Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/198837
Sarasota News Leader October 25, 2013 Page 115 Siesta Seen He continued, "We believe the 24/7 pumping is necessary to maintain the integrity of work completed each day; this also allows the contractor to get to work right away each day and get done as quickly as possible while maintaining a reasonable completion schedule. … We will monitor and look for efficiencies in pumping where possible, but want [to] keep the contractor moving as quickly as possible." whose car engine was ruined by flooding on Beach Road during the "monsoons" in September. However, Commissioner Christine Robinson asked that staff address the issue countywide. Flooded roads are a matter "certainly not peculiar to us," Patterson pointed out. Still, the tourists who wrote about their car noted that no signs were up to indicate motorists When Patterson then asked about the expense, should avoid the area of Beach Road where Brownman replied, "The cost to dewater into their vehicle suffered damage. [an] existing ditch was accounted for in the existing project bid, but did not include the Patterson asked County Administrator size and number of pumps necessary to push Randall Reid to talk with staff about whether the water through the pipe into the Gulf, nor it would be practical to keep signs handy the rearrangement of the settlement ponds. to deploy on roads that typically flood "in This is a more elaborate system to get it off extreme weather conditions." the site entirely through the pipe. The pipe Sgt. Scott Osborne, leader of the Sarasota is 3,000 feet long and it takes [substantially] County Sheriff's Office Community Policing more horsepower to dewater." Station on Siesta Key, told me on Oct. 21 that Project Manager Alex Boudreau has explained the county already has signs stored at the that the best option for removing the water public beach to warn about high water on from the site is to allow sediment to settle Beach Road. Whenever flooding occurs near into the other ponds created near the area of the beach entrances, Osborne said, deputies the new stormwater pond, then pumping the make an effort to put out those signs. cleaner water through that new pipeline into After Patterson finished her comments during the Gulf of Mexico. the board meeting, Robinson asked her, "Are you proposing this only for Beach Road, FLOOD WARNINGS because there were roads all over the county" During the Oct. 8 meeting of the County that were flooded during the September Commission, Patterson used her report time rainstorms. to ask for staff help with signs warning about She saw people stranded in cars in Englewood, deep water on roads that tend to flood. she pointed out. Vice Chairman Charles Hines Patterson pegged her request to a letter the added that motorists also had problems in board had received from a couple of tourists downtown Sarasota.