- April 17, 2024
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Flagler Beach's iconic wood pier will be replaced with a new, concrete one in the same footprint, city commissioners decided during a special meeting Oct. 27.
The new pier will be 800 feet long — the length the current one had been before Hurricane Matthew lopped 160 feet off its end in 2016.
“There’s $10 million in Tallahassee waiting for us to pull the trigger,” City Manager William Whitson said on Flagler Broadcasting’s “Free For All Friday” program Oct. 29.
Florida Division of Emergency Management Community Assistance Consultant Allison Taylor warned that FEMA could revoke the grant money if it feels the city isn't making enough progress on the pier.
"The further you get away, the ... more skeptical FEMA is of time extensions," she said.
To build the replacement, the city hopes to use $10 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency grant money it had won after the hurricane. It will have to raise an additional $2.5 million from other sources.
The possibility of rebuilding the pier in concrete was the first of two options presented to the City Commission in a presentation at he meeting.
Called Option A, it will retain the first 100 feet of the original wood pier, then rebuilt the rest of the pier with concrete. It would take two to three years to build. It was the initial plan the city had presented to FEMA, and the one for which FEMA has offered $10 million.
The second option, Option B, would have retained the original pier but built a new concrete pier on state land to its south. That would have meant undergoing a new environmental review process and submitting new plans to FEMA for approval, with the risk they'd be denied.
The environmental assessment for option B could add up to a year to the project, said Florida Division of Emergency Management Community Assistance Consultant Allison Taylor. The state of Florida might also refuse to grant the city land on which to build the new pier.
She warned that FEMA could revoke the grant money to the city if it feels the city isn't making enough progress on the project. An added delay could increase the risk of losing the funding.
"The further you get away, the ... more skeptical FEMA is of time extensions," she said.
Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord had similar concerns.
"Whatever occurred between then and now, nothing has really happened," he told commissioners. Federal officials, he said, are likely to take note of that. "There might be valid reasons for it, but that's still on there."
As is, the city will have to request an extension.
There would also be another complication with Option B, Lord noted: If the project cost runs over the initial estimate, the city could appeal to recoup that cost if it went with the original plan, Option A, but not if it changed plans and went with Option B.
"You have $10 million for lack of a better term in the bank," Lord said. "If you don't do the original planned project using the original footprint ... you can't go back and ask FEMA for more money."
Commissioner Rick Belheumer said he favored Option A so that the city could recoup money spent as a result of cost overruns.
"Having built a few houses over the last several years, the cost of materials is going nuts, and I'm assuming the cost of labor is going to skyrocket as well," he said. "To do Option B and keep what's there now is going to cost us an outright fortune to maintain insurance."
Commissioner Ken Bryan, noting that he was a fisherman, favored Option A, with the shorter time to completion and less risk of losing the funding.
City Manager William Whitson suggested that the new concrete pier would be easier to insure than the wooden one, which has lost length due to storm damage multiple times.
Commission Chairman Eric Cooley thought Option B would be too risky.
"I definitely think Option B is a volatile option," Cooley said. "You're gambling. You're risking a lot. We're not in a position — we just need to make sure we stay realistic with our expectations."
The commission voted unanimously to proceed with Option A and to have the city manager seek out the remaining funding required. The project will then proceed to the bidding process and to construction.
