FEMA Pays Up Council Addresses Sewer Maintenance, Ian Cleanup

By Monroe Roark

Question: How many sanitary sewer manholes are in Gulfport?

Answer: 694.

City officials contracted in early 2020 to have all of them inspected and graded to eliminate locations where wet weather can infiltrate the sewer system. Nine manholes received a poor grade, and those will be refitted with a new protective lining to prevent inflow and infiltration. The City Council voted Feb. 7 to approve a $92,421.65 contract with Engineered Spray Solutions for this work, piggybacking on an existing contract with Sarasota County.

Also approved was an $89,310.33 payment to Southern Disaster Recovery Inc. for emergency vegetative debris removal and disposal, as well as a corresponding budget amendment. This project was necessitated by Hurricane Ian, which swept through town last fall and left a great deal of limbs and brush scattered about.

According to city officials, staff worked with several local contractors to clean up the streets and stored approximately 7,200 cubic yards of vegetative debris at a city facility on 49th Street.

Southern Disaster Recovery began removing this material Nov. 29 and finished the job Dec. 9. The city will be filing a claim with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and expects reimbursement of the costs.

Total expenses related to debris removal as a result of Hurricane Ian amounted to $129,870. The anticipated reimbursement share allocation is 75% federal, 12.5% state, and 12.5% required to be funded by the city. That means Gulfport would be responsible for $16,234 and the budget amendment would address that.

In a separate action, council approved an agreement for disaster monitoring and management services so that debris removal operations are done properly. City officials noted that debris removal generally accounts for the largest portion of disaster recovery costs while also leading to the most federal funding being lost due to mismanagement and not working within FEMA guidelines.

A revised personnel manual for Gulfport employees was approved. City Manager Jim O’Reilly said the changes were mostly editorial and to provide for conformity with state and federal law. It was also noted that some outdated provisions were removed and grammatical changes made.

“It’s a living document,” said City Attorney Andrew Salzman. “As legal issues come up, we bring it in and want to put it in the manual to make sure everybody is protected and knows what they can and cannot do.”

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