Some longtime residents of Holmes Beach likely spent time on the pier that used to jut about 100 feet into the Gulf of Mexico at the Manatee Public Beach.
Some residents grew up with fond memories; they met and fell in love there, or just fell in love with the beach and the pier. They took pictures of their young children there.
The snack bar had a rooftop deck and stairs that led to the shoreline pier.
At night, they led to the stars. It was idyllic.
Officials deemed the groin – built to aid in beach renourishment — unsafe and tore it down in 2009. The Manatee County Commission voted to replace it. But the state told the county that since there is no erosion in that area, the groin would not be funded as a beach renourishment tool.
Based on available data, county officials could not prove a new groin would benefit erosion control.
All that’s left are fading memories and photos.
However, the groin could be replaced by a taller recreational pier. County Commissioner Carol Whitmore said at a recent commission meeting that it would be nice to have a recreational pier there. She even has a suggestion for a name. She’d like to name the pier after the late Dave Miller, a longtime Manatee County lifeguard.
“I always wanted to name that after him because he was a head lifeguard for a while and a lifeguard for many years,” Whitmore said in a phone interview.
But pier supporters have a quandary.
Whitmore believes the public wants a structure similar to the low height of the demolished groin, she said, but the state has ruled that out.
That leaves construction of a higher, 15- to 17-foot-tall pier as the only option. Whitmore, a former Holmes Beach mayor, said she believes some residents are opposed to a 15-foot-high pier, “and I can respect that.”
Whitmore said spoke to Holmes Beach Mayor Bob Johnson about a new pier. But Johnson said in a phone call to The Islander that replacement of the groin as a taller recreational pier is not a high priority for the city.
“There is nothing going on right now,” he said. “With the improvements that have been done with beach renourishment, and so forth, I understand the whole business about no groin up here. That makes perfect sense to me.
“The option of going to a very high pier — which is pretty questionable — is not something that’s really high on the list of things to be done.”
With certain funding sources, such as the penny tax for beach renourishment and groins, ineligible for use to pay for a recreational pier, other revenue sources would have to be tapped.