IOP to pay 20% of sand bill

ISLE OF PALMS — The town will pay about 20 percent of the nearly $10 million cost of pumping sand onto the beach where erosion threatens homes at the northeast end of the island, Town Council decided Thursday night.

Wild Dunes resort property owners and management would pay for most of the work. The state and county would chip in about 9 percent of the project cost. "I do feel the city has a responsibility to those people, and we do need to participate at some level," said Mayor Mike Sottile.

The city will borrow $1.7 million over six years and repay it through accommodations and hospitality tax revenue. With interest, the cost to the city is about $2 million. The average annual payment will be $336,000, said Dee Taylor, Council Ways and Means Committee chairman.

Taylor proposed the details of the city revenue bond plan to help residents of erosion-plagued Wild Dunes. His council-approved plan calls for entities such as the Wild Dunes Community Association and Destination Wild Dunes to pony up about 70 percent of the necessary funds before the work begins. The total cost of the project will be deposited in a city escrow account ahead of time.

"This is an historic vote," Taylor said.

The project, which will restore the beach from 46th Avenue to Dewees Inlet, will not affect city operations or cause a property tax hike, Sottile said.

Council also approved entering a $560,000 contract with Coastal Science and Engineering to move forward with obtaining permits for the project from state Office of Ocean and Coastal Resources Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In addition to the $2 million bond issue approved Thursday, the town committed $200,000 to the project in November. The renourishment could begin as early as the spring, but the timing will depend on whether government officials require a lengthy environmental study.

The stretch of mostly private beach approved for renourishment has severe erosion that threatens houses and a golf course. Affected property owners have been using thousands of sandbags to try to lessen the effect of tides, which are washing under buildings, damaging utility lines and edging the buildings closer to being condemned. Last month, state regulators refused to extend an emergency order letting the sandbags stay, saying that they worsen erosion.

Council explored a number of scenarios for the beach renourishment project, including having the city pick up anywhere from 100 percent to 25 percent of the project tab. Council rejected those options because they would require a property tax hike.

As an alternative, Councilman Dick Cronin proposed using $700,000 of the $1.6 million in accommodations and hospitality taxes that the city has on hand in addition to the $2 million it would spend on revenue bonds. No one seconded the motion.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at 937-5711 or pfindlay@post andcourier.com.