TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — A special ‘State of the Beaches’ town hall will take place Thursday evening.

With a little more than a month away from hurricane season, the Pinellas Beaches Chamber is hosting a ‘State of the Beaches’ town hall.

Several beach mayors will be there — including Treasure Island. Leaders expect to discuss several topics, including beach renourishment. 

It was a challenging hurricane season last fall and that will certainly come up at the meeting. Madiera Beach’s mayor and the city of Treasure Island’s mayor will both give updates on how their cities are doing. 

After back-to-back hurricanes, Pinellas County estimated their beaches lost one million cubic yards of sand after Hurricane Milton last year with buildings on Treasure Island left underwater. The city says permits are still being filed, indicating that there are residents who want to stay and rebuild.

“Now that we’re moving onto ‘let’s rebuild,’ let’s start thinking about the future,” said Jason Beisel, public information officer for the city of Treasure Island. “Let’s see what we can do to get this city back because we are going to have to make some changes and tighten our belt. Our property taxes maybe going lower for the next year or so as people are rebuilding in this process. We’ve got to think long-term budget-wise, but we’ve also got many needs we need.” 

As for the city, they say their priority is renourishing the beaches. But before that work can begin, there are a few hurdles at the federal level that need to be resolved first. There’s been a long back and forth with the Army Corps of Engineers and property owners with the easement process before the renourishment work can get done. 

Thursday’s State of the Beaches town hall starts at 5:30 p.m. at Madeira Beach City Hall.