Save Our Beach

 Matagorda County Commissioners met today and went over this agenda item about the Sargent Beach project: That was unanimously passed and means that the project continues to move forward on the timeline previously mentioned.  Prior to the meeting I asked Judge McDonald about the funding for Phase 2 of the project which is the beach nourishment portion and got the following response -  Mr. Saba, We continue to work on the nourishment piece and will solve it as well. Thanks for your support of this effort. Nate   Nate McDonald County Judge ~ Matagorda County 1700 7th Street, RM 301             Phone: (979) 244-7605 Bay City, TX. 77414                       Fax: (979) 245-3697 I Short Summary of Matagorda County Commissioners Court This morning, August 16, 2021, Commissioners Court approved and Commissi...

The below is a very detailed update from the Texas Government Land Office (GLO) on the beach nourishment project.  I am a little disappointed as we were told before that there was funding for Phase II of the project and it appears from this update funding has not been secured for Phase II - so we need the County Commissioners to start working on that funding!  Here is the short version -  Beach nourishment is pumping sand up to restore the beach The funding for Phase 1 which is the jetty and breakwaters is set and should start on time Funding for Phase 2 - which is the nourishment has not been secured yet The final permitting is almost done and should be done this month Based upon permitting, licensing, bid, turtle nesting season - construction should start March 2022 on Phase 1 Construction will only take 3-4 months so it should be done by July 2022 on Phase 1 Since there is no funding for Phase 2 - the beach nourishment - the jetty and breakwater would be it HOWEVER - ...

So I sent notes out to the main contractor for the breakwater and jetty project, Kent Pollard, Judge McDonald and the GLO – only heard back from the main contractor (shocker).  The question was, are we are on track with the project? The answer - Yes, we re still on track. Our permit is in the decision document stage and FWS is working to finalize the Biological Opinion.  Final engineering is progressing nicely, and should be complete by Nov. as planned. The County will be working with the GLO to initiate the next phase which would be construction of the breakwaters once we have the permits and the final engineering complete. Construction should fall within about a 6 month window. (with a bit of wiggle either way). Beach nourishment follows breakwater constructions as a separate construction project. Remember that beach nourishment will go all the way up the beach from Mitchells Cut to a mile past the last house on the east end of the island.  Everyone (County, GLO...

Little Florida Beach in Louisiana has the exact same breakwater plan we need here in Sargent. The pilot will look like this starting in January.  Here is from google maps - there are about 100 breakwaters there - far more than we would need https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3183&context=gradschool_theses  - study on the effectiveness of the breakwaters there

 ANGLETON — Applause greeted the vote Tuesday that could signal a step forward in flood mitigation in western Brazoria County as Commissioners’ Court unanimously approved awarding a dredging contract for reopening of the mouth of the San Bernard River. “We’re going to have a dredge out there hopefully sometime in July, isn’t that right, Matt?” Precinct 1 Commissioner Dude Payne said to County Engineer Matt Hanks. “I know Matt’s met with Rigid Constructors — we were able to save some money. We’ve got a lot of folks from Friends of the River (in the audience). Commissioner (David) Linder and I, the last time we were at their annual meeting, we considered wearing bags over our heads because we’ve been going the past four years now and promising this was going to happen. I know there were some people who doubted it was going to happen.  I was beginning to doubt myself that it would ever happen.”. . . Payne doesn’t know how many homes could’ve been saved from Hurricane Harvey’s flo...

I reached out to Atkins global to ensure we knew what was going on and what was next.  As many people saw, there was a ship off the coast getting borings of the soil where the breakwaters will go to ensure they will be on sound footing and will not sink into the ground. The funding for this was approved by the county commissioners back in April.  Definitely a great sign of progress.  So - from the update -  the Sargent breakwater and groin(jetty) project is on schedule.  It is not going to start in the fall.  Plans are for end of December or first of January for construction of breakwaters and groin. We were hoping the permit would be complete in the fall. I then wanted to know - what's next.  This is not the full solution - this is a pilot program and this is the response:  Yes, this is a pilot and the intent is to replicate the project. We will monitor the project after construction most likely at 6 months and at 1 year. We should see results f...

We were featured on Fox News tonight about the Caney Creek flooding that has not gone down after two bad storms.  GLO just awarded a ton of money - $8 million to Matagorda and $5 million to Palacious for drainage work.  Sargent gets nothing.  We have to push our elected leaders to do more.  https://www.fox26houston.com/news/beach-town-of-sargent-in-matagorda-county-still-dealing-with-flooding Press coverage like this will help!  Let's Clear Caney Creek!