Commissioner Murman quoted in this WTSP story on Apollo Beach restoration: (Video clip as well)

Channel dredging brings back more Apollo Beach

Jenny Dean, 5:35 p.m. EDT April 8, 2015

Hillsborough County, Florida — Beach lovers will soon have another place to hang out, and residents who live on the water in south Hillsborough County will have a way to get big boats out on the bay.

The Apollo Beach Nature Preserve is closed now, but should reopen in time for Memorial Day with a fresh, new, sandy shoreline. That sand will come from newly dredged boat channels.

Video Link: http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2015/04/08/boaters-dredging-channel-apollo-beach/25472997/

Channel dredging brings back more Apollo Beach

Len Berkstresser is the president of the Apollo Beach Waterway Improvement Group. For nearly five years his group has been raising money and working with the county to bring the project to reality. He says, “It’s not just an inconvenience, but it’s also a matter of property values.”

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman remembers when there was a Holiday Inn and thriving public beach in Apollo Beach, she’s been working with ABWIG to bring that back. “What I’m trying to do as a commissioner is make use of our waterway. We do not do enough of that, from the city all the way down the coastline.”

Hillsborough County has invested more than a million dollars in the project, installing jettys and breakwaters to ensure once the beach is re-nourished, the sand stays there. ABWIG has raised more than $300,000 from corporations and residents to do the dredging. That is expected to start next week, and all that fresh sand should be ready for residents around memorial day. ABWIG still needs to raise about $25 thousand to put the finishing touches on the project.

To see pictures of the project and find out how to donate visit www.abwig.org.