Anna Maria again defers decision on clam project

It’s unclear if Anna Maria will clam up or embrace clamming.

But a new proposal to seed the shoreline with clams possibly sweetened the deal for the city.

Mayor Dan Murphy said Jan. 27 that the city received a new proposal earlier in the week from the Palmetto-based Gulf Shellfish Institute — a nonprofit that would oversee the clam-seeding project — but city commissioners did not consider the pitch since it was not included on the meeting agenda.

Agendas must be prepared and published at least a week before their corresponding meeting in Anna Maria. So the Jan. 24 proposal arrived too late for placement on the Jan. 27 agenda.

The city has earmarked $50,000 of the $740,432 it received from the U.S. American Rescue Plan to spend on addressing environmental issues such as red tide.

GSI, along with four partners, proposed in January using the money to seed 20,000 southern hard and Venus sunray clams and plant cultivated seagrass along the city’s northern shoreline on Tampa Bay and Bimini Bay.