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Flood relief coming to Shore Acres
St. Pete city council members unanimously approved a grant on Thursday to help ease flooding in Shore Acres. Kailey Tracy reports.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Seven months after Hurricane Idalia, many in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Pete are still rebuilding.
The neighborhood is known for flooding, and residents say it’s an issue now more than ever.
On Thursday, St. Pete City Council members unanimously approved an agreement with the state for a grant that will help flood mitigation measures.
The grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is almost $8 million and covers about half of the St. Petersburg Shore Acres Resiliency Infrastructure Project.
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"This project has been long overdue and I’m glad we’re moving it forward and I’m very happy we’re getting state help," Council Member Ed Montanari said.
File: Shore acres flooding
"I just wanted to kind of sum it up for the residents who, you know, I think have been a touch impatient thinking nothing is happening, and indeed it is," Council Member Brandi Gabbard said.
City officials say the project will address about 10 miles of roadway in Shore Acres near Connecticut Avenue, the lowest part of the neighborhood. The money will be used to upsize pipes, install pump stations and backflow preventers, and elevate parts of the roadway.
RELATED: Shore Acres neighborhood accounts for 82% of St. Pete's flood damages from Hurricane Idalia
"You really have to be strategic and work back really identifying what’s your critical path and your critical path, where is that location and then as we start to implement other projects to support it, we’ll start to see other benefits," Brejesh Prayman, the engineering director for St. Petersburg, said.
File: Sandbags in Shore Acres.
The goal isn’t just to put a Band-Aid on the issue, city leaders said, but to address the impacts of climate change and sea level rise to ensure long-term solutions for Shore Acres.
"There’s a lot that needs to be done to the whole neighborhood," explained Michael Higgins, a retired engineer and resident of Shore Acres since 2011.
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Residents said while they’re appreciative of this grant, they want to ensure solutions will be throughout the neighborhood.
File: Shore acres flooding
"That’s part of it. The bigger part of it that we're concerned with as the Shore Acres Civic Association has been the general flooding that occurs at very high tide because of the backflow and failure of them to operate properly," Higgins said.
The Shore Acres Civic Association wrote a letter to Mayor Ken Welch in February outlining some of the changes they’d like to see, including replacing all of the backflow preventers in the neighborhood.
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"We now know that homes need to be elevated," Kevin Batdorf, President of Shore Acres Civic Association, said. "My worst fear is that we're forgotten again, because this isn't the first time an issue has occurred," he said.
File: Trash piled up in Shore Acres after a flood.
Batdorf said while the city has acknowledged it has received their letter, they haven’t yet talked with them about the contents.
City Council members Thursday assured residents that they won’t be forgotten. This project has been five years in the making, and they say there are two other capital improvement projects in the works for Shore Acres as well.
Council members say additional funding for this project will come from the stormwater drainage capital projects fund, and money allotted in next fiscal year’s budget.
The grant from the DEP is through a cost-reimbursement basis.
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