FORT PIERCE — City commissioners voted unanimously not to extend a local state of emergency tied to erosion on South Hutchinson Island, saying current conditions no longer justify the added personnel costs, though officials stressed the situation remains fluid.
The emergency declaration, issued after ocean water approached the sand bank protecting parts of the island, expired Feb. 12.
City Manager Richard Chess told commissioners that while crews remain prepared to respond, the workload no longer supports continuing emergency pay.
“When they decide that we need to replace the sand, they'll contact Public Works. Public Works staff will go out there, it takes less than 30 minutes, and they return. So from my perspective, it's not worth paying the extra pay for the staff for this emergency pay when it's such a small project at this stage,” Chess said.
He recommended allowing the declaration to lapse but keeping the option available should conditions worsen.
“If we do decide that we have to go out there more frequently, we can always revisit this local state of emergency to determine whether or not we will have additional costs, extreme costs. As we see it now, that's not necessary,” he said.
Commissioner Michael Broderick, who has closely followed the erosion response, agreed with the decision but cautioned that the risk has not passed. He noted that beach renourishment on South Hutchinson Island is still weeks away.
“I don't disagree with letting the lapse of the state of emergency continue. However, at a moment's notice, we may need to institute this again because, candidly, we're still looking at potentially another four to six weeks before renourishment of the beach commences on South Hutchinson's Island, and then subsequently to get down to the breach areas, which are a quarter mile south of the jetty, is another several weeks,” Broderick said.
Broderick warned that further loss of the embankment could expose the area to flooding and urged fellow commissioners to remain ready to act quickly if conditions deteriorate.
“Potentially, we're going to lose several hundred feet of embankment, which is basically opening up the floodwaters. Now, the state of emergency doesn't deal with that in any capacity, but I'm just giving you what my overview is. If Madam Mayor has an emergency meeting on a Sunday morning to get us all here to do whatever we need to do to keep South Hutchinson's Island from being inundated with seawater, don't be surprised,” he said.
He also described the city’s prior interventions as temporary fixes that are beginning to fail.
“We're in the middle of a war against Mother Nature right now, and we may have won a few battles, but Mother Nature is quickly reclaiming the work that we have performed. Temporary measures that were put in place are now significantly deteriorated, and dune erosion is commencing again,” Broderick said.
Chess offered a more optimistic assessment of recent sand replacement efforts.
“As I said, we did a fill on Friday. We lost 15 feet is what they said, but that leaves 95% of what we placed is still there, so we think that's a good sign for us,” Chess said.
Commissioners said the city will continue coordinating with county officials and staff as erosion control efforts move forward.
“We're going to continue collectively as a commission, as the County Board of County Commissioners, their staff, our staff, working collaboratively. We're going to continue to try to stick our finger in the dike until this problem can be more permanently resolved,” Broderick said.
During the same meeting, the board approved sending a letter to U.S. Rep. Brian Mast expressing support for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project aimed at addressing erosion in Fort Pierce.