4
THE SUN
ISLAND NEWS
Visit our website, www.amisun.com. Scan this code with your smartphone to go there.
NOVEMBER 18, 2020
Pier, floating dock damaged, boats sunk by TS Eta
IN BRIEF
WCIND is going to fund the removal of five sunken or grounded sailboats near the Bridge Street Pier. BY JOE HENDRICKS SUN CORRESPONDENT | jhendricks@amisun.com JOE HENDRICKS | SUN
The City Pier Grill is now expected to open in the space to the left on Monday. Nov. 30.
City Pier Grill delayed slightly The new restaurant on the Anna Maria City Pier could be open by the end of this month or the first week of December, according to owner Brian Seymour and his partners, Vic Mattay and Nick Graham. Seymour said they had hoped to open the City Pier Grill and bait shop on Friday, Nov. 20. “The storm set us back a few days into Thanksgiving,” Seymour said on Sunday.
AME reports no additional COVID cases No new COVID-19 cases had been reported at Anna Maria Elementary School as of Friday, Nov. 13, according to the School District of Manatee County’s COVID-19 online dashboard. On Thursday, Nov. 5, AME Principal Jackie Featherston learned one of her students had tested positive for COVID-19. As of Sunday, that student remained the first and only person affiliated with Anna Maria Elementary to test positive for COVID-19. As of Friday, the school district dashboard reported nine new COVID-19 cases throughout the district. As of Friday, a total of 232 school district students, teachers and staffers had tested positive for COVID-19 since the school year began on Aug. 17. That total includes 14 positive tests attributed to students and/or staff at Manatee High School in Bradenton.
Florida Press Club names Sun staffers for awards Four Anna Maria Island Sun staff members have been named finalists in the Florida Press Club’s 2019 Excellence in Journalism Competition. Awards are expected to be announced later this month for Steve Borggren (Editorial Cartooning); Rusty Chinnis (Environmental News, Light Features); Cindy Lane (Online Multimedia Package, Lucy Morgan Award for In-Depth Reporting, That is So ... Florida); and Kristin Swain (Community News, Light Features).
BRADENTON BEACH – Most of the property damage inflicted by Tropical Storm Eta last week was to sunken or grounded sailboats near the Bridge Street Pier and the adjacent floating dock. The floating dock and the east end of the Bridge Street Pier, including the T-end, were closed Thursday morning and will remain closed until the needed repairs and boat removals occur. During the tropical storm that arrived Wednesday, Nov. 11, three sailboats sank next to the Bridge Street Pier and/or the adjacent floating day dock. Two of those sailboats sank at the east end of the floating dock and at least one of those vessels struck the pier. This resulted in damage to the side of the pier and a small section of the pier’s TREX decking. A dinghy also became lodged in one of the roller brackets that allow the east end of the floating dock to move up and down with the waves and tides. One sailboat sank near the west end of the floating dock, near the police department boat lift and police boat, which were not damaged. A large catamaran sank in place about 50-75 yards south of the pier. Another large sailboat ran aground near the city-owned dinghy dock by the Bridge Tender Inn; and the end section of the dinghy dock is now missing. A sixth sailboat sank beside and below the Cortez Bridge, near the Bradenton Beach Marina. All five sailboats that sank or ran aground near the pier are believed to have broken free while anchored just south of the pier in water occupied by several liveaboard boaters. As of late last week, it was not known whether the sailboat that sank by the Cortez Bridge came from Bradenton Beach or Cortez, both of which are on the Intracoastal Waterway.
JOE HENDRICKS | SUN
This large catamaran known as “The Ghost” sank in the waters south of the Bridge Street Pier. Left, this sailboat ran ashore near the city-owned dinghy dock next to the Bridge Tender Inn.
REMOVAL REQUIRED
As a member of the Bradenton Beach Police Department, Lt. John Cosby also serves as the city’s emergency operations manager. At 7 a.m. Thursday, Cosby, Mayor John Chappie and Officer Eric Hill were assessing the sunken boats and the damage to the pier and floating dock. “The floating dock held up well. The boat lift held up well, too,” Cosby said. At that time, the dock damage appeared to be limited to a gouge in the east end of the dock and a single dock float that broke free from the underside and now floated beside it. During an emergency city commission meeting held Friday morning, Cosby and the commission discussed a $75,000 estimate received from N.E. Taylor Boatworks’ owner John Banyas for the removal and destruction of the five sailboats in the vicinity of the pier and floating dock. That estimate did not include the sunken sailboat near the Cortez Bridge.
During Friday’s meeting, Cosby and the commission discussed but took no action on a $98,000 estimate received from Duncan Seawall, Dock & Boat Lift to repair the damaged floating dock and pier. Cosby said one of the sunken boats is resting beneath the floating dock and both N.E. Taylor and Duncan recommend getting the vessels removed as soon as possible to avoid further damage to the dock or pier. Chappie said he already spoke with Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker and West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND) Director Justin McBride about possibly obtaining WCIND funds to assist with the boat removal costs. Cosby said he doesn’t expect FEMA assistance because the boats were private property. The commission approved the $75,000 boat removal expenditure in hope that at least some of those costs would be covered by WCIND. Banyas was informed of the commission’s decision but was asked to hold off on removing the boats because the discussions with WCIND remained ongoing. When contacted Sunday, Perry said, “WCIND is taking over and we gave them the quote from John Banyas. WCIND will notify us Monday who the contractor is,” Perry said. SEE DAMAGE, PAGE 5
