The Florida Inland Navigation District has put $675,000 into three waterway projects in this county, and its own award list carries a figure the city’s announcement did not.

That list is dated Sept. 24 and runs to 64 numbered projects across the District’s twelve counties. Rows 5, 6 and 7 are the St. Johns ones.

St. Johns County asked for $250,000 to dredge the Vilano boat ramp, against a project the list puts at $500,000 in total. It was awarded $250,000.

The City of St. Augustine asked for $300,000 toward maintenance dredging in the Salt Run channel, against $400,000 in total. It was awarded $300,000.

The same city asked for $125,000 toward a fire vessel, against a total project cost of $828,000. It was awarded $125,000.

What the fire boat costs

The city announced the money on Sept. 29 and gave the figure as $425,000, which is those two city awards added together. It did not say what the boat costs.

The District’s list does. Under Total Cost, against the row reading Fire Vessel Purchase, it prints $828,000. The navigation district is covering $125,000 of that, and the city’s release does not say where the rest comes from.

St. Augustine says its Fire Department Marine Unit answers about 100 emergencies a year, and lists vessel fires, boating accidents, hazardous material spills, marine life rescues, bridge strikes and drownings. It says the city has eleven marinas and the county’s two busiest boat ramps.

The part that is easy to miss

The District shades a reduced award in orange and says so in a legend at the foot of the last page. A Palm Coast waterway trail asked $475,000 and got $420,000. A new boat ramp at Edgewater asked $2,725,000 and got $700,000. A St. Lucie County boat ramp asked $1,500,000 and got $582,000.

None of the three St. Johns rows is shaded. Every dollar this county asked for, it got.

How the money works

The program runs on Section 374.976 of the Florida Statutes and Chapter 66B-2 of the Florida Administrative Code. It will cover up to 75 percent of a public navigation project and up to 50 percent of anything else, and the District allocates roughly $10 to $12 million a year to it. What any one county can draw is capped at 90 percent of the tax revenue the District collects there.

The Salt Run award is $300,000 of a $400,000 project, which is the 75 percent ceiling to the dollar. That division is this paper’s, not the District’s.

Applications open in January and close at the end of March. Awards are announced in October, and approved projects can draw funds from Oct. 1, which is Thursday.

Across all twelve counties the District received requests of $39,471,089 against $87,534,902 in project costs, and awarded $29,579,827.

The city says the Salt Run dredging matters for navigation and access by charter fishing, sightseeing, eco-tour and recreational boaters, and that it supports tidal exchange and the habitat around it. What neither document gives is a date. The next line to watch is the one that says when the dredge goes in.