At the end of September, a five-year contract between Keep Brevard Beautiful and Brevard County to clean up and maintain the beaches in certain high tourist areas expires. The Board of County Commissioners is preparing to solicit requests for proposals for another five-year contract, which will run through Sept. 30, 2022.
According to Stacy Delano, finance director of the Tourism Development Office, the lead agency in this request, the proposal is limited to heavier-travelled beaches in Cocoa Beach and portions of Melbourne on the beachside, those with access to hotels.
“This program targets litter reduction,” Tourist Development Director Eric Garvey said.
The proposal request states “the natural resources of the county and the economic and aesthetic benefits that they bring are degraded by litter on our shoreline. Litter and debris continues to be an environmental and economic concern to our community.”
The proposal calls for daily trash collection and litter pick-up in Cocoa Beach and twice-weekly litter pick-up from Canova Beach Park to the DoubleTree resort in Melbourne. Also, the top bidder will be on call for unexpected trash and litter debris incidents with a maximum 24-hour response time. The successful bidder will stay in contact with local officials in order to report any litter, trash or debris which may wash ashore and require special removal, and file monthly reports of activities including the weight of litter collected and removed to a land fill.
A committee of staff and volunteers will evaluate the proposals before approval by the commissioners.
“Yes, we plan to apply again. This request for proposals aligns directly with our mission to reduce litter and beautify the environmental of Brevard County,” said Bryan Bobbitt, deputy executive director of Keep Brevard Beautiful.
The contract will afford an opportunity for other municipalities to join down the road, Bobbitt said.
Litter removal has been an issue with towns such as Indialantic, which is considering partnering with Keep Brevard Beautiful.
“We have had an insufficient number of trash receptacles to accommodate folks as they departed the beach. They left their trash by the full cans in some cases. We have resolved that in those instances by placing cans on the beach at those locations and by increasing the hours on Saturday and Sunday that our part-time employee is available to empty trash cans,” Town Manager Chris Chinault said.
In the unincorporated South Beaches area such as Floridana Beach, the community takes responsibility.
“We have volunteers that do that, then we put the trash in our regular trash cans. This system works well for us and we have pretty clean beaches,” said Beth Glover, president of the Floridana Beach Civic Association.
