Motion proposed by Commissioner Smith prompts Lewis’ remarks on Nov. 18
On Nov. 18, comments from a Phillippi Creek resident who has been advocating for the waterway’s dredging since early this year led to an exchange between Sarasota County Commissioner Mark Smith and County Administrator Jonathan Lewis in which Lewis ended up suggesting to Smith that the county’s Stormwater Department director should have more leeway to make decisions about the work that will be done.
The same day, that department provided the commissioners an estimate of the expense of removing more sediment from Phillippi Creek than the material just in the channel. That memorandum put the cost between $24 million and $26.5 million. The commissioners have approved a total of $14.5 million for the removal of what have been dubbed the “high spots” of the creek from Tuttle Avenue to Beneva Road.
The specific areas targeted have been identified as High Spots 4 through 11.
During the regular meeting of the Sarasota County Commission on Nov. 5, the board members unanimously approved a motion by Smith that directed the county’s Stormwater Department to research the expense of removing as much sediment as physically possible from Phillippi Creek, including silted-in areas referred to as “the oxbows” in the Southgate community, and provide that figure to the board members.
Smith included a reference to other portions of the waterway in the motion as he originally phrased it. However, thanks to a recommendation by Chair Joe Neunder, the language in the final motion — as The Sarasota News Leaderunderstood it — ended up noting the oxbows, but not channels, coves or inlets. The formal minutes of the meeting have not yet been available for reference.
Then, as part of the Open to the Public comment period during the commission’s regular meeting on Nov. 18, held in Venice, Kristy Molyneaux, a member of the residents’ groups that have been meeting weekly with the county Stormwater Department staff in regard to the dredging of Phillippi Creek, stepped to the podium.
First, she thanked the commissioners for their Nov. 5 motion calling for staff to look into the expense of the extra dredging work, referencing Smith’s motion.
“That has started the discussion to thoroughly clean up Phillippi Creek,” she said, “which is what we had been advocating for all along.”
Then Molyneaux explained that she felt the intent of Smith’s Nov. 5 motion “included not only a maximum allowable width and the oxbows, but to also include the coves and branches.”
However, she continued, the motion “only said oxbows,” so county Stormwater staff “is only looking at the oxbows; no coves, inlets or branches are being looked at.
“So I am back today, unbelievably,” Molyneaux added, “to [as the commissioners to] please make a motion to include the coves, branches and inlets, so those could be looked at, too.”
She proceeded to show the commissioners an aerial map depicting the site of her home, noting that it is only “10 steps” from Phillippi Creek.
Molyneaux also pointed to the cove on the opposite side of the point where her house is located. She explained that each time her house flooded during the 2024 storm season, the water began flowing over that point of land from the side where the cove exists.
“Now, I don’t know how full of sediment that cove is,” she continued, noting that she had asked county staff to undertake a study to determine the amount.
Next, she showed the board members another aerial map, which depicted sediment at the approach to the cove that she had shown them.
Later that day, during his report to his colleagues, Smith said that he would like to give county staff direction to include the “coves and the branches and the inlets” in the Phillippi Creek dredging initiative. He noted that he had talked on Nov. 5 about getting all of the sediment out of the waterway that was feasibly possible to remove.
Responding to Smith’s remarks, County Administrator Lewis pointed out that members of the two Phillippi Creek residents’ organizations — SAND (Supporters of Action Now on Dredging) and what is called the Coalition — meet weekly with the Stormwater staff — a practice that has been taking place over the past months. The latest session was on Nov. 17, Lewis noted.
Since the commissioners directed him in the spring to create the new Stormwater Department “and had me hire — I think everybody recognizes — the best stormwater director we could possibly have,” he hoped the commissioners also would listen “to why our stormwater director may or may not have included [areas other than the oxbows in the dredging plans].”
Then Lewis noted that the memo about the estimated costs of dredging parts of Phillippi Creek other than the channel had been provided that morning to the commissioners. It is the engineers’ estimated cost, Lewis emphasized. “It’s not a bid cost.”
Stormwater Director Ben Quartermaine could add the coves and branches and inlets, as Smith had suggested, Lewis continued. However, Lewis suggested that the commissioners ask for Quartermaine’s comments about how he perceives the impacts of that extra sediment removal. “I would hope that that’s what the board would want to do,” Lewis pointed out.
“I just wanted to make sure that that was included in the conversation,” Smith replied. “At least we can say we looked at it,” including the amount of the additional expense, he added. Then the commissioners could decide whether to approve any extra work, Smith said.
“We can work on the cost for that, as well,” Lewis responded, adding that he did not need a motion for staff to pursue the work.
The Nov. 18 memo
The Nov. 18 memo that Quartermaine had emailed the commissioners said Smith’s Nov. 5 motion called for the cost estimate of the Phillippi Creek work to include not only the oxbows, but also “branches, bayous and canals, providing maximum allowable dredge, while protecting existing infrastructure.” The latter was a reference to seawalls.
Both Quartermaine and County Attorney Joshua Moye had explained on Nov. 5 that the county would be liable if any damage occurred to a private seawall as a result of dredging operations in the creek.
The Nov. 18 memo said staff had estimated the amount of existing sediment in Phillippi Creek that could “be removed with a maximum allowable dredge,” and it had provided what Quartermaine called “an engineering opinion of probable cause (EOPC) to dredge.”
That EOPC, he continued, took into consideration the portions of the project already planned by both the county and the West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND), which is based in Venice. “WCIND is preparing to dredge from the mouth [of Phillippi Creek] to 2,000 feet north of [U.S. 41],” while the county is dredging the high spots in the areas designated 4 through 11, from Tuttle Avenue to Beneva Road.
Next, Quartermaine pointed to the following as part of a “maximum allowable dredge”:
- Two oxbows — Brink Avenue, north of Webber Street, and Jaffa Drive, between Bee Ridge Road and Tuttle. A third oxbow on Seclusion Drive “will be completed by excavation, not dredge.” Assuming the oxbows are two-thirds full, the memo noted, the amount of cubic yards to be removed from them would be 28,254.
- High Spots 1, 2 and 3 — 12,313 cubic yards.
- A continuous 50-foot wide dredge, offset 35 feet from the edge of the creek — 11,258 cubic yards. The average offset of existing docks, from the edge of the creek, is 25 feet, that part of the memo said. The county’s Unified Development Code (UDC), which contains all of the county’s land-use and zoning regulations, requires a 10-foot offset from walls, docks and other structures, the memo added. Thus, the 35-foot offset had been proposed as the limits of a “complete dredge.”
- Areas upstream of a dam in Phillippi Creek, which are adjacent to the South Gate Community Center — 4,489 cubic yards.
That put the total cubic yards at 69,746.
Then the memo explained, “The identified 70,000 [cubic yards] represent sediment accumulations that may reduce hydraulic efficiency and negatively affect the stormwater function of the Phillippi Creek system. This approximate volume could be removed through a standard dredging process similar to the work currently underway between Tuttle and Beneva.
The memo added, “ ‘Branches, bayous, and coves’ are not included in these calculations; sedimentation in these areas [is] more efficiently managed through existing operations or ongoing navigational management programs.”