Holmes Beach’s long-awaited “city center” improvements are on tap.
City commissioners voted 4-1 April 26 to approve a $2,753,784.55 contract with Sarasota-based C-Squared CGC Inc. to complete a bevy of improvements from the intersection of Gulf and Marina drives to the 5600 block of Marina Drive.
Commissioner Kim Rash voted “no,” citing the contract’s inflated cost.
City officials and staff have discussed improvements to the city center for several years, including ideas like installing a roundabout at the intersection, but they didn’t hammer out concrete plans until 2020.
Plans include roadway markings, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, street lighting and landscaping, as well as new drainage infrastructure.
The city completed most of its plans in 2021 but needed funding for the remainder of the work.
Since that time, inflation and rising prices across the board have increased the cost from its $1.6 million initial estimate to a little more than $2.75 million.
Nevertheless, Mayor Judy Titsworth urged city commissioners to approve the contract. She said U.S. American Rescue Plan Act funding helped make up for the increased cost.
The city plans to fund the project with $916,375 of the $2,156,176 it received through ARPA, $455,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, as well as money collected with the discretionary half-cent sales tax and local option fifth-cent gas tax.
Commission Chair Carol Soustek said she was happy to approve the contract despite the high cost.
“I’m just very pleased to see, after years of talking, something done,” Soustek said. “We’ve been blessed we haven’t killed anybody in that intersection down there. … I say we jump on this before they (C-Squared) find another job.”
Rash said the money could be better used elsewhere, such as adding sidewalks along as many city roads as possible.
There was no public comment.
The contract requires C-Squared to present a construction schedule to the city by May 6 and reach substantial completion within 273 days of beginning work.
Titsworth said city engineer Sage Kamiya will plan detours with C-Squared.
The commission will meet next at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, at city hall, 5801 Marina Drive. The meeting will be open to the public. Directions to attend via Zoom can be found at holmesbeachfl.org.