Everyone in Cedar Key, as well as every visitor, drives G Street.  It is one of the loveliest streets in town:  spectacular 270-degree water views, incredible sunsets, great fishing spots, interesting beachcombing, wonderful canoe launches.  In addition to the aesthetics, the practicality of the street is immense: it takes one away from the smaller side streets, First through Ninth and E, F, and H Streets, which invariably have cars and boats parked on one or both sides, and, of course, have no view of the Gulf.

Further complicating the issue is the fact that G Street, the road itself, is owned by Levy County and situated in City of Cedar Key.  Property on the east is owned by various property owners including the Far Away Inn and others; property on the west, the water side, is owned by private land owners, and a small amount by the city. 

Additionally confounding the issue of what to do with G Street is the fact that the Cedar Key Water Sewer District owns water lines beneath the street and the city owns storm water discharge drains that manage and assure that water is clean before it enters to the Gulf.  Nothing is simple here.

The UF IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station’s Dr. Savanna Barry opened the meeting with a brief overview of living shorelines.  One handout defined these as: “living shorelines use plants or other natural elements - sometimes in combination with harder shoreline surfaces – to stabilize estuarine coasts, bays, and tributaries.”  The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration defines living shorelines as: “a shoreline management practice that provides erosion control benefits; protects, restores, or enhances natural shoreline habitat; and maintains coastal processes through the strategic placement of plants, stone, and fill and other structural organic materials (e.g. biologs, oyster reefs, etc.).”  

Barry’s introduction was supplemented by the UF IFAS Soil and Water Science Department’s Dr. Mark Clark who explained in detail the efforts to restore Rains Beach which is located at the west end of Eighth Street in Cedar Key.  This “Cedar Key Living Shoreline and Tyree Creek Enhancement Project” is intended to restore the Rains Beach with sand that has drifted north and now obscures the entry to Tyree Creek.  For more information, click on:  http://cedarkeynews.com/index.php/city-news/2435-joe-rains-beach

UF IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station Director Mike Allen agreed to shepherd the project and partner with the City of Cedar Key, Levy County, Cedar Key Water and Sewer District, the Suwannee River Water Management Distract, and property owners to find funding dollars to study ways to keep G Street operational and eventually to actualize the study results.

The Suwannee River Water Management District’s Leslie Ames agreed to investigate funding opportunities to study G Street options.  Levy County Commissioner Lily Rooks, City of Cedar Key Commissioner Sue Colson, and Cedar Key Water and Sewer District General manager John McPherson agreed to do all they could to support the project.