Report Urges Putting Off Ventura Pier Repair a Year

Plans to sink millions of dollars into the storm-battered Ventura Pier and restore the coastal landmark to its original 1,958-foot length should be put on hold for a year, city officials say in a report headed before the City Council on Monday.

New cost estimates show that using steel pilings to restore the pier to its original length would cost up to $4 million, far above the $2.5 million the city originally projected, city engineers and budget analysts report.

Moreover, bidding for busy construction firms is pricey in the wake of damage caused by El Nino-driven storms, officials say. Even if construction began now, work would continue into the winter season and be subject to increased costs and weather-related delays, they say.

The City Council should instead delay construction to spring 1999, the report suggests, in the meantime seeking additional state grants and working through the city’s Pier Steering Committee to consider new designs and options for the end of the pier.

“It’s a very logical, common-sense approach,” Mayor Jim Friedman said Friday. “Every pier in this state was hit, and since the contractors are spread really thin, they can charge more for basic services. If we postpone this a little bit, we can take advantage of a less-competitive bid process.”

But Councilman Jack Tingstrom disagrees. He said he is angry that the pier has not been rebuilt since it was walloped by 20-foot waves in December 1995.

He contends that a competitive market should be bringing construction prices down, not forcing them upward. And the longer the city waits, he argues, the more expensive the work will become.

“Delay, delay, delay,” Tingstrom said. “Are we going to wait for another El Nino? The citizens deserve more than delay, delay, delay.”

The city has $1.5 million in damage insurance and state grant money set aside for pier work. In October 1996, city leaders agreed with a consultant that the pier should be strengthened and that the end should be raised 4 feet. The council also discussed widening the end of the pier to 40 feet.

Councilwoman Donna De Paola, acknowledging that she has been criticized by pier devotees for her stance, said she is adamant about keeping spending on the pier to the insurance and grant money.

“There’s just so many other parts of the city we can spend money on,” De Paola said. “I just can’t see putting more money into it the way it’s battered around so much.”

The 126-year-old pier has been the recipient of millions of dollars in city aid in recent years, the result of massive winter swells and crashing waves that uproot the pier’s pilings.

Strong western swells in December 1995 lopped 425 feet off the end of the pier--which prompted city officials to spend $600,000 on steel bracing and piling replacement to shore up the structure.

Completed last December, the bracing is credited with helping the pier withstand western swells in February estimated to be 1 1/2 to three times stronger than those that did the damage two years earlier.

Friedman said he agrees with De Paola that spending on the pier should be curtailed.

The pier is a city priority, he said, but in his mind it ranks below the city’s need to eliminate a backlog of tree maintenance and road repaving work plaguing the city’s aging neighborhoods.

“How many times are we going to have the pier knocked down and have . . . ever-escalating insurance premiums?” Friedman said. “When Mother Nature says it’s time for the pier to come down, it’s going to come down no matter what we do. All we can do is make it the strongest it can possibly be and make it into something the community can really use.”

Increasingly, council members are talking about ways the pier can become more than just a place to walk from one end to the other, and believe that delaying work could provide time to explore new ideas.

They are thinking about redesigning the end of the pier to make it higher and wider, a place that could accommodate arts and crafts shows, farmers’ markets and food vendors.

“I would really like to see more happening on the pier,” De Paola said. “It has such potential to be more than just a pier to have people walking out and walking back.”

City Councilman Brian Brennan suggests building a stairway off the pier down to a floating dock and moorings, where boaters could tie up, visit the city and sail home. The floating dock could be towed to the harbor and stored during the rough winter months.

A water taxi might offer rides to and from the Ventura Harbor, tying the city’s downtown to its waterfront and marine attractions, he said.

“We don’t take advantage of the waterfront,” Brennan said, “and I don’t think we make the connection between the city and the waterfront.”

* VENTURA COUNTY GALLERY: The pier through lens of photographer Anne Cusack. B2