- February 7, 2025
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While it may be a while until Cassen Park is completely restored, the city has chosen its game plan on how to go about the $1.2 million repairs caused by Hurricane Irma.
During a City Commission workshop held on Nov. 7, the City Commissioners agreed to the second concept out of four presented by City Engineer John Noble. The concept included repairing all hurricane damage in Cassen Park, proceeding forward with the existing proposed floating 12-boat dock project and expanding the breakwater to minimize and prevent damage to the park in case of a future storm. The entire project, including the $1.2 million in hurricane repairs, will cost the city an estimated $2.4 million.
“The main overriding thing with going with concept two is they didn’t want to have the public dock area associated with another facility that’s open to the public with a lot of pedestrian traffic, which would be our fishing pier," Noble said.
The third and fourth options presented to the City Commission proposed combining the fishing pier and the boat dock in one. The first concept had a shorter breakwater.
Noble said the City Commissioners favored two separate facilities for the fishing pier and the boat dock because they felt boaters would feel uncomfortable leaving their vessels in a highly-trafficked area like a fishing pier.
“I think the idea was the fishing pier is really just a fishing pier and you don’t want people trying to de-board and board boats while people are launching fishing lines," said City Manager Joyce Shanahan.
Shanahan also said the decision revolved around three key issues: the boat launch repairs needed at Cassen Park, the floating dock and the fishing pier behind the bait shop, including the portion damaged over in the north side in Bailey Riverbridge Gardens, the latter which she said is their top priority at the moment as it'll open a large portion of the fishing pier to the public.
Shanahan said the repair to that fishing pier is estimated to cost between $10,000-$18,000 and their trying to expedite it as quickly as possible. The repair will take about 90 days and the city expects it to be completed by early spring 2018 at the latest.
Following that, the city will then tackle the boat launch, which they expect to take another 90-120 days, Noble said. The floating dock and the breakwater project is the last priority at this time and he said work could start by fall of 2018. Complete restoration and repairs could be finished by the spring of 2019.
