Naples City Council votes to repair Naples Pier

The Naples City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to repair the Naples Pier.

They said it’ll take around six to eight months before they have everything approved
And ready to turn dirt.

Mike Puskar is a Naples resident, and he said people who visit Naples should frequent the pier.

“People that come to Naples whether they’re here for a week or two, still, they have to see the pier,” said Puskar.

Puskar said he has memories of coming here with his wife.

“The last 15 years, it’s something that my wife and I would come and see. We’d walk the beach,” said Puskar.

For the last two years, those memories have been locked away because of Hurricane Ian.
Since then, the city’s been hard at work trying to get it rebuilt.

Berne Barton is a member of the Naples City Council. He said he has issues with how long the process to get the pier rebuilt is.

“It has been frustrating the time it has taken to get this rebuilt,” said Barton. “A lot of it had to do with permitting and the permitting we needed to get done to get the additional funding.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, City Council was ready to seal the deal. They unanimously approved a $23.46 million contract despite additional damage to the pier from Helene.

Jay Boodheshwar is the Naples City Manager, and he said he is not in favor of pausing the project.

“We’re not pausing to assess it further,” said Boodheshwar. “The plan is to replace it. Of course, logic would tell you further damage probably happened, but it happened to already damaged parts of the structure. So, we need to proceed full speed ahead.”

Many Naples residents want the pier done as fast as possible.