Bradenton Beach officials continue to deal with hard knocks on the floating dock at the Historic Bridge Street Pier.
Public works director Tom Woodard, in a meeting of the city’s community redevelopment agency Oct. 22, said waves resulting from Tropical Storm Nestor damaged the dock, as did a dinghy left there during the storm.
The city recently closed the dock because the gangway — the walkway connecting the pier to the dock — was pulling away at the connection.
Glenn Warburton, from Delta Engineering, is planning the repair to the dock, but, in the meantime, the floating dock is closed.
Woodard said Lynn Horne, managing partner of the Anna Maria Oyster Bar, saw an unnamed man tie a dinghy to the restaurant-end of the dock before the storm. A strong chop in the bay sank the small boat and lodged it under the platform.
The dinghy was removed, but Woodard observed three damaged rollers — the mechanisms that connect the platform to support pilings — became unbolted from the piles around the midway point of the floating dock.
Woodard reached out to Hecker project manager Eric Shaffer who visited the dock Oct. 25 with Woodard and CRA Chair/Commissioner Ralph Cole to check the dock for loose connections and needed adjustments, but the contractor couldn’t finish the job. Hecker was to return to the dock Oct. 29 to finish.
Woodard wrote in an Oct. 25 email to The Islander that, during Hecker’s visit, they realized that one of the two types of rollers used for the dock lacks connection brackets necessary to maintain structural integrity.
Woodard contacted a contractor the CRA hired to manufacture a safety ladder for the dock to get a quote for replacing 18 rollers at the dock with more stable gear.
CRA member and restaurateur Ed Chiles said he wants to keep tabs on the maintenance cost for the dock so the CRA knows if it needs to “make a decision” about the future of the dock.
Commissioner Jake Spooner, a CRA member, said the dock was to be capable of withstanding a Category 3 hurricane. So, asked, did the waves alone damage the pier, or was the dinghy more responsible.
Woodard said he couldn’t isolate the cause of the damage.
Mayor and CRA member John Chappie asked Woodard to hire Warburton to engineer a repair for the rollers.
The mayor added that he wants contact information for anyone who might be responsible for damage to the dock.
“We need to let these people know that if you cause damage to this thing, then we’re going to come after you,” Chappie said. “They need to know they need to be responsible.”