WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - The Shell Point Beach Restoration Project is done just in time for warm weather.
After close to five months of waiting, Dawn Graham and Priscilla Terry went out to enjoy the new and improved Shell Point Beach in Wakulla County.
"Now we don't bypass coming here," said Terry. "We say we're going to Shell Point because we live so much closer."
Before, the women were turned off from visiting for various reasons.
"Nasty. Smelly. The sand was all gross. But now it's just beautiful," said Graham.
That's why the Wakulla County Board of Commissioners decided to apply for a grant through the Natural Resources Damage Assessment Program.
That grant gave the county $500,000 from the BP Oil Settlement. Adding in another $78,000 from local taxes, the restoration process began.
"This is just a beach that has been well used over time," said Commissioner Ralph Thomas. "This gave us the chance to re-nourish a good beach and make it even better."
All with new sand, new dunes, and even coastal vegetation, all to reduce erosion.
"We're just finding our locals are using it, our visitors are using it, so it's definitely a boom to our economy and tourism here in Wakulla County," said Thomas.
