Anna Maria Island Pier--Mayor Mark Short

Newsradio WFLA's Read Shepherd talks to Anna Maria mayor Mark Short about the reconstruction of the city pier, which was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017, and then again by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I read Shepherd NewsRadio WFLA, and this is beyond the news.
One of the most popular tourist destinations on Florida's West
coast is Ana Maria Island and the iconic pier, which
stretches out some seven hundred and thirty feet into the Gulf.
Hurricane Irma took its toll on the pier in twenty seventeen,
but sadly, seven years later, the walkway was again decimated

(00:21):
by Hurricanes Helena and Milton. Now construction is underway to
rebuild the walkway. We welcome Anna, Maria mayor Mark Short.
First of all, give me an update on the status
of the work that's underway right now on the pier.
I do see cranes, I do see a lot of
work going on.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, we have a lot of work going on that's
actually been going on since October of last year. The
focus right now is the rebuild of the approximate eight
hundred feet of walkway to get it out to the
t end of the pier. The walkway, which was entirely

(01:04):
destroyed from Helene and Milton, needed to be demolished what
was left of it and rebuilt, and so the focus
at this point is getting that walkway rebuilt, so then
we can turn our attention to doing the repair works
that are going to be required at the t end
of the pier.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Excuse me, now, I understand you're getting two million dollars
from Manatee County. How does that kind of factor into
to financing the project.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, first of all, I want to use this to
again thank Manatee County the commissioners for approving the funding
to assist us with the rebuild of the pier. The
Peer project itself in total, once it is done, we

(01:56):
are estimating could cost some it's going to somewhere between
just over seven million dollars to approximately eight million dollars.
And so the two million dollars that the county has
approved to assist us with funding the work that needs
to be done is instrumental and extremely important with respect

(02:17):
to helping the city, you know, get this done. It's
helping us not only obviously with the costs, but in
terms of keeping a fairly aggressive timeline together that we
have to get that Peer reopened.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
I've I've been out to the Peer myself several times
and to Anna Maria a number of times before the hurricane. Obviously,
tell me, you know, what does the peer mean to
Anna Maria Island and to the to the economy of
the city.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, the pier is one of the most, if not
the most visited attraction in the county, and so, uh,
it's it's there, you know, for clearly obviously when the
tourists come out to visit, it is a destination that

(03:13):
almost everybody goes to. But it's an icon of this
city and of this island that peers been there for
over one hundred years in one form or another, and
it is you know, it's, it's, it's it's what's the
word I want to say, it's the the glue sometimes

(03:36):
that holds everything together out here. It's a destination. But
when you think of the of the island and in
particularly the city of Anna Maria, you always have this
vision of the city peer and you know, it's it's
extremely important for the residents, for the visitors, for the

(03:57):
commercial businesses. It's the attraction that then plays off and
benefits everybody.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Okay, I think you told me a moment ago, but
let me ask you again rebuilding the walkway, how is
how is the rebuilding different this time around? You know,
as opposed to what we saw before. How is how
is that being built so you know, to better withstand

(04:23):
winds from from a tropical storm or a hurricane.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, so this time around, what we did on the
construction of the walkway is all those pilings that are
in the water are now solid concrete pilings. When that
walkway was rebuilt after IRMA, they used the technology called

(04:50):
spin cast spun cast pilings, which meant means they had
a hole in the middle of them. So this time around,
we're using solid concrete pilings and and all of those
pilings are being connected with cement. The last time around
they used wood. Now to compare that, the t end

(05:10):
of the pier that survived the storms did use solid
concrete pilings and concrete what's called bents and stringers to
connect everything and they survived the storm. So by going
and upgrading the strength with respect to rebuilding the walkway,

(05:30):
we certainly hope and anticipate that that those additional costs
incurred to upgrade that will help us survive future storms
much like the t en did.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Last last question and I'll let you go, Mayor, what's
the timetable on the on the on the on the
work right now when can we expect it to be finished?

Speaker 2 (05:54):
While the overall project to have that pier open for business,
I still stand by our role that we want to
have it open for business by late fall of this year.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Ana Maria Mayor Mark Short, thank you for joining us.
I'm Red Shepherd and this is beyond the news