CANAL DREDGING

Well...it is official now.  The St. Johns  County Commissioners voted to grant TBPOA an MSBU to get the canals dredged.  The next step will be to put the project out to bid to see what company will do the dredging. 

 

The front page article in The Record was a real eye opener on Monday morning.  I was in the middle of my first cup of coffee....not quite awake until I saw the headlines.  Unfortunately, there were some errors in that article.  The canals have not been dredged for almost 20 years. My husband purchased our property 17 years ago and the canals had been dredged a few years before that.  He had to pay the assessment for 2 years after the purchase.

 

The second mis-statement was that the erosion was being caused by speeding boats. ( I wish it was that simple.)  The erosion is caused by "mother nature" with the natural rising and lowering of the water level in the canals. AND the fact that some property owners don't maintain their bulkheads.

 

The article the next day written by Damon Douglas was correct.    What is truly sad is that 137 property owners FAILED TO RESPOND TO LETTERS FROM THE TBPOA OR THE COUNTY!  TBPOA sent out letters 2 different times and the county sent out letters 2 different times.

 

Having navigable canals is a big selling point for TB.  Our community is the ONLY community in St. Johns County that can directly access the intercoastal by boat.  I sincerely hope and believe that anyone who sells their property in the next few years will make more than a $10,000 profit on that sale because the canals will have been dredged.

 

Paula Murphy