Community fund helping pay for the Naples Pier

The City of Naples is working to return the pier to its former glory after getting damaged by Hurricane Ian, but this time with some help from the community.

Lately, there has been a misconception about where the money is going since the pier has also received government assistance from FEMA.

The process of building the iconic structure hasn’t been easy. But it continues to make small progress day by day.

The rest of the pier still remains damaged by Ian. The city needs $6 million from community members to help rebuild the pier back and make it stronger than before.

The Naples Pier is known to many as a portal to paradise.

“It’s an icon in the community. It’s been around 40 or 50 years. It’s a place that everybody goes, they take their families, they fish there, they, you know, they see the water there, it’s public. It is an extremely important piece to the city of Naples and Collier County,” said Eileen Connolly-Keesler, the president and CEO of the Collier Community Foundation.

The pier needs help from the community after getting battered by Hurricane Ian.

“The city didn’t get as much money from FEMA or the insurance to actually replace the pier to the degree they need to because you don’t want the pier coming down every single time we have a hurricane, right? So it needs to be built stronger,” said Connolly-Keesler.

Building back stronger means taking a different approach.

“It’s just different this time, because there wasn’t enough money to go around,” said Connolly-Keesler.

The city set up a donation fund for community members to donate funds that will go toward the pier. So far, it has collected a million dollars. That money will go towards the pier’s renovations.

“I think people are kind of questioning why it’s the government. Why isn’t the government just paying for it? They could if they wanted to just replace it the way it was,” said Connolly-Keesler. “But again, then we’re going to have this thing coming down again in the next storm, or it’s not going to be as elaborate and hold as many people.”

Nevertheless, they are still $5 million short of the goal since setting up the community fund.

“We’d like to get to 6 million that would be a safe number. I think enough that it’ll pay for the gap between what FEMA and insurance has done and what the city can put in. And again, if there’s additional dollars, that hits even better because then you can create that maintenance fund,” said Connolly-Keesler.

Connolly-Keesler is hopeful to reach that $6 million mark in the next six to eight months.

Once that financial goal is met, some of the add-ons to the pier will include a potential slide, underwater cameras, along with new benches and nearby shelters.

Click here to learn more information on the Collier Community Foundation.