{"id":512,"date":"2011-07-06T23:34:19","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T03:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/?p=512"},"modified":"2011-07-06T23:34:19","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T03:34:19","slug":"dredging-today-com-key-west-officials-want-another-harbor-dredging-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/2011\/07\/06\/dredging-today-com-key-west-officials-want-another-harbor-dredging-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Dredging Today.com: Key West Officials Want Another Harbor Dredging Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"J0DvVDPIN7\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dredgingtoday.com\/2011\/01\/20\/usa-key-west-officials-want-another-harbor-dredging-study\/\">USA: Key West Officials Want Another Harbor Dredging Study<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;USA: Key West Officials Want Another Harbor Dredging Study&#8221; &#8212; Dredging Today\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dredgingtoday.com\/2011\/01\/20\/usa-key-west-officials-want-another-harbor-dredging-study\/embed\/#?secret=6ILQ2r7phc#?secret=J0DvVDPIN7\" data-secret=\"J0DvVDPIN7\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Posted on  Jan 20th, 2011<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key West city leaders are continuing to explore widening  the shipping channel that leads into the city\u2019s commercial harbor to  accommodate newer, larger cruise ships.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The most recent step was authorization from the Key West City  Commission for staff and lobbyists to push for federal authorities to  authorize a $5.48 million study taking a detailed look at the economic  and environmental impacts of widening the half-mile Cut B from 300 feet  to 450 feet, allowing for bigger ships.<\/p>\n<p>In a study released in November, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pegged the total cost of such a project at $35 million.<\/p>\n<p>Welcoming bigger ships with more passengers has long been  controversial in Key West, pitting two old foes: Old Town quality of  life versus a reliance on a tourism-based economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think this is going quietly along,\u201d Commissioner Teri Johnston said, but it needs to be a major discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She mentioned an April 2010 panel discussion sponsored by  environmental group Last Stand; of six panelists representing  stakeholders including the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and  small business, the Key West Chamber of Commerce was the only group in  favor.<\/p>\n<p>Johnston drove that point home in an exchange with City Manager Jim Scholl at a special City Commission meeting on Jan. 13.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019ll take years,\u201d Scholl said of widening the harbor, \u201cbut we need  to start if the community believes we need to continue to support a  level of cruise-ship activity that we know the industry is going to  evolve to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo we know if the community supports that?\u201d Johnston asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if everybody believes that,\u201d Scholl came back, adding  that he knew the chamber supported it. \u201cWhen do we hit that point where  it\u2019s too far to turn back?\u201d Johnston asked. \u201cWhere do we hit that point  where we\u2019re no longer able to say we\u2019ve decided to pull the plug on  this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously the city of Key West is going to have to support the  process from start to finish,\u201d Scholl said. \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t get  resourced, it won\u2019t happen.\u201d He said there would have to be some money  coming from the city but at this early point, no exact figure is clear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to proceed,\u201d Johnston said on Tuesday, \u201cknowing exactly where  we\u2019re at, when we can pull the plug if we decide to pull the plug as a  community, and what the total impact is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Commissioner Mark Rossi, who owns a large bar and  entertainment complex on tourist-friendly Duval Street, supports the  prospective dredging.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t stay on top of widening that channel,\u201d he said, \u201cwe\u2019re  going to be left in the wake of this and you\u2019re going to be looking at  more taxes to push on people. This is something that needs to be done.  If you lose the cruise-ship business, the devaluation of Duval Street \u2014  it\u2019s going to be a major impact here. I want to push it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>By SEAN KINNEY<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.keysnet.com\/2011\/01\/19\/300336\/city-officials-want-another-harbor.html\">keysnet<\/a>)<\/p>\n<div>\n<div id=\"mapp0\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/maps.googleapis.com\/maps\/api\/js\/StaticMapService.GetMapImage?1m2&amp;1i142771&amp;2i225069&amp;2e2&amp;3u11&amp;4m2&amp;1u510&amp;2u350&amp;5m3&amp;1e3&amp;2b1&amp;5sen&amp;token=118194\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><input id=\"mapp0_traffic_checkbox\" type=\"checkbox\" \/> Traffic<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: keysnet, January 20, 2011; Image: Picasa, October 6, 2008<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USA: Key West Officials Want Another Harbor Dredging Study &nbsp; Posted on Jan 20th, 2011 &nbsp; Key West city leaders are continuing to explore widening the shipping channel that leads into the city\u2019s commercial harbor to accommodate newer, larger cruise ships. The most recent step was authorization from the Key West City Commission for staff &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/2011\/07\/06\/dredging-today-com-key-west-officials-want-another-harbor-dredging-study\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dredging Today.com: Key West Officials Want Another Harbor Dredging Study<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":515,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions\/515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}