The Anna Maria City Pier is getting a glow-up this holiday season.
Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy wrote in a Dec. 2 email to The Islander that Bradenton-based Equity Painting began pressure-washing the pier earlier that week to prepare for staining the structure.
City commissioners in October authorized Murphy to sign a $29,970 contract with Equity to coat the pier’s faded ipe hardwood decking.
Equity was one of three contractors that bid for the job.
The decking originally was stained in 2020, during the rebuild of the historic pier, which was damaged by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 and removed.
Murphy wrote that Equity was pressure-washing the pier’s decking from the T-end to the landing. Then it will apply an olive oil-based stain.
The mayor said the work was expected to take two weeks, depending on the weather.
Since the contractor is working overnight, the job will not require any closure during the pier’s usual operating hours.
The pier’s decking will need to be stained again after the new stain fades but there is “no exact timeline,” according to Murphy.
Additional construction also may begin soon in the empty building on the south side of the pier’s T-end.
Mote Marine Laboratory reached a contract with the city in September 2021 to lease the 1,800-square-foot building to house an educational outreach center.
Plans for the outreach center include live exhibits with about 1,000 gallons of recirculating seawater, as well as several interactive exhibits, such as microscopes and a livestream display of activity in the waters beneath the pier.
Mote failed to meet the city’s initial March 29 deadline but city commissioners voted in April to extend the contract with the nonprofit through March 1, 2023, while also applying several new deadlines.
City commissioners then voted Nov. 10 to authorize the building department to execute a construction permit for Mote’s proposed outreach center.
However, Murphy wrote Dec. 1 that the city had not issued a construction permit because Mote’s contractor had not provided the required bond documentation required.
“Per Mote they expect that to be completed prior to Tuesday, Dec. 6, with the permit being issued on that day,” Murphy wrote.
Construction must begin within seven days of the permit’s issuance, according to a new deadline established in the lease addendum.
Murphy said the city will hold a meeting Dec. 6 to discuss plans for the work but, he added, “any closures are not anticipated at this point and will be avoided if at all possible.”