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Sarasota News Leader December 13, 2013 Page 41 continued, the project would be set back 10 or In response to another question, Engle said, 15 years, a point he also made at the Coastal "What we're talking about doing is essentially Advisory Committee meeting. taking the shoal back five years or 10 years," before millions of cubic yards of sand had "If one of you guys had a magic wand and drifted into the pass from Lido and Longboat could tell me there was sand 10 miles out or 8 miles out and I could go check it out, that keys. would be the first thing I would do," Mora Asked about funding of the project, DavisShaw added. explained that 62.4 percent of the money would come from the federal government and "Go look again!" a woman yelled at him. the rest would be covered by a state grant and Engle explained that since Lido is a man- Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax made island, if it is not renourished, "[It] goes revenue set aside for beach renourishment. away." On Sept. 18, Mora told the Coastal Advisory At what point would the Corps decide it Committee that funding for the Lido project no longer could take sand from Big Pass was not included in the federal budget for for future renourishments over the 50-year 2014 but he hoped it would be granted for the life of the project, SKA President Catherine 2015 fiscal year. "That's the goal," he pointed Luckner asked. The Corps analysis due by out at the time. "I cannot comment on interearly February will address that, Engle told nal policy of the Corps, but it could be as early her. as 2015 … It all depends on what Congress In response to questions about whether the decides to appropriate, and right now, all I dredging of the channel would create more know is we're asking for it." wave energy on northern Siesta Key, Engle said, "That will be answered [by the analy- Near the end of the Dec. 5 meeting, SKA sis.] That is one of the prime objectives of this President Luckner told the audience, "This is study. … There is a way to dredge an inlet preliminary … This is a work … in progress intelligently. We understand completely that right now." by over-dredging an inlet, you can cause cat- She added that the SKA is dedicated to proastrophic damage." tection of the environment and to the quality DavisShaw pointed out that the dredging of of life on Siesta Key. "You can count on that with us." New Pass had not damaged Lido Key. Pressed again about the potential increase in wave energy, Engle pointed to a model that showed an increase of 1.5 percent on northern Siesta Key as a result of dredging in Big Pass. "I would call that nearly within the margin of error of the model," he added. Regarding the Lido proposal, she continued, "There will be nothing that will occur that will be a big surprise," pointing out that the SKA already had asked for an independent peer review of the Corps' plans and for further public meetings. %