Commissioners Neunder and Smith put focus on Phillippi Creek Basin
Given the fact that they will have more flexibility in how they can use the latest federal hurricane-response grant funds, Sarasota County commissioners this week made clear their interest in two infrastructure priorities: dredging Phillippi Creek to prevent future storm flooding and eliminating more of the septic tanks in that same basin to improve water quality.
During a Feb. 11 presentation to the board members, Steve Hyatt, manager of the Program Management Division in the county’s Office of Financial Management, offered more details about the various eligible uses — or “buckets,” as Hyatt referenced them — for the new $210,094,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The distribution of the funds to the county was part of a Federal Register notice on Jan. 16, Hyatt pointed out, with Jan. 21 considered the effective date of their availability, pending a formal agreement regarding their use.
As Hyatt has noted, 70% of all the money must be allocated for the benefit of low- to moderate-income persons, meaning those who make no more than 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI) for the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
Each year, HUD releases a table with the AMI figures for each MSA — usually in late winter or spring. Thus far, The Sarasota News Leader has not found the 2025 figures.
Below is the 2024 AMI chart for North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton:
All of the funds that the county expends from the grant must have a tie-back to damage resulting from Tropical Storm Debby, Hurricane Helene or Hurricane Milton, Hyatt has noted.
At one point, when Chair Joe Neunder sought assurance that the funds can be used for projects “from North Port to the airport,” Hyatt confirmed that.
The timeline calls for the county’s “Action Plan” — the document that lays out how the commissioners want to see the funds used — to be sent to HUD in late April. Although a slide Hyatt presented said the deadline for submission to the department is April 21, he assured Chair Joe Neunder that county staff already has received an indication from HUD representatives that they will be receptive to requests for extensions. Thus, Hyatt said, county staff has established a timeline that calls for the County Commission to give its final approval to the Action Plan on April 22. Then, after that plan has been forwarded to HUD, personnel with that federal department will have 45 days to review the details and let county staff know of any concerns.
Hyatt expressed optimism that HUD would approve the plan within that 45-day window, given the experience that county staff gained in working with the commissioners on the HUD grant awarded in 2023 for responses to Hurricane Ian’s damage in 2022.
Commissioner Teresa Mast asked when exactly the six-year window HUD has allowed for the new grant to be spent would begin.
That will start after both county officials and HUD representatives have signed the formal agreement, following the review period, Hyatt said. The county signing will come first. Thus, the HUD execution of the agreement opens the six-year window, he added.
“Sometime maybe … late summer,” he continued, “we’ll have an actual grant agreement, and we can actually start projects and programs …”
The new funds are being handled under the same “umbrella” that county staff created for the first HUD award. It is called the Resilient SRQ Program.
Among other details during his presentation, Hyatt also provided the commissioners details about the responses that staff has received from the public surveys underway for three distinct groups, seeking their priorities for the funding: individuals, businesses and nonprofits.
The online surveys, which were launched on Jan. 27, will end on Feb. 15, he added.
As of that morning, Hyatt pointed out, staff had received a total of 1,094 responses. That number exceeds the total that staff received during the survey about how the first HUD grant should be used.
Staff already had held two public meetings — at the Fruitville and Jacaranda public libraries — to receive comments about funding priorities, he added; two more had been scheduled. Presentations also have been made to community groups, Hyatt said.
A focus on Phillippi Creek
Following Hyatt’s presentation, Chair Neunder talked of having driven U.S. 41 last week through the area along the Phillippi Creek Basin. He even stopped at the Phillippi Creek Oyster Bar, he said.
During the commission’s regular meeting on Jan. 15, speakers who live in the River Forest community on the creek noted that business in describing the area where some of the worst sandbars are located in the creek.
On Feb. 11, Neunder told Hyatt that he was able to get a good look at the sandbars. He knows that residents who live along the creek are looking for help, he added. “I would be very interested to see where the needs are in our community.”
Commissioner Smith pointed to the line under the Infrastructure bucket that said funds could be allocated to “Water, sewer, stormwater, and drinking water infrastructure” projects. That was when Smith asked, “Is there, in that category, any money for septic-to-sewer [initiatives]?”
He added, “There’s still communities along Phillippi Creek” that are dealing with flooding. Smith was referencing testimony by residents during not only the Jan. 15 meeting but also a Jan. 21 workshop on flooding issues associated with the 2024 storms.
His primary community of interest, Smith continued, is Aloha Park, “which is low-income,” he noted.
Hyatt assured Smith that as long as the county could tie the funding request back to one of the 2024 storms, he felt sure an allocation could go toward such a project. He indicated confidence in the potential for making such a case to HUD.
Pinecraft suffered extensive flood damage during the 2024 storms, with residents having to be evacuated in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Debby’s flooding in August 2024.
Commissioner Mast pointed out, “We have significant developments that were vey heavily impacted [by the 2024 stormwater flooding].” She asked whether projects could be designed to disperse some of the funds “across many demographics?”
“Yes,” Hyatt replied, indicating that funding for such initiatives also could come out of that Infrastructure bucket.
During the discussion, Neunder emphasized that, once the HUD agreement is in place, “The burn rate should be fast,” referring to spending on projects to help residents.
“Anything we can do to expedite this, I’m all for it,” Mast said, though she acknowledged, “I know we have to go through the processes.”
I have lived on the the Philip creek River Ridge Drive island area for 22 years and have heard nothing but talk and ignoring of the need to dredge this creek from county commissioner. I was happy to see finally some talk about dredging with these HUD funds coming. Now is the time to finally dredge before the next big flood damages our properties.
The question is are the funds from HUD going to get disbursed after the cuts to HUD by Trump and Musk? I have lived on Phillipi creek for over 30 years and watched it go from bad to worse with flooding and flow.
Not dredging Phillippi Creek, knowing how many people it affects when we have storm surge, is definitely a dereliction of Duty to tax paying citizens.