County Commission accepts Stormwater Department director’s recommendation to delay Phase 2 while more review of plans takes place
About 20% of the dredging of the high spots in Phillippi Creek has been completed, Sarasota County Stormwater Department Director Ben Quartermaine told the County Commission during its regular meeting on Jan. 27, which was held in Venice.
In response to a question from Commissioner Mark Smith, Quartermaine said the Phase 1 project is on track to be completed in mid-June.
“Super,” Smith responded.
Quartermaine reported that the Phase 1 dredging contractor is employing 25 people in its crew, some of whom are county residents.
County Administrator Jonathan Lewis had scheduled Quartermaine’s appearance during the session, so Quartermaine could provide an update to the board members on stormwater work. Those regular briefings were a commitment that Lewis made to the commissioners last year, given the fact that stormwater flooding resulted in significant damage in parts of the county during the 2024 storm season.
The high spots initiative began in mid-December 2025, after county staff received the necessary permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Quartermaine reminded the board members this week.
The West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND), based in Venice, is responsible for the dredging of Phillippi creek from its mouth to U.S. 41.
In regard to the plans for Phase 2, “the maximum allowable dredge” of Phillippi Creek, Quartermaine pointed out that he and his staff “have been meeting with our dredge engineers, our consultants, FDEP and the Army Corps. I’ve been in a crash course of dredge design and permitting the last couple of months,” he added with a smile.
Quartermaine also told the commissioners that he wanted to acknowledge the work that Spencer Anderson, formerly the director of the Public Works Department, and Anderson’s team handled in regard to the Phase 1 design and permitting, “because the more and more I learn about this, the more I know that this was a huge lift for him and his team. I came in and pushed it over the top.”
Quartermaine began work in early August 2025.
(After the Stormwater Department was created last year, at County Commission direction, the remnants of the Public Works Department were renamed the Transportation Department, which Anderson heads.)
During his Jan. 27 remarks, Quartermaine characterized what Anderson and his staff had done as “a valiant effort.”
Phase 2 dredging to be delayed
With Phase 2, Quartermaine continued, “There are environmental and ecological concerns that I have to consider when we’re doing this.”
Phase 1, he explained, “has the biggest impact in terms of hydrologic function, impact to the floodplain.” Phase 2, he continued, “is really more creek restoration …”
Originally, he acknowledged, he had told the commissioners that he would try to have a contract for Phase 2 before them for approval in early spring. “The reality is,” as it has been proposed, “the maximum allowable dredge impacts seagrasses and oysters,” he said. “And the permitting is a six- to nine-month [process].”
In a Jan. 22 memo to the board members, Quartermaine explained that the existence of the seagrass and oyster beds will necessitate additional U.S. Army Corps of Engineers review. Moreover, he wrote, “[T]he late-2025 federal government shutdown further slowed federal permitting.”
Quartermaine added in the memo that he expects he and his staff can have a construction contract for the commissioners to approve “in approximately November 2026.”
Given the results of Phase 1, he continued on Jan. 27, and the prospect, in Phase 2, of “building the creek back” to its original condition, he recommended that the commissioners allow him and his staff to take more time to complete the design for that second phase.
In his Jan. 22 memo, Quartermaine also provided two options for the board members to consider:
- Option 1 — “[A] continuous 50-foot-wide dredge from the limits of the WCIND [West Coast Inland Navigation District] project to Beneva Road, with construction commencing in approximately May 2026.
- Option 2 — “Proceed with the full Maximum Allowable Dredge Limits as previously defined, with construction commencing in approximately December 2026.”
Quartermaine did note in the memo that staff had discussed the longer anticipated permitting timeline for the Maximum Allowable Dredge with the county’s Stormwater Environmental Utility Advisory Committee members, “and no objections were raised during the discussion.”
No member of the County Commission expressed an objection to his recommendation, either.
Gratitude from residents and board members
After he completed his remarks, Commissioner Teresa Mast told him that when she is out in her District 1 territory, “I can’t tell you how many people have made the effort to walk up to me and say they see your men and women out there working.”
They also tell her that when they approach Stormwater Department workers, the latter explain to them what they are doing. The ability to be able to have that presence,” she continued, “has alleviated a lot of anxiety, and that anxiety is rightfully there …”
She just wanted to thank him, Mast said. “I can’t say, ‘Thank you’ enough,” she added. “It’s not often that we get a lot of ‘Thank yous,’ ” Mast continued, referring to herself and her colleagues.
She wanted to be sure, she added, that Quartermaine’s “entire crew” heard her comments.
“I do believe that great power and great strength comes from just total transparency,” Mast pointed out.
President Ronald Reagan, she noted, used to joke about the fact that people never wanted to hear someone say, “ ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’ I love the fact that your team is out there working every single day,” Mast told Quartermaine.
“Same thing,” Commissioner Tom Knight added, addressing Quartermaine in reference to Mast’s remarks.
Chair Ron Cutsinger told Quartermaine, “I think this board has a high degree of confidence in you when you come make a recommendation.” Cutsinger affirmed Quartermaine’s proposal for making sure that Phase 2 is “done correctly.”
‘Time is of the essence’
Hours after their exchanges with Quartermaine, Phillippi Creek resident Kristy Molyneaux told the commissioners on Jan. 27 — during the final Open to the Public period of the meeting — that they should pursue the dredging of a 30-foot channel in Phillippi Creek while the Phase 1 work is underway.
During a number of appearances before the board in 2025, Molyneaux pleaded for a dredge as comprehensive as possible in the creek. Her home flooded during Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricanes Helene and Milton, she has pointed out, blaming that on the lack of county stormwater maintenance in the waterway.
Regarding the two options that Quartermaine had provided them for Phase 2, Molyneaux pointed out that his recommendation to go with Option 2 would mean that the middle section of the creek would “not have any sediment removed until after another hurricane season has come and gone. So that section of the creek, that flooded with all three storms [in 2024], is going to watch as the dredging equipment packs up and leaves from the upstream dredge and watch as WCIND dredging equipment will pack up and leave in the lower creek; nothing being done in the middle section.”
She then told the commissioners that she had called U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) staff that day and had “a lengthy conversation” with an agency representative, “to make sure [Molyneaux’s] proposal would be a viable option.”
Molyneaux emphasized, “The county already has a permit for a 30-foot channel in the middle section of the creek. The county could commence with that 30-foot channel and concurrently be working on the permitting for coming back and doing the maximum allowable dredge,” with equipment still by the creek, she hoped.
Further, she said, she had talked with Steve Hyatt, manager of what is called the Resilient SRQ Program, who had told her that he expected the funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the county’s response to unmet needs from the 2024 storm season to be available later this week.
The commissioners last year voted to dedicate $45 million out of the nearly $210.1 million in the Resilient SRQ funding to the dredging of Phillippi Creek.
“The county could go forward now with the [USACE] permit,” Molyneaux reiterated her earlier point, “using HUD funds,” instead of money set aside for dredging out of the county assessment revenue for its Stormwater Environmental Utility.
The work would allow for stormwater to flow more readily through the middle section of the creek, she added. “Please, commissioners, give the homeowners some help … Time is of the essence to get any sediment removed from that section of the creek before the next hurricane season.”
Chair Ron Cutsinger thanked her, but neither he nor any of his colleagues responded to her plea. Typically, the board members do not engage with speakers during the Open to the Public periods.