Resources, News, and Announcements

7/30/25

$13MM Grant for Sewer System Overhaul:

Good afternoon!  I wanted to clear up an error made in reporting by a recent The Facts article titled “Surfside Beach secures $13 Million grant for long awaited sewer system overhaul”.

Although this is great news and we should be celebrating the grant along with the position we are now in to begin executing this sewer project, the article makes it sound a bit better than it actually is.  In reality, this is the existing grant through HGAC and GLO that I have been referring to for some time in the weekly Mayor’s letters.  We have about $8MM in funding that has been held up by GLO and was recently released.  We now are working with HGAC to sign contracts and begin engineering work with Lynn Engineering and utilizing GrantWorks to assist in grant management.  This project is to replace the Seashell and Beach Drive section of our AIRVAC system with a gravity sewer system.  The project would replace one of our three existing sections of the AIRVAC sewer system with a gravity sewer system.  After the $8MM project is completed, we would still be operating with two sections of AIRVAC sewer system in the Village.

Below is a table that highlights the total $30.9MM in GLO grants, where Surfside is listed under HGAC in combination with a Crosby-Eastgate project for a total of $13MM.  I believe that is the error in The Facts reporting that Surfside received $13MM in sewer project grant money.  Again, this is great news and I appreciate The Facts helping to get the good word out about the improvements coming, but also needed to clarify the facts from The Facts!!

Thanks,
Zach

Click here to read

From the Mayor’s desk -7/25/25

Happy Friday! 

Summer is in full swing in Surfside with the heat and sunshine.  Knock on wood, with the hot and dry air we’ve had a fairly light skeeter summer so far which is nice!

We took some time out to celebrate our annual employees of the Village of Surfside Beach’s summer picnic yesterday afternoon at Stahlman park.  A cookout of burger & hotdogs, accompanied by potluck offerings and a few generous donations from the community (thanks!).  It was a great time to get nearly everyone together, relax in the AC and enjoy each other’s company.  Lots of smiles, laughter and full bellies…success!!

PD:

We received a phone call this week on Wednesday from the Coast Guard - Freeport who were on a recovery mission in their 45 foot boat in the Gulf about 10 miles east of the Jetty.  They requested help in the form of our smaller SSPD boat as a result of a near shore rescue call.  A boat had run aground and was in danger of sinking.  We launched immediately, and in a joint mission with the Coast Guard, recovered the distressed boat and passengers, with no injuries nor property damages sustained.  Pretty cool joint operation between our PD and the Coast Guard.  Very proud of our team to assist when called, and even more so, thankful for the opportunity and trust extended by the Coast Guard to team up with us on this mission.

Beach & Parks:

The summer beach season is in full swing.  We are above estimates on beach pass sales to date which is great going into the budget season for project funding next year.  One expected use of Beach Funds next year will be the permanent cement walkovers on Beach Drive.  We have initiated engineering designs and construction cost quotes for the Beach Drive cement stairs that will ultimately be funded by the beach pass sales from this and next year.

We are still on pace to have the cement road repair work commence in August on the intersection of Thunder and Surf Drive.  Again, a larger project and this intersection will be blocked off for multiple days during construction and curing.

Finance:

Marching along with budgets for next year.  This week with Council we nearly finished General Fund, which included funding for a new City Administrator!!!  We have about 2-3 more Council Budget Workshops to go before we approve and post the budgets for all 4 of our funds; General Fund, Systems Fund, Beach Fund, and Hotel Fund.  As I’ve said before, the goal for this upcoming year will be to balance every budget, post them on our website, and have the monthly accounting results posted for all to easily view on the VOSB website.  Once this is in place, that will be the expectation going forward for each and every budget season.

Public Works:

Again, Muni-Link utility billing is live now and individual account set ups will be required going forward for any autopayment choices.  Please see archived Mayor’s Letters with details, check our official Village of Surfside Facebook site, or contact Breana at City Hall with any questions on how to register for your Muni-Link account.  There are directions and a link on Facebook or she will be able to walk you through the set up of your account in Muni-Link.  Also look for your August water bill to find the account number details needed to open your new Muni-Link account.

Other Items of Interest:

First off, I wanted to address an incident that occurred over the weekend and was publicized on Facebook, near Santar Loop.  There was a sewage leak that occurred due to a customer’s plumbing failure that resulted in sewage discharge.  We were alerted to the situation after it hit social media, evaluated it on site, and found that the root cause of the problem required work to be completed by the homeowner, not our Public Works.  We informed the homeowner of the problem and proceeded to shut off water to the home that stopped further sewage disposal from the home.  Although the homeowner in this case is responsible to fix the issue, I feel that VOSB is accountable for the health and safety of the community.  We have reviewed the incident, and have taken action to create and implement a standard operating procedure (SOP) that would result in quicker response and action on our part to halt any discharge, in this case, by killing water supply.  Followed by immediate cleaning and disinfection of the site.  While nobody wants to have an incident like this occur, we have to use these unfortunate events as opportunities to learn and improve, which is what we will do.  In addition, please PLEASE PLEASE do not use social media as a vehicle to alert the Village of Surfside Beach to issues needing attention.  We only act and react to calls on our emergency lines during the weekends, not by monitoring Facebook.  It takes a Village folks.

Good news sewage item…Amanda and I received some great news yesterday on the Wastewater Improvement Project through the GLO & HGAC to replace one of our three AIRVAC sewer lines with a gravity feed sewer system.  The project was formally approved by the GLO, which had been the hold up for a number of years.  The next steps will be for the GLO to generate a contract with HGAC, and for HGAC to initiate a formal subrecipient agreement with VOSB.  From initial conversations with HGAC this didn’t appear to be major work nor to create major delays to the project’s advancement.  This Wastewater Improvement Project is also the project that Council recently approved the use of Lynn Engineering for project work and GrantWorks to manage the execution of the grant.  We will be getting weekly updates on this project from the HGAC going forward, each and every Thursday, that I plan to share in these Friday letters.  We’ve had a couple of very good weeks of significant milestone progress on both the Groins and Wastewater Projects.  I promise all of you that both Amanda and myself will keep the pressure on with regular reviews, holding them accountable for steady and acceptable progress on both projects.

As always, I hope that you have a great day and enjoy the weekend in wonderful Surfside Beach!  Pro tips:  Stay hydrated early and often (beer doesn’t count!) and apply & re-apply your SPF sunscreen everyone.

Thanks,

Zach

05/01/2025

SCAM ALERT: Beware of Fraudulent Emails Posing as City Communications

The Village of Surfside Beach has been made aware of scam emails being sent to residents, falsely claiming to be from official city departments. These emails may request personal information, demand payments, or contain suspicious links.

Please Note:

• The City will never ask for Social Security numbers or bank details via email.
• Official emails from the City will come from addresses ending in @surfsidetx.org
• If you're unsure about the legitimacy of a message, do not click any links or download attachments.

If you receive a suspicious email claiming to be from the City, mark it as spam. When in doubt feel free to call the City first. 979-233-1531

Help us spread the word by sharing this post. Stay alert and stay safe!

— The Village of Surfside Beach

Notice

This year's levy to fund maintenance and operations expenditures exceeds last year's maintenance and operations tax levy. The following statements must be included in the ordinance, resolution, or order setting this year's tax rate. The statements must be in larger type than the type used in any other portion of the document.

VILLAGE OF SURFSIDE BEACH ADOPTED A TAX RATE THAT WILL RAISE MORE TAXES FOR MAINTENANCE AND OPERATIONS THAN LAST YEAR'S TAX RATE.

THE TAX RATE WILL EFFECTIVELY BE RAISED BY 3.50 PERCENT AND WILL RAISE TAXES FOR
MAINTENANCE AND OPERATIONS ON A $100,000 HOME BY APPROXIMATELY $-1.99.

Notice

Public Works After Hours: 979-248-2085 (Please Text)

Notice

If you need help obtaining a WPI-1 for Windstorm Inspection, feel free to call the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Angleton Office at 800-248-6032, option 4, then option 3; or you may hire a Texas Certified Windstorm Engineer.