John’s Pass Village and Boardwalk Water front is being buried by sand!
We have a large sand problem that has been festering inside Johns Pass for nearly my entire lifetime. This issue is now coming to a head as it continues to grow and worsen. That issue is sand encroaching into Johns pass forming a large beach along the North West side of the pass. This new beach will take over johns pass and all the boardwalk businesses in a short time if it was not for the continuous and awfully expensive efforts of our business, Hubbard’s Marina. That burden is on our shoulders and a fight we must take on nearly every 2-4 weeks just to be able to keep our doors open and allow us to provide for our families. After large storms that sand overtakes our docks and leaves our bait tanks dry and our boats sitting on dry land. If we did not dig our way out following these storms that sand would continue to shut down other businesses along the boardwalk. We have canceled tens of thousands of dollars in trips due to this issue because our boats are literally no longer in the water and we have lost countless thousands of dollars in live bait due to no water available to pull into our live bait wells. Luckily, we are able to save the remaining boardwalk tenants along the boardwalk this pain by our bimonthly operations to hold back the sand. We spend on average 75- 100 thousand dollars a year to combat this ongoing problem that could be remedied permanently with some help from the city, the county, and the state.
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Click to view Madeira Beach Fire Chief’s Letter! view letter
The Save Johns Pass needs your help to remind everyone this is still a major issue and its only growing worse by the day. We are forced to wait for the completion of this six-month study while the issues continue to exponentially grow now causing the channel of John’s Pass to close. Below is an email I sent out to our local leaders and politicians to update them on the issue but wanted to share it with you all too, so you know what were currently facing… severe costly and hindering issue for the entire area!
Luckily, our city council and city mayor of Madeira beach have been super supportive along the way, and our local state reps have been engaged and helpful too. Even Congressman Crist has sent a letter to Governor DeSantis about this issue, but we are still forced to wait and wonder what the conclusion of this six-month study will bring.
EMAIL UPDATE I SENT TO LOCAL COMMUNITY LEADERS AND CITY, COUNTY, STATE and FEDERAL LEVEL politicians ->
Just wanted to update everyone on the current situation Johns Pass faces. We now have vessels running aground and being damaged inside the Johns Pass channel just west of the Johns Pass bridge. One of our vessels was heading offshore at a medium tide behind the recent big cold front and the channel is normally at least 6-7 ft deep but the recent front has moved an enormous amount of sand across the channel causing vessels to now be forced out of the channel. Johns Pass main water access to the Gulf of Mexico is being closed off as we wait for the conclusion of this six-month study.
The vessel that ran aground is a US coast guard inspected vessel which requires immediately alerting the coast guard to the issue and terminating the trip. That vessel lost a full day of fishing after losing three days due to weather. Then upon return had to pay a diver to inspect the vessel and the coast guard came down to inspect too. Upon review the sand bent the propeller so badly on one side it needs to be fully replaced. They lost a second day waiting at the dock for a new prop, secondary dive team and another coast guard inspection. Nearly 30,000 in losses to the vessel due to this sand issue.
The sand accumulation inside the pass continues to grow and try to push east towards the businesses who work tirelessly to hold back this incredible burden spending countless dollars and hours.
I am hopeful we will conclude this study quickly with some solid plan in place to remove this safety, drainage, and access issue from Johns Pass business, community, and area. However, I am overly concerned that once this concludes we will be in an even more dire situation while we wait for the plans to be agreed upon and then permitted, bided, and then funded. Johns Pass cannot afford to wait as our continued business operations are threatened with each storm that barrage our coastline this time of year.
I would love to strategize now ways we can act immediately on the outcome of this study that is being worked on currently, and I would be incredibly happy to chat with any or all of you about the current state of the issue if you would like updates.
I can be reached at (727)393-1947 ext.306 anytime, and I appreciate your time in reading this update!
Thank you,
Capt Dylan Hubbard
Owner, Hubbard’s Marina
WE NEED YOUR HELP!! The #SaveJohnsPass movement still needs your help! Yes, there is talk a six month survey that doesn’t have a start date or even expected start date, and it has no guarantees of any true fix being made, and it’s possible the water access dependent businesses in the pass may not be operational in two months, much less six. Jobs and livelihoods remain at stake here. The beach also remains a public safety risk along with posing a threat to wildlife.
Long term fix
-county works with state and army corps to make alt 6 in the 2018 inlet management plan the preferred. This will increase johns pass jetties by 230ft. Over 3.5x growth.
-FDOT cleans up their mess they left behind in 2010 after the new bridge was built and addresses their drainage issues
-City of mad beach fixes their drainage issues and continues to work to fix their groins by lengthening and strengthening them (as current city mayor and vice mayor have already been working towards)
– City, county, state, FDOT, DEP, and private owners then work towards short term band goal… if final long-term plan in place than maybe do this again when long term fix is going into place if needed
Short term fix
– phase 1 private landowner Ben Mallah and his teamwork with tenants and city to dredge out sand that is blocking city drainage and private land
– phase 2 to work in conjunction with phase 1 phase 2 works to permit a larger dredge across FDOT, county, city, and private lands to dredge all sand build up in pass
*phase 2 must happen with phase 1 as nearly 200,000 was spent in 2017 on a phase one approach than only took about 10 months to fill back in from un dredged FDOT and city and county lands…. funding hopefully coming from state or feds or a conjunction of county, city, state, and private landowners with tenants.
**short term fix may need to be applied more than once if long term fix takes more than a few years… but maybe not, depending on breadth and ability to enact phase 1 and 2 and success removing hurdles left by FDOT after 2010 completion of new Johns Pass bridge.
CURRENT SITUATION #SAVEJOHNSPASS
1984 when the boardwalk was constructed and seawalls erected…
you can see deep water and everything is good to go
you can also see all the slips are used on big dock and we had 7 boat slips useable (now only three due to sand)
1997 you can see clearly sand is overtaking jetty and sand is starting to form
2000 you can see sand still pouring around jetty into pass
2002 you can see how much sand is building up along the jetty to the beach forming in front of boardwalk
2004 that sand is growing
2006 bridge construction starts and FDOT starts to build huge platforms of ‘rip rap’ material
2007 you can see them really building out a lot of material into pass
you can see our dock that is surrounded by sand is useless now this was where I nearly drowned and was nearly 30ft deep when I was eight around 1999-2000
that small dock was our main dock in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s
May 2010 they have built huge platforms of sand on top of all the material they brought it
Dec 2010 bridge is done and FDOT cleaned up west side of the bridge of all the sand and material they brought but left the east side along the boardwalk mess and didn’t bother taking their materials!
2015 Johns Pass Village screwed…. Sand issue exponentially worsened by FDOT material left behind
2016 were spending tons of time money and energy to hold back sand from shutting down boardwalk business
2017-2018 nearly $200,000 was spent to dredge and clearly less than a year sand came right back
2018 – PRESENT – worse than ever and extending further and further into past… safety issue getting worse and worse!
#SAVEJOHNSPASS to save the MANATEES & DOLPHINS!!
We have a major issue with marine mammals in Johns Pass being forced out of historical migration routes and pushed into the main channel DUE TO THIS SAND BUILD UP! This causes severe boat interaction, and the chances of boat strikes to dramatically increase on our local dolphins and manatees especially. Historically manatees will migrate out of Boca Ceiga bay through Johns Pass along the north seawall of the pass. However, that northern seawall on the east side of Johns Pass bridge is now blocked by an incredible amount of encroaching beach sand. This causes the manatees to break off the safety and protection of the seawall and forces them nearly into the main channel. I witnessed one nearly get hit just this week and I will be heartbroken if I see it occur during their upcoming migration north for the winter.
This time of year nearly ALL of our local manatees will exit through Johns Pass to head to the northern springs for the ‘winter’ and we are horrified that we will see any manatee boat strikes caused by this sand encroachment issue inside the pass.
Also, the local dolphin population this time of year spends a ton of time in the pass around the fronts with our mullet run. They chase the big schools of mullet through the pass and with nearly one third of the pass choked with sand its making less room for dolphins to feed and a more likelihood of boat interactions for these dolphins too.
Plus, the restricted pass has a greater tidal flow which will make feeding dolphins have to work harder and more treacherous for manatee migration as well.
Photo by: Doc Jon Photography (www.docjonphoto.com)
DREDGING ISN’T THE ANSWER, ITS SOMETHING WE DO AFTER LONG TERM FIX HAS BEEN APPLIED…
In 2017 nearly $200,000 was spent dredging the private property alone and sand filled back in quickly in less than 10 months… Ben Mallah or even Hubbard’s Marina dredging just that area won’t help, that’s a short term band aid. However, if we dredge that area and the FDOT area and along the jetties and clear up the material left after the 2010 bridge construction then we can clear up all the build up and have hopefully more than a year or three to have little to no sand build up while we work towards the LONG TERM fix of lengthening jetties, rebuilding groins and addressing drainage.
WE MUST make the jetties longer like it suggests in the 2018 inlet management plan they proposed making jetties 230ft longer!!! That would cure sand problem, fix our channel issues by making it straighter and deeper, would be the BEST fishing spot in the region drawing lots of tourism to the area, plus it would make the treasure island and madeira beach areas near the jetties bigger too!
WE MUST repair and lengthen madeira beach groins like the city has been working towards!
WE MUST get FDOT material cleaned up that was left after 2010 bridge construction
WE MUST have drainage issues solved!
WE MUST have a clear unblocked johns pass to solve our safety issues, ecological concerns, and accessibility issues.
This sand issue got a LOT of news the past week, check out the following stories & videos…
Nov. 7th, 2020 – -FOX 13 NEWS – covering meeting & reaction (county blames private property even though sand is on state, FDOT and county areas!)
Nov. 6th, 2020 – ABC ACTION NEWS – reaction to meeting
Nov. 6th, 2020 – NEWS CHANNEL 8 – meeting about the sand issue
November 2nd, 2020 – Tampa bay times article on the sand build up
OCTOBER 28th, 2020 – News channel 8 – #SaveJohnsPass Movement gaining momentum!
https://www.wfla.com/news/pinellas-county/save-johns-pass-movement-gaining-momentum/
OCTOBER 28th, 2020 – Fox 13 news – Solutions being sought after in October 28th 6-8pm City of Madeira beach city council meeting
October 25th, 2020 – ABC action news (covers the FIRST #SaveJohnsPass rally)
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-pinellas/madeira-beach-businesses-hold-%22save-john’s-pass%22-rally,-bringing-attention-to-sand-blocking-issue
October 21st 2020 – TBN weekly article on city’s efforts on the issue
https://www.tbnweekly.com/beaches/madeira_beach/article_5f867004-13c8-11eb-96b0-eb15efc729b2.html
October 18th 2020 – News Channel 8 coverage (MAJOR Safety concern & no action)
https://www.wfla.com/news/pinellas-county/boardwalk-business-owners-looking-for-a-sand-solution-in-johns-pass/
October 18th 2020 – ABC action news video coverage (Hubbard’s Marina considers leaving)
OCTOBER 18TH 2020 – Facebook video of sand reaching nearly to bridge!
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1312789825779771
OCTOBER 17TH 2020 – Fox 13 news (SHOWS HISTORIC BUILD UP OF SAND)
https://www.fox13news.com/news/stretch-of-sand-build-up-wreaking-havoc-on-johns-pass-businesses
OCTOBER 14TH 2020 – ABC action news (SHOWS CITY FIRE CHIEF AND CITY MAYOR’S CONCERN)
OCTOBER 12TH 2020 – ABC action news
OCTOBER 11TH 2020 – Facebook videos with over 165K views between the two videos and over 266K people saw the two posts with 37.3K clicks on the two videos!!
1st video (high tide) -> https://www.facebook.com/147347365309728/videos/330463598053334
2nd video (mid tide) – > https://www.facebook.com/hubbardsmarina/videos/834364503767806
