The Flagler Beach Pier will be demolished and rebuilt as an 800-foot concrete pier, with $10 million in federal funds already allocated, and $2.5 million in money the city must still find. The city hopes the new, more hurricane-resistant pier will be completed by the time Flagler Beach marks its centennial in 2024.
The Flagler Beach City Commission in a special meeting Wednesday evening took a series of four votes to move ahead with the plan. The meeting followed a 70-minute hour-long workshop where City Manager William Whitson outlined the city’s options and Allison Taylor, a Bureau of Recovery specialist with the state Division of Emergency Management, explained why the city was at risk of losing that $10 million, and why one approach was more prudent than another.
“You know Matthew is 2016. We are getting further and further away from that original declaration date. And the further you get away the less, I guess, more skeptical FEMA is of time extensions,” Taylor said.
The pier lost 163 of its 800 feet during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The Federal Emergency Management Administration awarded the city $10 million for a replacement at the time. But the city did not move ahead, putting the money at risk of being reallocated. The city is having to file an extension with FEMA to ensure that the money isn’t lost. To show good faith, the commission held what turned out to be one of its lesser-publicized workshops and meetings, dealing with one of the more consequential issues in the city, with direct bearing on the city’s residents and on the city’s identity. Only a handful of people not associated with government agencies were at workshop and meeting.
The commission’s four votes were all unanimous, reflecting unanimity and eagerness to move forward. And the meeting was attended by Deputy County Administrator Jorge Salinas and County Emergency Management Chief Jonathan Lord, a signal of the county’s involvement and willingness to help.
Salinas briefly addressed the commission about the money. “In terms of funding support, that will have to come to the commissioners for them to review and consider,” he said. Randy Stapleford, a representative of the office of Rep. Mike Waltz, who represents Flagler, was also in attendance. “As far as the delays, there’s enough reasons out there why there’s been a delay with Covid,” he said.
Covid has been the go-to explanation for innumerable delays, but it is also the case that the pier rebuilding project had been on late City Manager Larry Newsom’s list of priorities, but had not moved forward even in pre-covid years. Newsom had in mind a 1,000-foot, concrete pier that would be built parallel to the old one.
Sometime in 2016 or 2017 the city got a contract from the state allowing it to proceed with the first option, Lord said. “Unfortunately, no action has really happened. So that is on the state and FEMA’s eyes, they say hey, all these years have gone by and Flagler Beach still hasn’t moved forward.”
Whitson on Wednesday presented two options to commissioners. Option A would preserve the first 100 feet of the wooden structure, like a nod to its historicity. The rest would be replaced and extended back to the pier’s pre-2004 length, in concrete. The pier was 800 feet before the 2004 hurricane season. (It is now 637 feet. It reopened in June 2017, eight months after Hurricane Matthew sheared off its end and forced it closed.)
The second option was to preserve the original pier and build a new, concrete pier of equal length (not 1,000 feet, as Newsom imagined) closely south and parallel to it. As officials spoke of it Wednesday, that option was fraught with risks and uncertainties.
Taylor was strongly discouraging of the city going with the second option.
“If your costs did come in higher, you’re not going to get any more money than what the project was originally offered,” she said. She cautioned the commission about long timelines for environmental reviews by numerous regulatory agencies. “When you’re working with that many parties, it can take a long time.” There was no guarantee that the state would grant the land to the south of the pier to build a second pier. And Option B would not require an environmental review, since it’s only a replacement of an existing structure.
Lord was also discouraging of the second option. It lacks any allowances for cost overruns. Option A has those allowances.
“If you stick with Option A, because it’s the original footprint getting you back to where you are but better and stronger with concrete,” Lord said, “if there are cost overruns, justifiable cost overruns that are documented, procured in the right fashion, one of the things that Allison mentioned is the fact that you can come back to FEMA at the end of the day and reconcile, say hey, we ended up eating half a million dollars, over $1 million, and then you justify–why? Because concrete costs twice as much as at start of the process.”
Lord said there’s also a possibility that the state would pick up 12.5 percent of the cost, leaving the rest to the city.
The plan would be for a pier 800 feet long, 25 feet wide, with a 17-by-31 foot end “T.” That’s what FEMA gave the city $10 million for.
There are two different ways of measuring the pier. One is from the pier’s own gated entrance. The other is from the sidewalk. If measured from the sidewalk, then the 800 feet the commission voted on Wednesday would mean that the resulting pier is shorter than it was pre-2004.
Johnston called Option B “a gamble,” because it would imply bigger costs to build the parallel pier and future costs should the existing pier be again damaged by a storm–as it is certain to be.
“If we went with Option B do we have a long term plan for the old pier?” the mayor asked. “Because you know the the structure is weakened, and once it becomes inoperable or uninsurable, do we have a plan to remove it, or are we going to just let it stay and become an eyesore?” The city, Whitson said, would have to remove it, and possibly face the removal cost. The once certainty: storms will damage the pier. It has experienced losses in 1944, in 1960, in 1964, in 1984 and so on.
Documentation for Wednesday’s meeting referred to another loss in 2005. But it was in 2004 when Florida was struck by four hurricanes–Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne–and the pier lost 144 feet. Frances was the culprit. That October, the commission awarded a $259,000 contract to John Toft Construction Inc. of New Smyrna Beach to repair and restore the pier. John Toft had conducted several repairs on the pier after previous storms, including after Hurricane Floyd damaged 600 feet of the pier. Even then, fishermen complained that the city wasn’t reinforcing the pier with concrete. The reason was the price tag. It would have cost three times as much.
Commissioner Jane Mealy–who moments earlier had actually favored Option B–made the motion to go with Option A, which was swiftly approved. The three other motions were more procedural, controlling the way the city would find an engineering firm and bid out the project through what Whitson termed the “traditional” request for proposal process, directing the manager to lobby for the remaining funds needed. The manager was also directed by a unanimous vote to seek an extension on the FEMA funds.
“We are now go for the pier,” Commission Chairman Eric Cooley said.
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Capt says
Do the complete pier in concrete or risk having the first 100 feet of the wooden structure ( if that option is chosen) ripped apart by wave action by storms and the City or County or whoever will just have to come back and rebuild that section all over again at a higher cost. But NO pier even those built to withstand a hurricane are 100 % foolproof. https://apnews.com/article/alabama-hurricane-sally-storms-hurricanes-dfb0c12d03d658755c9acfe12fb73562
The dude says
So… since we all are now paying for it… will we be able walk out on to it now without being charged a fee?
Steve Vanne says
Great point dude I’ll never pay to go out it..
bob says
good !!! [ and the trump club is not involved ]
Timothy Patrick Welch says
Hopefully it will be free access for the public.
jake says
Good for us, I guess.
Frank W says
Great idea. A concrete pier is more durable.
My home town in California has a concrete pier built in 1920 and is still strong today. Sure, they don’t get hurricanes but Pacific storms are impressive.
Suzanne Laplante says
There is a wood board on the pier which is a memorial to my late husband who loved Flagler Beach. How can I get that board back once construction starts?
David J Castello says
Thankful they went with Option A for the pier. Option B made no sense.
for real says
I hope they consider hiring local county contactors before going outside. We have a lot of good contactors in our county. Hiring locally keeps the money in our county. People get paid for labor, suppliers get paid, and then that money goes to our stores, towns for utilities, taxes paid, etc. it’s a “win win” situation.
More than likely local contactors may bring to light that a project is not feasible due to mold problems or other issues that may need to be addressed so the project turns out well. Don’t let an outsiders take our money and run not caring about quality, or the taxpayers as they have in the past. There are so many failed projects by local government that I don’t think I need to be specific. A local guy does not want to read about himself in these pages and will want the project to turn out good for their own reputation.
The last contractor to work on the pier, was a ” MARINE SPECALIST” from Orlando. They have ponds and lakes in Orlando. No Oceans, or Intercoastal water ways as we do here. Come on Man!
If we don’t have the talent or skill in Flagler, then it is fine to look outside, But try something different and –
PUT FLAGLER FIRST
Denali says
With all respect to your desire to hire locally, do you have a clue what is involved in placing concrete under water? Do you know where to get a barge with a driver to install batter piles? How about just the simple ability to bond a 12 million dollar water project on the east coast of Florida?
Hiring local is great when the locals have the equipment, ability and staff to do the project. Just because somebody threw some concrete on a house slab, formed a sea wall in the “C-Section” or a did a road project does not make them a qualified marine contractor. That is of course unless you want your podiatrist doing your coronary bypass surgery.
As for your other concerns, I for one am confident that the City of Flagler Beach management team is head and shoulders above the fine folks who brought the COUNTY the messes you describe.
Jimbo99 says
Whoever gets this contract, needs to have experience building something at least similar to an intracoastal bridge. And even there, Flagler Beach could very well end up with a Miami-Dade FIU pedestrian crosswalk. I mean it takes the Federal Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild sand dunes from Hurricane damage. Take Jacksonville Beach’s concrete pier, that one was falling apart after the 2016 & 2017 hurricanes.
https://weather.com/news/news/2019-08-05-jacksonville-pier-rebuild-matthew
Jimbo99 says
As for building a new pier in Flagler Beach ? The way the Jax pier was built, it was relocated from where the original Jax pier was. Their original pier was South of Beach Street at 6th Ave South, the new pier went in North of Beach Street at 4th Ave North which would be about a mile from the original pier location. Back to the parking for the current Flagler pier, they could build it further South at the end of the parking area, somewhere between 5th & 7th Street South, in front of restaurants like the Anchor or Tortugas. Ideally,there is parking on each side of A1A at 6th Street South in between Anchor & Tortugas. Wonder if that’s welcomed or not though, because the Funky Pelican or whatever restaurant would go into that location for a pier would be clustering of competition ?
Others mentioned it being open to the public for a free access & walk-out to the end of it. I don’t think that’s ever going to happen with any pier.
The dude says
“Others mentioned it being open to the public for a free access & walk-out to the end of it. I don’t think that’s ever going to happen with any pier.”
Why not? I’m paying for it, why can’t I enjoy it? Especially when I have to walk through a gauntlet of loony orange cultists to get there?
The dude says
“Hiring local” around here means the project will be two to three times as expensive, work won’t begin for at least two more years, and when it does finally begin you’ll have random dudes showing up at random times (unannounced) to do a couple hours work here and there..,
Of course you’re happy they’re out there working, when they do actually show up, but don’t know if or when the project will actually ever be complete. Then the concrete will start cracking within 30 days of the pour while they rain down excuses like “that’s just what happens in Florida”…
Spongebob says
Actually, the Hwy 100 bridge could be used as the ocean fishing pier as we see the inevitable 3-6 meters of sea level rise by 2040. But, you keep denying it, staying focused on owning libs, right up until you’re swimming in it. There will be no Flagler Beach, FL in the rediculously near future, let alone a fishing pier.
D the nuke says
So 9-18 feet of sea level rise is “inevitable”?
What climate model predicts that and how good have its predictions been so far?
Literally no study predicts that.
Stop fearmongering and turn off CNN every once in a while.
marian says
When will work on Option A (to preserve the first 100 feet of the wooden structure) begin?