Canals drying up

Two adjacent communities on Anastasia Island that border the Intracoastal Waterway are finding their canal connections drying up.

Both Treasure Beach and Matanzas Cut are built on canals intended to provide direct passage from docks to the Intracoastal. But their canals need dredging to bring the water line higher than the current 2.5 feet it reaches at high tide.

Residents with small flat boats can still make way to the Intracoastal. Larger boats scrape the bottom.

Treasure Beach Homeowners Property Association president Charlie Novak said their canal system is owned by St. Johns County, and the association expects the county to pay for the dredging.

Mike Rubin, county director of construction, said the county took ownership of the canal about 11 years ago when it paid to dredge a 30-foot-wide channel in the 7.5 mile canal. He said homeowners knew it was a one-time deal. Homeowners were also aware that it was likely the canal would eventually need more dredging, Rubin said.

When residents requested the dredging 11 years ago, the county discovered that a developer owned the canal, Rubin said. The county is not allowed to build projects on private property, so it bought the canal for a small fee from the developer.

Residents feel the county is bound by an ordinance that says it will maintain the waterway. The property owners pay higher taxes to support canal maintenance.

The Treasure Beach Homewner's Association is circulating a petition to the St. Johns County Commission about the issue.

Commissioner Ben Rich, whose district includes the Treasure Beach area, said Friday he had not heard of the petition and did not know about the problem.

The petition also demands enforcement of an ordinance concerning bulkheads.

"At low tide, the ends of most canals, currently, are completely dry and the center of the main canals have only one to two feet of water," the petition states.

Novak said more than half of the Treasure Beach homeowners have already signed the petition.

Matanzas Cut is a newer and smaller community than Treasure Beach, and the homeowners association owns its canal, which is 900 feet long and 80 feet wide.

Tom Odendahl, president of the Matanzas Cut Homeowners Association, is one of those affected. Odendahl recently sold his 28-foot cabin cruiser since it was impossible for him to maneuver it through the canal to the Intracoastal entry.

Odendahl and other board members are about to begin the bidding process for the dredging. The cost will be presented to association members for consideration of a special assessment at its January 2007 meeting.

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