Florida Division of Historical Resources<\/a>, Joseph E. Merry opened a store at the end of the Eighth Avenue dock in 1902, selling bait, groceries and tools while renting boats to visitors.<\/p>\nBy 1905, ferries were bringing passengers to the fishing village. Pass-a-Grille remained accessible only by water until 1919, making the pier a center of local commerce long before Gulf Boulevard carried today\u2019s traffic.<\/p>\n
The waterfront landmark has undergone several transformations since then.<\/p>\n
In 2022, the city completed an extensive reconstruction that included new decking, pilings, utility connections and lighting. Two years later, the back-to-back hurricanes damaged the property again.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, commissioners approved an $80,137 contract with Intellisite Inc. to rebuild the hurricane-damaged bait shack. Public Services Director Camden Mills said the project would take approximately six months, including 90 days of construction.<\/p>\n
The city is also sorting out the future of the businesses operating from the pier.<\/p>\n
At Tuesday\u2019s meeting, commissioners voted 4-1 to approve a temporary, month-to-month agreement allowing Offshore Hustler Fishing Charters to continue using a boat slip for $700 per month while the city prepares to seek longer-term tenants.<\/p>\n
City staff said Shell Key Shuttle, another operator at the pier, had recently been sold and would be leaving the property.<\/p>\n
Those arrangements are separate from the ferry discussion, but they come as the city considers how the pier will be used in the years ahead.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in Pinellas County, passenger ferry service has been gaining ground.<\/p>\n
The Clearwater Ferry, which began operating in 2015, connects downtown Clearwater, Clearwater Beach and Dunedin. Rahman said the operation received approximately $655,000 in state transportation funding to expand its service, eventually moving from an on-demand arrangement to regularly scheduled departures.<\/p>\n
Across Tampa Bay, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority is preparing to launch the Tampa Bay Ferry between downtown St. Petersburg and Tampa before the end of 2026. The service, operated by Hubbard\u2019s Marina, is expected to use two vessels acquired for the new operation.<\/p>\n
Rahman pointed to those efforts as examples of how public agencies and private businesses can work together to establish waterborne transportation.<\/p>\n
The St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce has also convened a waterborne transportation committee, bringing together local governments and business representatives interested in expanding ferry connections. Tate and city staff have participated in those discussions.<\/p>\n
Forward Pinellas has incorporated waterborne transportation into its long-range transportation plan, a step necessary for projects to become eligible for consideration for future transportation funding.<\/p>\n
The agency\u2019s recommendations for St. Pete Beach include exploring publicly owned docking locations and building partnerships with neighboring barrier island communities.<\/p>\n
Whether Merry Pier becomes part of a ferry network will depend on securing those partnerships, identifying destinations and establishing an operating plan.<\/p>\n
Rahman said the possibilities extend beyond Pass-a-Grille.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very possible that a future service here could not just serve St. Pete Beach, but your other neighbors up and down Gulf Boulevard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a century after ferries first carried passengers to Pass-a-Grille, city officials are considering bringing that kind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-440640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440640","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=440640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}