Federal funds might soon contribute to Anna Maria Island infrastructure improvements.
The island cities will be the recipients of more than $1.4 million of a $252,711,000 Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded to Manatee County.
Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton triggered federal disaster declarations last year for Manatee, making the area eligible for the funding.
The money is intended to be used to rebuild disaster-impacted areas and mitigate against damage from future storms.
At least 70% of the funds must benefit low- and moderate-income residents and a minimum of 15% must be used for mitigation.
Of the available funds, $125 million — about half of the total pot — is allotted for the infrastructure recovery and resiliency program, according to the county’s action plan.
The program will allow the use of mitigation funds for repair, replacement or improvement of infrastructure, with up to 15% of those funds available for projects that are not directly tied to last year’s storms.
CDBG-DR funding will be distributed throughout the county via its allocation program, “Lasting Manatee,” in proportion to each municipality’s percentage of the county’s total population.
County commissioners voted in May to divvy up funding based on 2023 population data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau, which found the county had a total population of 441,095.
The city of Anna Maria’s population of 1,008 represents 0.23% of the county’s total, so it is eligible to receive the same percentage of infrastructure recovery and resiliency program funding, or $287,500.
Bradenton Beach has a population of 916 — 0.21% of the county’s total — so it can receive up to $262,500 through the program.
The city of Holmes Beach is the most populated on the island with 3,027 people, or 0.69% of the county’s total population, so $862,500 in infrastructure recovery and resiliency funds will be available.
While the money has yet to make it to municipal coffers, that has not stopped island officials from planning out how their cities can use the funds.
Anna Maria requests
Anna Maria Mayor Mark Short wrote in a July 3 email to The Islander that the city would use funds it will receive from the CDBG-DR to focus on repairing stormwater infrastructure.
Last year’s storms left many of the city’s drainage swales and tide valves — which allow stormwater pipes to drain into the Gulf of Mexico and bay waters without allowing the tide to backup — damaged and nonfunctional.
Short said money allotted from Lasting Manatee would be used to clear and retrench drainage swales, as well as repair damaged tide valves and the underground piping between points.
Bradenton Beach requests
In May, Bradenton Beach city commissioners discussed a handful of possibilities for use of CDBG-DR funds.
Those possibilities included using the money to fund the undergrounding of electrical lines that remain aboveground, a resiliency and shoreline protection project for Bay Drive, the purchase of a filter system to prevent drainage pipelines from clogging, reconfiguring drainage pipes on Bridge Street, as well as drainage improvement projects on 12th Street North and 24th Street North.
Holmes Beach requests
Kamiya said Holmes Beach had two potential focuses for using the CDBG-DR money: the installation of new tide valves throughout the city and a drainage improvement project between 27th and 28th streets.
He said the city identified almost $1 million in work to install tide valves on drainage outflows that could benefit from them. It plans to use $100,000-$200,000 to install tide valves on the most critical outflow pipelines.
The city plans to use its remaining CDBG-DR funding to improve upon a “semblance of a system” that goes out 27th Street North and takes stormwater drainage from Avenues B and C to an outflow into Anna Maria Sound, according to Kamiya.
He said the project was not designed yet and would require coordination with the city of Bradenton Beach.
“We are definitely happy to be able to get some funds to help fulfill some of these projects,” Kamiya said. “These things will definitely help us. … It’s definitely welcome funding.”
People can learn more about Lasting Manatee on the county’s website, mymanatee.org.