SANIBEL, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 A community effort to bring a fishing pier back to Sanibel has paid off.<\/p>\n
The City of Sanibel is working to get permits for a $2.1 million fishing pier that will be resilient and withstand the strength of future storms. That process will still take at least another year or two.<\/p>\n
Not wanting to wait, a group of community members decided to raise money to restore the old pier on Lighthouse Beach and create a temporary spot for people to fish until the new pier can be built right next to the existing one.<\/p>\n
The goal is to have this pier ready for fishing by the end of this year. Crews have already started adding new ramps, replacing posts and repairing railings.<\/p>\n
“This is a huge symbol that needed to be taken up and restored. Not just waiting for a brand new pier. We needed to get on the pier now,” Katrina Salokar said.<\/p>\n
Salokar has spent years working on and off the island. She said the pier isn’t just a place to fish but a destination for tourism on Sanibel.<\/p>\n
“We put together a committee and a great group of people, and the island responded, and we were oversubscribed,” Birney said.<\/p>\n
Almost 200 people across 22 states and a donation from Canada raised more than $300,000. The temporary pier will not only be restored, but money will be left for maintenance and to add a shaded overhang.<\/p>\n
“Citizens are responsible for that pier, and the citizens will make sure it stays on Sanibel forever,” Sanibel Vice Mayor John Henshaw said.<\/p>\n
Community members who played a role in fundraising showed up for the groundbreaking to celebrate the pier’s restoration and the progress the community has made since Hurricane Ian.<\/p>\n
After Ian, resources focused on rebuilding homes and critical infrastructure. Four years later, the community is ready to bring back this special place to the island.<\/p>\n
“Revitalizing and reviving everyone in the true tradition of what the Sanibel Pier and Sanibel in general means for so many families for the last 50 years of vacationing. It’s an important thing to energize and get going,” Salokar said.<\/p>\n
During the course of nine months, the Sanibel Pier Restoration Committee raised more than their goal and secured the permitting with the Army Corps of Engineers. They also overcame the challenge of working with Fish and Wildlife to protect the turtles during nesting season.<\/p>\n
“Everybody was blown away that we had done that, and it was a great, great feeling to first hit that turtle or target, not the turtle,” Birney said.<\/p>\n
The city will host a ribbon cutting for the pier when the restorations are completed. The estimated date of completion is November 21.<\/p>\n
“It’s deep water right out here, and it’s a good place. Most fish coming from the Gulf will come pass right through there, and so it’s a great opportunity to catch your fish and tell stories about it,” Henshaw said.<\/p>\n
Supporters of the community initiative said the can’t wait to fish from the pier and rekindle the social aspect visitors brought when site seeing.<\/p>\n
“You’re not going to feel like you’re whole until it’s restored. And so that was my motivation: is just let’s get this eyesore off the island as quickly as we can,” Birney said. “We’re going to be open in a month. Bring your fishing pole and bring your grandkids, and let’s teach them how to fish.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANIBEL, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 A community effort to bring a fishing pier back to Sanibel has paid off.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[43183,167812,167808,9984,209,211,210,167807,502,28,157982,1694,159153,167813,44346,15471,48221,167811,167810,167809],"class_list":["post-426917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-army-corps-of-engineers","tag-birney","tag-bridges-in-the-united-states","tag-canada","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-city-of-sanibel","tag-community","tag-florida","tag-geography-of-florida","tag-ian","tag-john-henshaw","tag-katrina-salokar","tag-lighthouse-beach","tag-sanibel","tag-sanibel-causeway","tag-sanibel-pier","tag-sanibel-pier-restoration-committee","tag-sanibel-vice-mayor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}