Securing Our Infrastructure In Hallandale Beach
By Hallandale Beach Mayor, Joy Cooper

Residents may recall that Governor DeSantis approved a large grant for our city to replace our old lift stations particularly in areas that are prone to flooding. He announced the award when he kicked off the first tranche of Everglades Restoration Funding and Water Projects.

This funding will go towards retrofitting five lift stations and installing two main pipelines. These improvements are designed to increase system capacity, prevent sewer spills, and reduce public health risks. Work will be carried out across various locations, including Northeast 12th Avenue, Northwest 8th Street, Southwest 4th Avenue, Southwest 8th Street & 9th Avenue, Northwest 10th Terrace, Northeast 7th Avenue and Northeast 14th Street.

These improvements are designed to increase system capacity, prevent sewer spills and reduce public health risks. The City will also be adding a new telemetry system, it will be integrated to enable remote monitoring and emergency response capabilities.

Our city crews have also been working on a pump system that is located off 12th and 2nd. During an assessment of the area, a pump was located by our engineer. It is not certain when it was installed. Our City did not have a Geographical Information System GIS in place to ensure we had an inventory and location of all our systems.

At first, it was thought that the system was to boost drainage to the outfalls. Staff began with the rehabilitation of the three pumps and found they were tied to an injection system. Obviously, we are extremely excited to uncover this neglected system. Currently, staff has cleaned out the system and rehabbed the pumps. The next steps will be to evaluate their capacity and research if others can be tied in.

As Hurricane Season is right around the corner, I will be working alongside our Fire Chief, Fucci and our new Emergency Response Coordinator on a Hurricane Preparedness Forum with a focus on how residents can work on flood proofing and preparing for natural disasters. We are looking forward to a date in May.

We will continue to address Infrastructure on the City side but I encourage all our residents to begin to look at the many ways to harden your homes for storms. We need to not simply think about wind but flooding. As Mayor, I have always worried more about floods than the winds. Hurricane force winds are certainly a start but flooding particularly flash flooding can kill.

Our City has reinstated sandbags after I pushed and Commissioner Lima Taub raised the issue at a meeting. Sands bags are ok but heavy & cumbersome and not easy to transport. I did some research last year and found many resources online. Reusable Flood dams are one such finds. They can help secure doors and garages.

Please save the date and join us at the CRA Meeting on Tuesday, March 25th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m.

As always, I am available anytime for your questions, concerns and ideas to make our City a better place on my Phone/Text at: (954) 632-5700. Or you can email me at: jcooper@cohb.org. Please visit me on my Facebook page at Mayor Joy Cooper. Like! Follow! And Share!