Hurricane Helene<\/a>\u2019s storm surge in 2024 but emphasized there are no safety issues. The boardwalk was built in the 1970s.<\/p>\nThe public works director said 30-35 pilings are unwrapped, while 55 were installed in the early 2000s with jackets that were below the mean high-water line, which allows for saltwater intrusion. Each wrap costs $5,000, and the city can only afford to repair six to eight pilings each year.<\/p>\n
Last week, the city applied for a $200,000 matching grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Wepfer said the total cost to make all needed repairs is more than $1 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this being the maximum $200,000 and then we match it $200,000, it’s going to take us either in phases or we’re going after multiple grants to complete this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s annual survey from last year rated the top side of the boardwalk in satisfactory condition, while the area below the deck received an overall rating of fair, according to Wepfer.<\/p>\n
Developer Bill Karns, owner of Karns Enterprises, is still rebuilding his Sculley\u2019s Seafood Restaurant at John\u2019s Pass after it was destroyed by Helene. Karns said he owns about 50% of the commercial real estate along the boardwalk and believes the wooden structure is central to the area\u2019s tourism economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the boardwalk\u2019s the heartbeat of John\u2019s Pass,\u201d Karns said. \u201cBecause most of your waterfront activities, or all of them, are done right here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Wepfer held a John\u2019s Pass Boardwalk Resiliency Town Hall meeting, where she showed photos of piling separation, jackets installed too low and barnacle buildup on unwrapped pilings. Wepfer said barnacles can burrow into wood for food and shelter, causing an hourglass effect on the piling.<\/p>\n
Stephanie Berry, owner of Woody\u2019s Watersports, pointed to two unwrapped pilings near her business that she proactively wrapped with carpet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just to prevent it from the\u2026 barnacles eating out at the pylons,\u201d Berry said. \u201cThey latch on there and then they go ahead and they just eat at the wood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berry said she supports the city\u2019s effort to speed up repairs by applying for grant funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting that we\u2019re actually applying for something like that to really help with the structural integrity of John\u2019s Pass,\u201d Berry said. \u201cI know that they’re looking at all of the different things that need to be fixed, just to keep it up and running properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karns said he agrees the boardwalk is an asset the city needs to protect.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to do maintenance on it in order to preserve it,\u201d he said. \u201cTo make sure that it’s going to last for years and years to come. We’re fighting against the elements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wepfer said current structural wrapping work extends 1.6 feet below the mud line and 2 feet above the high tide line. She said the Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant would allow the city to fix the 30-35 unwrapped pilings at the same time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should know whether or not we are in the running in January,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s usually around July that they issue the grants, and then we have three years to complete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. \u2014 Madeira Beach has applied for a matching state grant to help pay for repairs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3125,2968,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835],"class_list":["post-433561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-josh-rojas","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433561","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=433561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}