FDOT tries selling Ringling-like bridge, but Cortezians aren’t buying it

Nobody would clap for Bob Rosas, but he wasn’t expecting any applause.

It’s because the Holmes Beach resident was the only one at the Florida Department of Transportation’s Cortez Bridge public hearing Thursday evening in support of the 65-foot fixed bridge option.

Around 165 people attended the open house at Kirkwood Presbyterian Church to get more information on the results of the project’s study. Three options were available: routine maintenance until 2035; a 35-foot drawbridge; or a 65-foot bridge that could handle 98 percent of the boat traffic that passes through.

The last option was what FDOT posed its “leading alternative,” as it was cost-effective compared to the drawbridge, and drivers could still access businesses like Tide Tables through a side road under the bridge. According to the department, the project “may affect, but not adversely affect” 21 species and one-hundredth of an acre of seagrass would be impacted. Additions like a dog park, fish cleaning station and bike rack area were suggested.

“(The current bridge is) deteriorating. It’s been exposed to the elements. It’s 60 years old. I’m 60 years old and I consider myself functionally obsolete compared to when I was 20,” Robin Stublen, FDOT District 1 public information officer, said. “Just doing the repairs over the course of the next 75 years would be much more expensive than building a new drawbridge or the 65-foot.”

But for the nearly 20 others who spoke out against the Ringling Bridge-like alternative, it was about evacuation safety, about traffic concerns and about preventing changes to historic Cortez.

While some agreed with the option of building a new 35-foot drawbridge — which is said to be about $30 million more than the fixed bridge — others were fervently against changing the bridge that has been there since 1956.

Carol Kio-Green’s great-grandfather Capt. Billy Fulford was the first person to build a home in Cortez, she said during public comment.

“You threaten my family and my way of life,” she said. Aside from Cedar Key, Cortez Village is the only historic fishing village left in Florida.

Others said they didn’t want a “highway” that they feel the tallest alternative would bring.

“It’s overkill, and it destroys the aesthetics,” Larry Grossman said during public comment.

A 30-year resident of Bridgeport Condominiums, which sits on the corner of Cortez Road West and Gulf Drive North, who declined to be named, said it takes her 80 minutes to get home from church on 75th Street West.

Public comment can be sent by email or mail until Sept. 12, addressed to project manager Marlon Bizerra. The email address is marlon.bizerra@dot.state.fl.us and the mailing address is FDOT District Environment Management Office, P.O. Box 1249, Bartow, FL 33831.

For more information on the study, anyone can visit cortezbridge.com.

This story was originally published August 31, 2017 at 9:21 PM with the headline "FDOT tries selling Ringling-like bridge, but Cortezians aren’t buying it."