Mill Pond makeover

            After nearly three years of languishing on the shelf, the 2006 report prepared by Apalachicola’s Working Waterfronts committee on revitalizing the Scipio Creek boat basin may finally bear fruit.

            Work is underway, both here and at the Apalachicola Regional Planning Council, to secure up to $700,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money, and perhaps $1 million more, to go towards a variety of priorities, topped by the creation of a boat repair yard with a lifting capability.

            At the first of two public hearings held July 8, city officials, together with Bruce Ballister, economic development planner with the ARPC, outlined priorities for a grant application. Ballister is working under a contract with the city, approved in June, to apply for CDBG money, and possible funds under the Economic Development Administration (EDA).

            Any monies secured would be added to an existing $250,000 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission grant, earmarked towards a haul out slip, that must be spent by year’s end.

            Ballister reviewed a series of recommendations compiled by the Scipio Creek Advisory Committee, together with the Working Waterfronts committee, The latter committee evolved from a Waterfronts Florida partnership grant that the city received under the administration of Mayor Alan Pierce.

            Led by the Apalachicola Bay Chamber of Commerce, the committee worked over two years to address issues of preserving the working waterfront, including commissioning a 2006 feasibility study for the city.

            That study recommended installation of a haul out lift and fueling station, icehouse, unloading dock and open air market where fishermen could sell their catch straight off the boats.

            Ballister detailed to this month’s hearing the steps he planned to take to meet grant requirements, that require that at least half of the beneficiaries of the  project be from low to moderate income households.

            Cindi Giametta, the city’s grant writer, said surveys are underway among the 68 people who dock vessels at Scipio Creek to determine their income levels. “We’re going to show they are going to be the target beneficiaries of it, and we’re going to show they need it the most,” she said.

            Ballister said that since the EDA is in the business of job retention, securing those monies will call for enumerating the number of jobs retained in the commercial fleet and seafood processing plants, and any new ones created. He said the project could qualify for 80 percent funding.

            While engineering costs are not considered an allowable expense for the grant, the county’s Tourist Development Council has earmarked $65,000 to cover upfront engineering costs for the haul out slip, costs not counted towards the city’s match. The existing FWC funds might be used towards the match.

            With only three major seafood companies left along the Apalachicola waterfront, the challenge for the project is meet the most urgent priorities, to create a repair yard, build a workable dock for offloading to trucks, complete infrastructure improvements to the dock, pilings and utility lines, and install a public restroom.

            Ballister estimates it will cost about $756,000 for the repair yard, complete with a 60-ton boat lift; $350,000 for dock offloading, with concrete dock and oyster shell on limerick base surface; $168,000 for piling and dock repair; and $68,000 for water, sewer and electrical repair.

            The public restroom would likely be part of seafood market facility, estimated to cost about $435,000 to complete.

            The seafood market has been given a medium priority by the advisory committee, together with creating additional dockage capacity and installing a method of making ice and loading it to boats.

            Given the lowest priority was installing a fuel storage and dispensing location, renovating the harbormaster’s house to transform it into a maritime heritage center, and dredging the basin and channel.

            Giametta stressed that an icemaking facility will only be installed if it does not threaten the livelihood of existing providers, and that both it and fuel storage  are “way in the future. We’re not going to go in competition with anybody.”

            She said four derelict vessels have been removed from Scipio Creek in the last two years, thanks to a $150,000 FWC grant. She said one vessel remains to be removed, after it washed up during Hurricane Dennis.

            The city hopes to hold its second public hearing after Ballister completes his report, likely within the next several weeks, in advance of the Sept. 1 deadline for applying for grants.