September 26, 2023 • 8 mins
The Bay Fishing Pier at Fort DeSoto Park reopens Thursday (28th) after a five-million-dollar makeover that includes bait cleaning stations, facilities for anglers in wheelchairs, and a covered landing for the Egmont Key ferry. We speak with Project Manager Robert Meador.
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(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. One of the two fishing piers at
Fort de Soto Park in Penellas Countyhas been under reconstruction and it's about to
reopen to the public. Robert Mehteris the design project manager for Penellas County
on the reconstruction of the Bay Pierat Fort de Soto and he joins us
right now on Beyond the News.Welcome sir, good afternoon. This pier
(00:22):
has been around for a long time. The Bay Pier at Fort de Soto
Park, which is right at thetip of Pinellas County, jutting out into
Tampa Bay. It's a series ofislands right past Tierra Verde for those who
are not familiar with the area,and this has been renovated several times.
It has a long history. Ifyou could kind of fill us in on
(00:43):
this well. The bay Pier wasactually constructed as a wooden structure back in
nineteen sixty and then it was reconstructedwith concrete in nineteen eighty four. So
as the years have gone by,obviously it's come to be I guess it's
(01:04):
reached its due date and it's atime for reconstruction and that's been going on
there for quite a bit. Now, tell us what was involved in that
project and reconstructing the bay pier.Well, starting with design. Whenever you
go through a project that's going tohave an effect of some sort on the
(01:26):
beach community, the beach environment,there's a series of permits that you have
to go through and obtain. Soone of the things that we wanted to
do was to really limit the impacton the area. So the design was
a decision was to place the newpier in the exact footprint as the old
(01:49):
pier, so that we would notbe impacting any more of the environmental area
than what we would would do justthrough the nature of demanding, dismantling,
and installing constructing a new pier.So that was the first thing that we
wanted to do. So the wholeprocess was focused around how that construction and
(02:14):
demolition of the old pier was goingto take place, and then obtaining the
environmental permits. And this pier,of course, is located. As you
drive onto Fort to Soto Park pastthe admission gate and you get to the
road that crosses the park, it'sgoing to be you're going to be turning
on the right and then the pierwill be over on your left. Now,
(02:36):
what is going to be new forpeople who have used the bay pier
in the past. What are theygoing to find that's new when they use
the reconstructed bay pier at Fort toSoto. Well, the old pier did
have a store on it, abait shock bathhouse, and had various other
(02:58):
sundry things in their snacks, thatkind of thing. We do not have
that on this pier. That maybe built on the land in the future,
but that has not been determined yet. That will be decided upon by
Parks and a future potential vendor thatwould provide that service. What they will
(03:19):
find this time is a very cleanstructure, looks much different than the old
with the type of railing that wehave on the sides. It's a little
bit wider by about two feet,I believe it is, and it has
a shade structure on it. Soas you go about a third of the
way down the pier towards odd intothe water, there is a shade structure
(03:45):
that has been built where folks canstand and wait for the ferry that will
take them out to Egmont Key,and the access to the ferry is much
better than it was before. Ithas aluminum ramps that go down to a
concrete platform and a larger waiting areafor the individuals that will be taking that
(04:06):
eggmot feed, eggmot key ferry.And then as you go throughout the rest
of the pier, there are acouple of new things that they will experience.
One is bait cleaning stations. Thereare three of those I believe that
are located towards the end of thepier and then along the tee head of
(04:29):
the pier, and that has atable where they can clean the fish and
dispose of the parts. And ithas also areas where the railing has been
lowered for those that are in wheelchairsso that they can have access to location
where they can actually fish and getup close to the railing so that they
(04:54):
can make that so it can beactually possible to do the Now, how
did you decide to make the changesthat you've made and was there a consultative
process as far as figuring out whatneeded to be present at a new bay
pier. There is a lot goesinto that in terms of the initial design
(05:16):
concept and then the permitting requirements aswell. The ADA accessibility is a requirement
through the ADA guidelines and the accessboard. So from that perspective, the
lowering of the railing in certain locationswas a requirement to make it ADA accessible.
(05:39):
Then secondly, the bait stations,that's that's a convenience for the fisherman.
It's also something that helps the environmentbecause hopefully they clean their bait there
and they do it appropriately so thatall of their tackle, all of the
fish parts leftover are disposed of correctly. And then the one thing I didn't
(06:03):
mention about new feature is the lighting. There is lighting along the pier,
down lighting as you go along themain portion of the pier, and then
there are light poles at the endof the pier and those had to be
in strict conformity with the Florida Departmentof Environmental Protections requirements to not impact turtles
(06:30):
sea turtles. So there was along, arduous process in order to look
and find the appropriate lighting and getthat approved by the FTEP. How much
is this project costing and how isit being paid for? The design was
a little over eight hundred thousand dollarsand that included the environmental portion of the
(06:53):
project, and that portion was actuallyfunded through the Federal Transited illustration, and
that was done as a result ofthe ferry to Egmont Key, the fact
that there is transportation there a transitprovider that will take patrons from the from
(07:14):
the dock the pier there out toEgmont Key, and so that was approved
several years back and we were ableto use that money for the design and
the environmental assessment on the project constructioncost. The actual bid was four point
seven million dollars and the final costwas four point four million dollars. So
(07:38):
the project came in under bid byabout three hundred thousand dollars and that portion,
all of construction was funded through thepenny for Penelus. Now you're having
an event to reopen that pier,the Bay Pier, on Thursday, and
that's going to be the twenty eighthof September. If you could fill us
(08:00):
in on what's going to be happening, then yes. On Thursday, September
twenty eight at eleven am, therewill be a ribbon cutting and the County
Commission, certain members of that willbe there and Commissioner long Chairman will be
there to cut the ribbon and therewill be a few dignitaries there, the
(08:24):
design consultant, most likely the contractor, and members of the Parks Department.
Sounds like it's going to be quitean event and the new pier will get
a lot of use out at Fortto Soto Park. It's one of the
two fishing piers at Fort to Soto. Robert Metter, the design project manager
for Pinellas County, on the reconstructionof the bay Pier at Fort to Soto
(08:48):
Park. Thank you for joining uson beyond the News. Thank you for having me
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. One of the two fishing piers at
Fort de Soto Park in Penellas Countyhas been under reconstruction and it's about to
reopen to the public. Robert Mehteris the design project manager for Penellas County
on the reconstruction of the Bay Pierat Fort de Soto and he joins us
right now on Beyond the News.Welcome sir, good afternoon. This pier
(00:22):
has been around for a long time. The Bay Pier at Fort de Soto
Park, which is right at thetip of Pinellas County, jutting out into
Tampa Bay. It's a series ofislands right past Tierra Verde for those who
are not familiar with the area,and this has been renovated several times.
It has a long history. Ifyou could kind of fill us in on
(00:43):
this well. The bay Pier wasactually constructed as a wooden structure back in
nineteen sixty and then it was reconstructedwith concrete in nineteen eighty four. So
as the years have gone by,obviously it's come to be I guess it's
(01:04):
reached its due date and it's atime for reconstruction and that's been going on
there for quite a bit. Now, tell us what was involved in that
project and reconstructing the bay pier.Well, starting with design. Whenever you
go through a project that's going tohave an effect of some sort on the
(01:26):
beach community, the beach environment,there's a series of permits that you have
to go through and obtain. Soone of the things that we wanted to
do was to really limit the impacton the area. So the design was
a decision was to place the newpier in the exact footprint as the old
(01:49):
pier, so that we would notbe impacting any more of the environmental area
than what we would would do justthrough the nature of demanding, dismantling,
and installing constructing a new pier.So that was the first thing that we
wanted to do. So the wholeprocess was focused around how that construction and
(02:14):
demolition of the old pier was goingto take place, and then obtaining the
environmental permits. And this pier,of course, is located. As you
drive onto Fort to Soto Park pastthe admission gate and you get to the
road that crosses the park, it'sgoing to be you're going to be turning
on the right and then the pierwill be over on your left. Now,
(02:36):
what is going to be new forpeople who have used the bay pier
in the past. What are theygoing to find that's new when they use
the reconstructed bay pier at Fort toSoto. Well, the old pier did
have a store on it, abait shock bathhouse, and had various other
(02:58):
sundry things in their snacks, thatkind of thing. We do not have
that on this pier. That maybe built on the land in the future,
but that has not been determined yet. That will be decided upon by
Parks and a future potential vendor thatwould provide that service. What they will
(03:19):
find this time is a very cleanstructure, looks much different than the old
with the type of railing that wehave on the sides. It's a little
bit wider by about two feet,I believe it is, and it has
a shade structure on it. Soas you go about a third of the
way down the pier towards odd intothe water, there is a shade structure
(03:45):
that has been built where folks canstand and wait for the ferry that will
take them out to Egmont Key,and the access to the ferry is much
better than it was before. Ithas aluminum ramps that go down to a
concrete platform and a larger waiting areafor the individuals that will be taking that
(04:06):
eggmot feed, eggmot key ferry.And then as you go throughout the rest
of the pier, there are acouple of new things that they will experience.
One is bait cleaning stations. Thereare three of those I believe that
are located towards the end of thepier and then along the tee head of
(04:29):
the pier, and that has atable where they can clean the fish and
dispose of the parts. And ithas also areas where the railing has been
lowered for those that are in wheelchairsso that they can have access to location
where they can actually fish and getup close to the railing so that they
(04:54):
can make that so it can beactually possible to do the Now, how
did you decide to make the changesthat you've made and was there a consultative
process as far as figuring out whatneeded to be present at a new bay
pier. There is a lot goesinto that in terms of the initial design
(05:16):
concept and then the permitting requirements aswell. The ADA accessibility is a requirement
through the ADA guidelines and the accessboard. So from that perspective, the
lowering of the railing in certain locationswas a requirement to make it ADA accessible.
(05:39):
Then secondly, the bait stations,that's that's a convenience for the fisherman.
It's also something that helps the environmentbecause hopefully they clean their bait there
and they do it appropriately so thatall of their tackle, all of the
fish parts leftover are disposed of correctly. And then the one thing I didn't
(06:03):
mention about new feature is the lighting. There is lighting along the pier,
down lighting as you go along themain portion of the pier, and then
there are light poles at the endof the pier and those had to be
in strict conformity with the Florida Departmentof Environmental Protections requirements to not impact turtles
(06:30):
sea turtles. So there was along, arduous process in order to look
and find the appropriate lighting and getthat approved by the FTEP. How much
is this project costing and how isit being paid for? The design was
a little over eight hundred thousand dollarsand that included the environmental portion of the
(06:53):
project, and that portion was actuallyfunded through the Federal Transited illustration, and
that was done as a result ofthe ferry to Egmont Key, the fact
that there is transportation there a transitprovider that will take patrons from the from
(07:14):
the dock the pier there out toEgmont Key, and so that was approved
several years back and we were ableto use that money for the design and
the environmental assessment on the project constructioncost. The actual bid was four point
seven million dollars and the final costwas four point four million dollars. So
(07:38):
the project came in under bid byabout three hundred thousand dollars and that portion,
all of construction was funded through thepenny for Penelus. Now you're having
an event to reopen that pier,the Bay Pier, on Thursday, and
that's going to be the twenty eighthof September. If you could fill us
(08:00):
in on what's going to be happening, then yes. On Thursday, September
twenty eight at eleven am, therewill be a ribbon cutting and the County
Commission, certain members of that willbe there and Commissioner long Chairman will be
there to cut the ribbon and therewill be a few dignitaries there, the
(08:24):
design consultant, most likely the contractor, and members of the Parks Department.
Sounds like it's going to be quitean event and the new pier will get
a lot of use out at Fortto Soto Park. It's one of the
two fishing piers at Fort to Soto. Robert Metter, the design project manager
for Pinellas County, on the reconstructionof the bay Pier at Fort to Soto
(08:48):
Park. Thank you for joining uson beyond the News. Thank you for having me
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