the project back on track, noting the dredge permit is for one year.
Murphy said he will contact C&M, WCIND and DredgeMaster Inc., the supervising engineer, to explain what failed in the process and get the shallow canal project “back on track.”
“Had we been informed all along of what they were doing, we might not have gotten to this position. But I don’t want anybody using public property without permission,” Murphy said.
Paul DeMariano of DredgeMaster, the engineering consultant for C&M, said it appears there may have been miscommunication between WCIND and the city. He liaised with WCIND on the project for C&M, while WCIND was to communicate with the city.
“We’re big boys,” DeMariano said in a phone interview with The Islander. “We can handle the cancellation. And we’re willing to work with the city in any way possible to get this project going.”
The added effort for residents to have shallow areas dredged at a much cheaper price was offered as a convenience, he said.
Murphy noted the Lake LaVista dredge should not be confused with the city’s permit to dredge the inlet to Lake LaVista.
“That’s caused a lot of confusion. Dredging the channel is done every 12-18 months,” he said. “This is about dredging the canals back up in Lake LaVista.”