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Highlands Today

City Pier Beach May Stay Closed Until Next Hurricane

Until Lake Fills With Water

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: June 18, 2008

Updated: 06/18/2008 03:54 pm

SEBRING — Last week when Clell Ford and Erin McCarta measured the width, length and depth of a dredge hole at City Pier Beach, where a drowning took place June 7, they realized it was a whole lot bigger than originally estimated.

In fact, it's about 10 times bigger, and it's going to take twice as much sand to fill it as can be easily found in Lake Jackson: 10.000 cubic feet, 6,800 cubic yards.

So the bottom line, said Ford, who is Highlands County's lakes manager, is that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection won't be able to grant an emergency permit to fill the football-field sized hole a few feet off the beach.

And since there's no water on the beach area permitted by the county health department, City Pier Beach may remain closed until the lake fills up again.

"The lake is at 96.35 feet above sea level," said Ford, speaking Wednesday night to the Sebring city council. "That's a record. I haven't found anyone who remembers it being this low before."

After Bobby Clark, 23, cramped while swimming and drowned in the hole, diver Preston Colby estimated the hole was 100-foot long, 25- foot wide and 12-foot deep. Ford and McCarta's measurements indicate the hole is really 300-foot long and 100-foot wide.

Originally, they estimated they could take 2,368 cubic yards of fill from the Veteran's Beach boat channel, since it was too shallow for the fire department to launch its rescue boat, anyway. More could be shoved into the hole from a sand bar behind it, Ford told the council last week.

"We're going to need a lot more than that," Ford added Wednesday.

About 1,090 cubic yards – a strip 270-foot long and 28-foot wide – could come from the channel between Lake Jackson and Little Lake Jackson.

But even with the Veteran's Beach and the Little Lake Jackson channel sand, they'll still need twice that much more sand, Ford said.

Little Lake Jackson boat owners have been upset for years about not being able to navigate their boats between lakes. The channel under U.S. 27 has filled in with sand and silt.

"That still wouldn't make it navigable, but it would when the lake comes back up," Ford said.

More Permits
But since U.S. 27 strip is owned by the Florida Department of Transportation, Southwest Florida Water Management District must grant an exemption from permitting, Ford said.

Last week, when Ford and others were telling the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Lucianne Blair that the hole was much smaller, she considered granting an emergency permit to fill the hole, which was created 40 years ago when sand was needed to create the foundation for the civic center.

Now, the city must apply to the State Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, said Environmental Specialist Jessica Butts, who is in DEP's Sebring branch.

That typically takes six to nine months, she said, and requires the services of a professional engineer. And because aquatic plants and animals will be disturbed by massive dredging, DEP will only allow what's needed to address the safety concerns, not what the city wants to dredge, she said.

Ford estimated the cost of filling in the hole would run from $167,000 to $226,000, which includes the cost of trucking sand from outside the lake. And DEP wants to limit the use of sand from outside the lake too, Butts said.

"Is it the city's obligation to provide fire and rescue?" asked city councilor Dan Andrews.

Fire Chief Brad Batz couldn't answer the legal question. "If someone dials 911 and needs help on the lake, we'll get the boat out there some way." If there is no boat, Batz said, he'll commandeer one.

Andrews moved to proceed with the dredging of Veteran's Beach boat channel, so the fire department can launch its rescue boat. The council also asked Ford to continue asking the state for permits.

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