![]() ![]() Last fall, residents and the Sunset Park Area Homeowners Association teamed up to pay for an economic impact study of the dredging. Residents say more dredging could generate new tax revenue that could cover the cost. We were very generous in last year's budget to put a million dollars in" for the project. "I don't know what phase two's going to look like. "We got nothing, so we're back to square one," Mayor Bob Buckhorn said. Lawmakers appropriated $120,000, but Gov. This spring, the city sought $1.2 million for a second phase of the project from the Florida Legislature. Environmental Protection Agency canceled a $1.25 million grant for the work after Congress cut its budget for such projects. Trouble is, those dollars are scarce, too. Tampa officials say there are a couple of reasons why this project has evolved as it has. "More and more people will be upset when they see they're not getting what they expected," said Mike Rothenburg, an environmental engineer who chairs the stormwater committee for the Sunset Park Area Homeowners Association. "The bottom line to me is that there's no way that until they dredge the whole thing out that they're not going to have an issue." "That's so counterintuitive and illogical that I just shake my head," Woollard said. Otherwise, he predicts, once the dredging is complete, sediment from his part of the canal will ooze over and silt in the new, deeper channel.ĭredging only part, he said, will be wasteful. But he also believes that's what the city should do. Part of Woollard's annoyance is that he recalls city officials saying his entire canal would be dredged. At one time, some canals were deep enough that shrimp boats could dock along West Shore Boulevard to sell their catch. As recently as 15 years ago, residents enjoyed seeing manatees and snook from their back yards. The canals were dug in the 1940s and '50s and flow into Old Tampa Bay. Still, Jeff Woollard was surprised to learn the dredging along his canal - officially known as Canal 14 - will stop short of his home on W San Rafael Street. ![]()
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