Below is Commissioner Misty Servia’s monthly column she shared with Manatee Herald. This month she shares her thoughts on stormwater.

If you asked a south county resident to tell you the one thing they want their local government to focus on this year, my bet is you’ll hear, “flooding”.

Take Trailer Estates – an old-Florida neighborhood on beautiful Sarasota Bay, and built in the 1950’s when stormwater management wasn’t really a thing. Listening to the flooding woes from these residents was a tough one, as there simply aren’t many options. Each lot has a tiny drainage swale in the backyard, and over the years residents had either planted or paved over these areas. Despite the challenges, our engineers got to work and started with inlet improvements along roadways. The ditch behind the nearby shopping center will be cleaned out by the end of September, and we are planning to enlarge and add drainage pipes, where we can . There is a 1-2 year plan in motion to improve drainage along Florida Blvd. and this should help the park too.

Bowles Creek and the Pearce Drain are main drains in our area and the County and SWFWMD have been studying them, which is leading to a recipe for relief.

We have already learned that the Sarabay Golf & Country Club installed a mechanism decades ago to “dam up” the water flow so that it could be used for irrigating the golf course. The county, together with the property owner, is in the process of designing and permitting reclaimed water to connect the course to an alternative source and free-up the flow. Construction on this will start next year.

Also in the queue is the installation of a drainage pipeline from 9th Avenue East to the Pittsburg Drain, just south of 57th Ave E. This project will divert some runoff from the overburdened 9th Street drainage system, and again should help the whole area.

Lake Brenden, located north of Magellan Drive between Connecticut Ave and Sabina Road was recently dredged to create more area for capturing runoff. Oh, and I can’t believe the stories of people swimming in this “lake” 50-years ago! Please – don’t do that today.

But when I think of major flooding, I remember Shadybrook and Centre Lake and am proud of the strong focus that we have given to these areas. Shadybrook residents have taken responsibilities into their own hands by contacting US Congressman Vern Buchanan and suggesting changes to the FEMA rules to allow residents to be more proactive in protecting their homes. As a condominium, they have pooled their money to purchase flood mitigation equipment. Talk about taking personal responsibility!

Before I was elected, I remember the 2017 storm that sent water into some of the homes in Centre Lake. They were hit hard because their subdivision was built in the 1980’s when FEMA rules were different. The problems were compounded by the limited maintenance on stormwater facilities during the Great Recession. I remember those times – hundreds of county staff laid off and our revenues – tied heavily to property taxes – well, were in the toilet. Today these facilities are maintained as carefully as a collector does an antique Ferrari, but there is still more work to do.

Studying the Gap Creek is next, which runs through many neighborhoods, including Manatee Oaks. Gap Creek is a tributary of the Pearce Drain, so we will soon have some good base-data with completion of the Pearce study, expected at the end of 2021. While this work was focused on flood relief in Centre Lakes, it will provide a foundation of information to understand the flooding issues in Manatee Oaks too.

We will kick-off this study soon, and while it is not a quick fix, we have developed short-term and mid-term plans to support the neighborhoods during this time.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that our Summer interns have mapped our older stormwater systems, including the quality of each of the facilities. This information is golden when trying to understand the big picture of the basins.

Stormwater management is not something that most people even consider, until their property is flooding. It’s one of the many things that your county government manages with your tax dollars. It’s easy to celebrate the new parks and sidewalks – the things that we can see. Just know that there is a lot of work being done that you don’t see too that protects our quality of life here in Manatee County.

Misty Servia is a Manatee County Commissioner who represents District 4 and also a certified land planner. You can reach her via email at misty.servia@mymanatee.org