Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Jacksonville Waterways Commission met on October 22, 2026, to consider staff recommendations for projects to be submitted for 2027 Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) grant funding. Staff reported that all 26 projects applied for in the previous cycle were fully funded. The meeting focused on reviewing proposed projects, discussing alternatives, and voting on the final recommendation.
The commission passed two motions unanimously:
Next Steps: The staff will present the recommendation to the full Waterways Commission at its meeting on October 23, 2026. Following committee support, legislation will be prepared for City Council approval, and applications will be developed for the 2027 FIND cycle.
Good afternoon, everybody. Um first thing I'd like to share is that the projects that we applied for last year, the 26 projects uh were all funded in full. So we have received those agreements, and those will be going through our process for execution at the city level. Um so you'll see those listed under 2026 on that top sheet that you have in the handouts of one the the spreadsheet with the yellow and orange cells on them. Um so as a reminder, those three that have been approved were downtown dredging, uh Sisters Creek Transient facilities, the bathhouse in particular. That's uh like we're chopping that construction into two phases, and then the TK Stokes boat ramp bulkhead design project. So those were the ones that uh we that you all asked that we applied for this past year, and we just received word um uh just a couple weeks ago that we are receiving those, and um but this sheet kind of shows you all the all the active projects um in the in recent years, and I like to show it this way because it should it demonstrates how design projects which are in yellow have to graduate to a construction project eventually. Um those are the orange ones, so we can kind of see that that flow of projects um as they advance over time. Um so you'll see um the projects in 22, the yellow ones, uh the hands chan Tansler Marina Project, that was a design project that fine funded, but that's a 36 million dollar project. There's no way we can afford that with fine because of the caps. So city council has already funded uh 12 million dollars for the first phase of that marina development, and we'll have to go back for future allocations of dollars for that one. So that one for construction wise we'd have to bite that marina project into smaller pieces and use all the money every year, or we can ask city council to fund that, and we can go after a bunch of other projects. That's the way we've been handling that project. So that's why you you don't see that as a uh construction project down the line here. Uh Pottsburg Creek, um that was a design project in 22. And if you look down in 25, we received the construction dollars for that, and that one went out to bid recently. Uh we had to reject all bids, uh, but that will be be readvertised soon. And so um we'll be breaking ground sometime next year on that project. Um Mike McHugh boat ramp. Why were they rejected? Uh there was there's a protest by one of the uh we had 14 contractors re um respond to that that project, which is awesome. We don't usually have that many. Um, but there was because of the competitive nature of it, they were debating some points, and they found a discrepancy within the advertisement that went out that our procurement division decided, okay. The only uh fair way to resolve that was to reject all bids and put it back out. So yeah. So we were losing some time on that, but we're gonna we'll do it right. Um, since it was deemed a legitimate thing. So it had to do with like qualifications for some of the work. And one place that says you had to provide it, another place said you could provide it later. So it was like, well, you know, we rejected other people that so anyway. Went above my head, and uh they made the decision. So we'll that'll be moving on, like I said, it will be rebid and I don't know, whenever procurement can get through their process and get back out there. Uh the Mike McHugh boat ramp project, that one is complete. Not only designed, but construction is now done, and that boat ramp has reopened, as well as the Oak Harbor bulkhead that was done a couple years ago, and that's open. And the Thomas Creek Fish Camp Adaptive Kayak Launch, that was completed. Um you'll see that's only listed as design, but it was actually constructed using uh CIP dollars, so that was not constructed with fine dollars, only designed. Um and working our way down to 23.