DESTIN — Sand pumping on Holiday Isle is a welcomed sight for a lot of residents — even those who opted out of the restoration project.
“We felt like we didn’t need sand on our beach, but they really needed it,” said Joseph Hughes, who built his single-family home on the beach in 1973.
Crews from Great Lakes Dredge and Docks have been pumping sand on the critically eroded beach on Holiday Isle for the past several days, only stopping Wednesday because of bad weather. Between 500,000 and 600,000 cubic yards of sand will be pumped onto a 6,200-foot stretch of beach that has been ravaged by storms in recent years.
Because of legal challenges, city leaders agreed to skip some properties and leave a roughly 2,600-foot gap in the middle of the project. Crews will skip Oceania, a group of 18 single-family homes, Holiday Isle Towers and the Martinique Condominiums.
Hughes said he doesn’t oppose the eroded beaches being renourished.
“The state wanted to fill in the area in the middle of the project for continuity,” Hughes said. “We agreed that the seven condos to our west needed sand, as did the properties to the east past Oceania.”
His objection was that he has a “beautiful” beach right outside his back door that he would like to keep.
“From my house to the water, we have over 300 feet of beach” and a 14-foot sand berm, he said. “According to my mortgage documents, we own that property up to the water.”
Hughes said that if the state placed sand on the beach behind his home, it ultimately would own the new shoreline and do whatever it wanted.
During a restoration project an erosion control line is created on the beach, and any sand that is placed to the south of the line becomes public property.
The West Destin Restoration project carries a $7.5 million price tag funded with bed tax dollars from the Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council. Destin officials signed a $6.77 million contract with the Oak Brook, Ill.-based Great Lakes Dredge and Docks last November.
Great Lakes was the contractor for the $28 million Destin/Walton County beach restoration in 2007.
Work began near the Jetty East Condominiums and will move toward the east jetty, which is expected to take 10 to 14 days. The crews then will pick back up near Holiday Surf & Racquet Club and move east for another 10- to 14-day stretch.
The work must be completed by March 15.
Destin Log Staff Writer Matt Algarin can be reached at 850-654-8446 or malgarin@thedestinlog.com. Follow him on Twitter @DestinLogMatt.
