UPDATEs
10/27/20
Well folks, it seems we may have been fooled once more. Only a few days after the town council unanimously voted down the project in the June 11 council meeting, they restarted talks with the Corps. Leading up to this, we were told time and time again by town officials that if we turned down this "once in a lifetime" offer, the Corps would NEVER come back to us. Yet somehow, as reported on the town's website, the Corps wanted to continue discussions with the town and planned another meeting.
None of this was revealed to the public for at least 6 weeks, after which, the town posted these late project “updates" to their webpage. Many of us didn’t notice these posts until middle August. What was posted? They posted updates that they'd had two meetings, the first on July 7 and again on July 27. For most of the summer, land owners thought the pressure was off. In October the council rescinded their vote to withdraw from the project.
Why wasn’t this posted immediately after the meetings, in real time? What are they trying to hide, again? It’s been reported that they are working on changing the easement language to a “50 year” term from “perpetual”. But, to nearly all of us because of age, 50 years of restricted access to the beach might as well be perpetual. Another aspect they were working on changing was the source of funding, but this is unclear.
It’s important to remember there is no guarantee of any Federal project funding after residents sign over their land to the town. Why is it so difficult for the town to be transparent to the tax payers?
Please have a look for yourself.
https://www.townofedistobeach.com/projects/storm-damage-reduction-project
8/2/20
We have finally confirmed, via the June 11, 2020, town’s council meeting minutes posted on the town webpage, that the Town of Edisto Beach United States Army Corps of Engineers Storm Damage Reduction project in its entirety has ceased moving forward, at least for now, until the next mob rolls into the multiple diverse seats of power in this town and starts telling property owners what's best to do with their own blood, sweat and tears.
The project initially was modified in order to delete the inlet reach also know as the sound or side beach, mainly because of owners and residents raising their voices in opposition to the one-size-fits-all project. Now that the corps has updated the details, it seems the project has now been deemed un-affordable, while all along, many concerned residents were not able to get clear answers regarding the costs behind this. The costs charts presented to the few didn’t even make sense upon further analysis. Also, there seemed to be a small issue obtaining the 200+ signatures for required easements.
We are glad council has finally reached this decision. We just wished they had stopped long ago instead of bulldogging its own citizens for many months. Looks like we built our OWN wall, against the storm of government overreach and it held. Shame on all of those who supported and pushed this lie of a project that brought about tremendous undue personal stress on innocent tax-payers and citizens.
If you are upset your oceanfront home is falling into the ocean, acquire sand and a bulldozer or sell it. If you are upset the front beach is shrinking, find another way to fix it instead of threatening to take land under the guise of protecting all beachfront homes. Don’t cry for help from the government and create an oppressive situation to possibly 200 plus property owners and tax payers of Edisto Beach. Have the courage to tell the truth: it was the failure of town officials and board members, elected and appointed, not financially planning for the front beach erosion and so they thought they could quickly and easily fix their mistakes by taking recently appropriated US federal tax payer funded subsidies AND taking US taxpayers land, all in one failed swoop.
NOBEACHWALL is incredibly grateful and thankful to all of you Edisto lovers everywhere for your support in this most important matter. Stay tuned, stay safe and always tip your bartender.
Update 5/7/19 : At a special corps project Town Council meeting the morning of May 7, 2019, the council vote 4-1 to request the corps delete the top 2/3's of the inlet reach, ending the wall at the Mikell St access, public access #32. We do not know when the request will be answered by the corps, but will keep you up to date. It should be noted that this item was placed on the agenda for vote "because of concerns that folks had on the inlet portion".
Update 4/1/20 : The town has said the inlet reach, starting at the last groin, has been dropped from the project. Those inlet reach beachfront owners have yet to hear from the town in proper written correspondence. Since the town newsletter is no more, and many of us don't do the facebooks, many will not be aware of this major change. But obviously, it's their fault because they fail to check the town's website everyday and play the facebooker games. 😉
