Quartermaine provides update on variety of issues
The interactive Sarasota County stormwater map, through which residents may check on past and planned maintenance projects in their neighborhoods, has gone live, county Stormwater Department Director Ben Quartermaine told the County Commission this week.
During the board’s Sept. 5 stormwater workshop, Quartermaine indicated that staff was close to having the map ready for resident use.
On Oct. 8, as he addressed the commissioners as part of their regular meeting in downtown Sarasota, Quartermaine did caution of the map, “It’s a work in progress.” Staff already is receiving comments from the public, he indicated.
He and his staff will make every effort to get as much information to community members as possible, he added.
“I love the map,” Commissioner Teresa Mast told Quartermaine, “and I’m very appreciative [of it].”
She added that she had talked with the county’s Communications Department staff about providing a tutorial for residents who wish to use the map.
Mast then expressed her gratitude once again to Quartermaine. “I just want to say, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ ” She added that she had received “very good feedback” from the public about the map.
“That’s huge,” Commissioner Tom Knight said of the availability of the map. He has asked his county assistant to make interested constituents aware of how to find it on the county website, Knight noted. “It’s just about transparency,” he said.
Quartermaine responded that he learns much, especially from long-time county residents, when he talks with them about stormwater issues. “They know their drainage better than I do.”
In response to a Sarasota News Leader request following Quartermaine’s remarks, Samantha Parker, the communications and outreach coordinator for the Public Utilities Department, reported the following in an email:
“Here is the correct link for the map: Sarasota County Stormwater Maintenance Information Application
“This map can also be found on our Stormwater Maintenance page at Stormwater Maintenance | Sarasota County, FL
“On this page,” Parker explained, “there are two buttons at the top of the page. One links to the map, and the other links to our 311 connect app where residents can report a stormwater concern.
“Please note that residents cannot propose projects using the map,” she noted. “[I]t only shows planned and completed maintenance. To propose a project, residents will need to use the 311 connect app or call 311.”
A variety of other updates
During his Oct. 8 remarks, which County Administrator Jonathan Lewis had scheduled as part of his own, routine update to the commission, Quartermaine reported that all of the permits needed for the dredging of Phillippi Creek had been secured from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), but staff still is awaiting the necessary permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
“There has been a little bit of a delay based on the government shutdown,” Quartermaine explained.
The West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND), which is based in Venice, also is waiting on its USACE permit to dredge the portion of Phillippi Creek from the waterway’s mouth to U.S. 41.
“Within the next four to six weeks,” he said, dredging is expected to begin.
Then Quartermaine reported that he and his staff “recently kicked off the Sediment Management and Abatement Program. … We’re utilizing in-house (personnel) to analyze all the tidal creeks,” to learn whether any of them have sediment build-up comparable to the situation in Phillippi Creek. That sediment led to repetitive flooding of the homes of many residents along the creek during the 2024 storm season, a fact that representatives of various neighborhoods stressed to the County Commission for months, starting early this year.
Further, Quartermaine said, “We’re going to use our own GIS [Geographic Information System] staff” to survey creeks countywide to try to determine what types of sediment exist in them and how it could affect floodplains in the future.
Staff also has been tasked with coming up with ways to abate or manage areas “prone to erosion within these tidal creek systems,” Quartermaine continued. County staff has the ability to do that work, he pointed out; no outside engineers are needed.
Quartermaine next reported that he plans a site visit along the dike system between Dona Bay and Phillippi Creek, to learn where more improvements are needed to ensure that the dike is sufficiently strong to protect residential property.
During Tropical Storm Debby’s rainfall inundation of portions of Sarasota County in early August 2024, a dike breach resulted in flooding of homes in the Laurel Meadows community in the eastern part of the county. Stormwater consultant Stephen Suau of Sarasota discovered the breach as he undertook an analysis on his own, to try to determine what caused that flooding, he reported to the public last fall. County staff subsequently repaired that dike, as Spender Anderson, former Public Works director and now the county’s Transportation Department director, has reported.
Further, Quartermaine noted on Oct. 8, staff continues to work on stormwater project priorities with the focus on keeping “water out of our homes” and off hurricane evacuation routes.
Additionally, he said, he has been meeting with County Attorney Joshua Moye and Chief Deputy County Attorney Karl Senkow to review the county’s stormwater ordinances. Quartermaine noted that his goal is to make certain that his staff understands the provisions of the ordinances.
Yet another reason for those discussions, Quartermaine continued, is to learn how staff can use the ordinances to move projects forward.
Next, Quartermaine reported that staff has been working on county applications for stormwater funding out of the “pots” that the County Commission designated early this year for use of the $210.1-million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to deal with unmet needs following the 2024 storm season. The county program that handles all the details of the funding and applications is called Resilient SRQ.
One application, he indicated, will address issues in Whitaker Creek and Hudson Bayou, in the city of Sarasota, whose stormwater work the county continues to handle.
Another application, Quartermaine indicated, focuses on what he called an opportunity “to add significant stormwater volume” to the county’s Celery Fields Regional Stormwater Project.
Staff also is looking at areas along Phillippi Creek that the county could purchase, such as the Forest Lakes Golf Course, which could be used to hold stormwater, preventing residential flooding in nearby neighborhoods, he added.
Finally, he reported that he, County Administrator Lewis and Rob Lewis, the county’s director of governmental relations, plan a trip to the Florida Legislature next week to discuss the potential of the county’s being able to win more state grant funds to assist in paying for the dredging of Phillippi Creek from U.S. 41 to Beneva Road.
Quartermaine then noted that he has been “meeting a lot” with residents and homeowners associations. “We’ve got great groups,” he continued, referring to SAND (Supporters of Action Now for Dredging) and the Phillippi Creek Coalition, both of which organizations represent homeowners who live along the waterway, especially those who experienced flooding in 2024.
Members of SAND and the Coalition, Quartermaine said, have provided him and his staff “a ton of information. … They have all been really wonderful in working with us.”
Commissioner Mark Smith noted that he joined Quartermaine and stormwater consultant Suau on a panel during an Oct. 4 event that the two Phillippi Creek residents’ associations hosted at the South Gate Community Center. The approximately two-hour-long session — with each of the panelists providing remarks and then participating in a question-and-answer period — drew about 150 attendees, Smith added.
“The were cordial and polite,” Smith said of the residents. He had received a number of emails after the event expressing gratitude for the participation of the panelists, Smith told his colleagues.
Commissioner Mast pointed out that she has seen a difference in her District 1 constituents’ perception of county stormwater work since Quartermaine became the director of the new department on Aug. 11. Even in the worst heat of the summer, she indicated, residents saw county staff members using equipment — and even their hands — to clean out waterways and ditches. “I think that what has been significant in capturing back the trust of our citizens has been that continual transparency,” she pointed out.
Moreover, Mast noted that Quartermaine has been putting in long hours to help county residents.
“Thank you,” Quartermaine replied.
Commissioner Knight took the opportunity, as well, to thank Quartermaine for his work.
“I’m having a blast,” Quartermaine told the commissioners and then thanked them for their support.