Bradenton administration lays out scope, costs and FEMA reimbursements for Lift Station 3 and storm recovery

City Administrator Rob Perry told the Bradenton City Council on April 20 that the planned Lift Station 3 expansion and related collection-system work is a multi-phase, long-term project that will require work on roughly 170 private properties and extensive right-of-way construction.

Perry said the lift-station work is one of the largest utility projects the city has undertaken and will include design, fabrication and construction for major storage and transmission components. He described the schedule as phased and cautioned that patience and careful documentation would be important throughout the process.

The administration also updated the council on storm-recovery and FEMA reimbursement efforts tied to last season’s storms. Perry said the city has removed about 144,000 cubic yards of debris — a figure he compared to “27 football fields” — and about 14,000.5 cubic yards of construction debris. He said the city has recorded more than 6,300 hours of emergency work by public-works staff tied to immediate response efforts.

“We’re eligible for a 50% immediate payment, which we have received,” Perry said about FEMA’s expedited Category A/B payments. He described the FEMA documentation and reimbursement process as tedious and said the city is working with Hagerty (a FEMA consultant) to compile required paperwork and to prepare staff for future submissions.

Public-works staff described the operational scale of the project: the work will involve digging in public rights of way, relocating collection and transmission lines and managing legal and property issues for dozens of private parcels. Perry said the city is evaluating options to accelerate the program, including project-management capacity, and that any council decisions on funding or procurement would be brought back to the council.

The administration reported two emergency procurements related to storm damage: an HVAC repair for an administrative building (around $30,000) and contracted landscape/grounds repairs connected to the Forever Lawn restoration. Perry also said the city is reusing some materials (for example, fence sections) to reduce costs and that staff are training public-works crews with Hagerty on better documentation for FEMA and FDEM standards.

Council members repeatedly asked about public communication; several said they wanted real-time public updates given the large scale of the work. Council members and staff said communication teams will publish project updates and that a standing project-team structure is being established for regular briefings to council members.

Why it matters: the Lift Station 3 work touches core wastewater infrastructure and individual landowners (about 170 properties), involves high construction and relocation complexity, and depends on multi-agency reimbursement and grants to limit local net costs. That combination affects timing and household-level impacts.

Council direction and next steps: staff said they will continue phased design, pursue funding opportunities and return to the council with formal budget or contract requests as required. Perry and public-works staff emphasized that work will proceed in steps, with legal and property coordination required before construction on private laterals and right-of-way work.

Ending: The council and administration emphasized that the project will be long-running and will require continued public updates and careful documentation for FEMA reimbursement. City staff told the council they expect further budget and schedule items to come before the council later in the year.