Beach Work Reactives Old Mill Bulkhead
Seems like old times at the beach, but with a new twist.
The St. Joseph Peninsula beach restoration project, which began March 25, is bringing new sand, new money and new hope to Gulf County residents and businesses, along with old memories of big boats at the old mill site.
Numerous people, both locals and visitors, walked along the former St. Joe Company paper mill bulkhead just north of Jetty Park at the Port St. Joe marina to get a closer look at the big boat moored at the dock last Tuesday and Wednesday.
The boat was the dredge "Bayport," the main component in the beach renourishment project.
The dredge and its crew are working on the Gulf side of St. Joseph Peninsula, dredging sand from offshore sites and pumping it on to the peninsula beach, ultimately building the beach out anywhere from 150 to 300 feet.
The hard-won and long-awaited renourishment project will replenish the severely eroded beach from St. Joseph Peninsula State Park south to the Stump Hole area at Cape San Blas.
The project is expected to take eight months of round-the-clock work. But those eight months, and several months preceding the actual start of the project, are not only pumping sand on the beach, they have been, and will continue, pumping much-needed dollars into the eroded Gulf County economy.
Take the refueling effort, which is why the "Bayport" was at the dock to begin with.
On Wednesday the boat was taking on about 45,000 gallons of diesel fuel, roughly half of the 100,000 gallons the tanks hold.
According to John Oliver, plant manager for Phillips Oil, Inc., refueling in Port St. Joe was a much better option than the original plan, which had the dredge traveling from the Cape to Port Panama City each time it needed to take on fuel.
Oliver said the dredge will come into Port St. Joe every 15 to 19 days during the eight-month project to refuel.
Since Phillips Oil supplies diesel to all of The St. Joe Company's marinas, the oil company made arrangements through St. Joe to use the bulkhead, Oliver said, thereby cutting refueling time in half.
With 7,500 gallons of fuel per tanker truck, that is six trucks, each with one or two employees.
The tanker drivers who had already unloaded their diesel on a particular day last week were going into Port St. Joe for lunch while they waited for other tankers to arrive.
Some of the crew of the Bayport also go into town while they are docked at the mill site, and Manson Construction, the company handling the beach project and owners of the dredge, has rented a slip at the marina for the crew boat.
According to Paula Pickett, director of the Gulf County Tourist Development Corporation, there are several other boosts to local economy flowing from the project.
There are approximately 35 to 40 crew members associated with the project, according to Pickett, about 16 of who remain on the dredge, three weeks on, one week off.
Their grocery bill is approximately $3,000 each week just on the boat and they have already contracted for those supplies with local Piggly Wiggly owner George Duren, Pickett said.
Fifteen or so of the crew are land-based and living at Barrier Dunes on the peninsula. Although the project is scheduled for eight months, they have leased their housing for one year.
And a number of pre-project crew members have been staying for the past several weeks at Mainstay Suites in Port St. Joe, paying for lodging, food and gas in the local area.
Manson Construction has also rented office space on St. Joseph Peninsula, and is already dealing with Napa Auto Parts in town and several other businesses, Pickett said.
Local engineering firm Preble Rish, which is providing water monitoring for the project, hired approximately 10 new people for the beach project, according to Pickett.
"This won't cure our economic situation, but it sure is a big boost to the local economy," Pickett said. "This has lots of ripple effects for Gulf County."
