The challenges that lie ahead for Longboat Key are many, but perhaps beaches and employee retirement obligations are the most daunting, as each involve a great deal of money looking into the future.

If I am elected commissioner these two issues will be at the forefront of my efforts to find viable alternatives to the present way the town government conducts business. I believe our island government needs to change in order to be able to respond to our present and future challenges.

Watching this video I took in mid November 2008, it is evident that the last beach nourishment, conducted by Coastal Planning & Engineering less than three years ago, failed to take into account the rapid beach loss that occurs at the north end of the island and at a few other places on Longboat Key. During that nourishment project the dredge had to be moved to the north end on an emergency basis to take care of the same dire situation that now exists; only now there is no dredge or maintenance project to save the day. Both CP&E and the town government have chosen to take no action to address what has been known to be a ticking time bomb on the north end for over two years. Soon after the last beach nourishment took place I documented the steady beach erosion on the north end and presented the information to both the town government and the local papers. The rapid loss of sand at the north end has been evident for years and the town has done little to effective prevent what is now a problematic situation with the endangerment of condominium units.

If you go to the Longboat Key Beaches web site you will find a wealth of information about our beaches along with articles about alternatives to maintaining our beaches that work successfully in other places around the world. Perhaps there are alternatives to the periodic massive nourishment projects prescribed by CP&E for the last fifteen years. At this time CP&E has been able to locate viable borrow sites for our next mass beach nourishment that have an attendant cost of between $35 and $45 per yard. We required in excess of two million yards of sand three years ago. The looming projected costs dictate that we conduct a through evaluation of all available alternates for maintaining our beaches. I believe we need to begin to think outside the box as defined by CP&E and the town government.

I have to wonder how CP&E along with the town government spent over twenty-five million dollars to replenish the sand along our beaches without taking into account that the north end beaches would quickly disappear and require an infusion of sand in what has turned out to be a couple of years.

Now CP&E along with the town government want to install a number of very expensive groins at various places along the shore. There are mixed views about employing groins and many experts believe groins are an inappropriate way to solve beach erosion.

The Longboat Beaches web site examines a number of alternatives for maintaining our coastline. I have been working with several communities and companies that have demonstrated cost effective permanent solutions for beach management. If elected I will continue to research the beach management community and try to evaluate all seemingly viable and successful technologies as they become available.