Florida DOE Grant Award
The City of Edgewater has been awarded $14,697,665 as part of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s Rebuild Florida Infrastructure Repair Program. The funds are allocated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery program, and gives local governments the ability to improve and restore infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Irma. Due to the diligent work of staff; the City of Edgewater is the only municipality in Volusia County which was awarded funds under this highly competitive grant program.
The City of Edgewater Environmental Services Department is responsible for maintaining approximately 24 miles of canals which provide flood relief and stormwater discharge throughout the City. This funding will be used to improve the G-2 and G-11 canals which flooded during Hurricane Irma due to storm surge conditions in the Indian River. The G-2 canal is the first branch from the main channel of the Gabordy canal providing flood control for properties between US-1 and the FEC Railroad Tracks from 10th Street two miles south to Marion Avenue. The G-11 canal is also a branch of the Gabordy canal which runs adjacent to the railroad tracks from 10th Street 0.3 miles south to Sea Horse Mobile Home Park. Approximately 350 acres of land in the City are drained in to the G-2 and G-11 canals.
The Gabordy Canal was originally built by colonists brought to the New Smyrna area in 1768 by the Scottish physician, Dr. Andrew Turnbull. Three canals, including the one along 10th Street, ran east-west and were linked with a fourth, longer canal that ran north-south. These hand-dug canals provided irrigation and drainage for rice, hemp, cotton, and indigo crops grown by the colonists, and served as a mode of transportation within the colony. Local historians believe that the Gabordy Canal was named after the Gabardis, an original colonist family who lived in the vicinity of the canal.
The design and construction of these improvements will occur over the course of the next several years.
