A number of boat ramps to open, as well, director of county Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources announces
On Saturday, Oct. 26, the Sarasota County Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department (PRNR) will reopen and reactivate a number of its beaches, whose amenities had to be closed in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton’s strike on the county.
That was the news that Nicole Rissler, PRNR director, announced during a press conference conducted at Siesta Public Beach on Oct. 24.
She credited “the hard work of many Sarasota County employees and our contractors and venders” for making the facilities once again accessible to the public almost two weeks after Hurricane Milton made its Oct. 9 landfall on Siesta.
Nokomis Beach and the beaches on Venice Island — North and South Brohard, as well as Maxine Barritt Park (which is located at 1800 S. Harbor Drive) — also will welcome visitors on Oct. 26, Rissler pointed out.
Moreover, she said, on Saturday, staff will be able to reopen and reactivate “our much loved boat ramps, including Nokomis, Blackburn Point, Manasota and the Venice Marina Boat Ramp.”
South Lido Beach remains closed, Rissler said, indicating that vegetative debris and materials that Milton swept from the neighboring condominiums into the county’s Ted Sperling Park and its environs are the primary reasons for that status.
City of Sarasota employees were working that day, she said, to make it possible to reopen North Lido, which the city owns.
A city news release distributed the afternoon of Oct. 24 pointed out, “City of Sarasota crews are actively working to restore the Lido Beach Pavilion and parking lot to a condition that is safe for visitors to return. The beach has been closed since Sept. 25 when Hurricane Helene damaged the concession area and public access points, including buckling sidewalks and walkways, creating hazardous conditions. The area was damaged further when Hurricane Milton hit Oct. 9.”
“We’re working hard to get Lido Beach to a point where it can be reopened,” said City of Sarasota Parks and Recreation Director Jerry Fogle in the release. “We’re just not there yet. Public Works crews have removed mountains of sand as high as 4 feet from Ben Franklin Drive just to get to the pavilion and uncover the sidewalks, walkways and public access points,” he explained. “After the sand was cleared, it was found that some of the walkways and access points contain significant safety hazards. The restrooms, which endured feet of storm surge, also need to be restored before the beach can reopen.”
Fogle added, “We anticipate Lido Beach will reopen in the near future.”
Turtle Beach on South Siesta will remain closed, Rissler noted during the news conference, because it ended up with “a lot more substantial damage.”
The North Jetty in Venice also suffered extensive damage, Rissler added.
Every barrier island in the county is different, she pointed out.
Manasota Key suffered the worst damage, she added, which is why Manasota Beach Park and Blind Pass Beach Park will remain closed for the time being.
As for parks: Earlier this week, Rissler continued, her department was able to reactivate many of the county athletic fields. “Our staff worked really hard over the last week-and-a-half — almost two weeks,” she noted, running magnets over those fields to pick up dangerous storm debris and to test the lighting, for examples.
Those fields that remain closed, she continued, have that status “for lots of different reasons, but we’re working every day to get more of those online.”
Approximately half of the county’s 160 parks are fully or partially open, Rissler pointed out. A person may visit the PRNR webpages, she said, to check on a specific facility. Updates are made regularly on a list of the parks, with color coding indicating whether they are accessible.
This is the link for the park status report.
In regard to the efforts to reopen Siesta Public Beach, Rissler explained a state Executive Order allowed the PRNR staff to work more quickly to analyze the Siesta sand to make certain it was clean enough to be pushed back onto the beach. That was “a significant help,” she emphasized, “rather than thinking about taking that sand off the island. [That] would have been a much bigger operation.”
“We had sand all the way up … to the parking lot and on [Beach] Road, she noted. In most situations, that sand was not mixed with a lot of debris, she said. Still, she acknowledged, “In some cases, it had to be separated a little bit” from debris.
In a number of situations, she indicated, staff members pushed the sand into the parking lot or onto the right of way, so it could be evaluated.
She further noted “a whole lot of raking and leveling” that staff pursued on Siesta’s wide beach after the sand was put back in place.
Moreover, Rissler said, some of Siesta’s iconic lifeguard stands were toppled by storm surge. In fact, she said, Hurricane Helene pushed part of them into the dunes.
“They’re perfectly standing [in their proper locations],” Rissler added, thanks to staff’s work.
Debris in county waterways has been another concern, Rissler explained. “That’s the reason you didn’t see beaches open two days after the storm. … We’ve done everything we can,” she continued, to ensure that the facilities reopening this weekend will be safe for the public.
In response to a question, Rissler explained that the Florida Department of Health in Sarasota County (DOH-Sarasota) undertakes routine water sampling at the county’s beaches to make certain the water is safe for people to swim in it and pursue other water-related activities. Those results are posted on the Health Department website, Rissler added, noting that, to her knowledge, none of this week’s samples showed that beaches should be closed for swimming except the one at Bird Key, in the city of Sarasota.
In wrapping up the press conference, Rissler said, “We took some hits,” referring to both Hurricanes Helene and Milton, “but like our lifeguard stands [on Siesta], we stood right back up.”