Tequesta Resident Hired to Lead Jupiter Inlet District

JUPITER — Joe Chaison feels drawn to the water.

The 49-year-old lives near the Loxahatchee River in Tequesta. He has a boat and enjoys diving off the coast of Palm Beach County. While in college, he worked as a dockmaster at a Boca Raton marina.

Starting next week, Chaison will be honed in on one particular area of waterways — the Jupiter Inlet, the Loxahatchee River and its tributaries — when he takes over as the Jupiter Inlet District’s executive director.

The district’s five commissioners unanimously voted to hire Chaison, senior coastal engineer in Palm Beach County’s Environmental Resources Management Department, at an annual salary of $102,000 during their Sept. 11 meeting, outgoing Executive Director Mike Grella said.

Grella, the district’s longtime chief, plans to retire at month’s end.

Chaison, a certified engineer, will be a huge asset for the district, said George Gentile, the board’s chairman.

“He understands and can work with our district engineers and monitor and manage them accordingly,” Gentile said.

James Gray, the Sebastian Inlet District’s executive director, agreed with Gentile’s assessment.

While being an engineer isn’t a requirement for the job, Gray spoke highly of Chaison’s acumen for coastal engineering — as well as his ethics. They’ve gotten to know each other through work, he said.

“I think he’s probably one of the best-fit engineers for this position,” Gray said.

Chaison’s job experience in the public sector was also appealing, Gentile said. In addition to his time with Palm Beach County, Chaison worked for the Maryland Environmental Service, particularly on dredging jobs in the Baltimore area.

Replacing Grella as the district’s executive was an attractive opportunity, Chaison said.

As it stands now, Chaison said, the district is efficient in its annual sandtrap dredges and maintenance of nearby beachfront. He doesn’t envision drastically changing that.

Even better, he said, it partners with other entities on improvement projects, such as the “living shoreline” planned at the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse.

Chaison intends to continue seeking out those partnerships, and putting to use the connections from his work in the public and private sectors. He also briefly worked with Taylor Engineering, the firm that the Jupiter Inlet District uses for its engineering work, in 2013.

“Jupiter Inlet, in my opinion, is one of if not the best-run inlets in the state,” Chaison said.

Gentile rattled off a list of projects that Chaison will be tapped to oversee. They include the lighthouse’s “living shoreline” and the increased clearance of the Loxahatchee River rail bridge.

That’s in addition to problems that might arise, Gentile added.

“We’ve got issues that we’re going to have to be concerned about as we start seeing bigger and bigger storms coming through,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure our jetties are stable and they’re all in good shape to handle the forces of nature.”

While with Taylor Engineering, Chaison worked on a project to restore a railing on the inlet’s north jetty that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The district, a special taxing district, covers more than 90 square miles in northern Palm Beach County.

It’s tasked with maintaining and preserving the Jupiter Inlet, as well as the Loxahatchee River and its tributaries. The district’s tentative budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year was about $3.1 million.