SAFETY HARBOR — If the city had charged admission to the Fire Marshal Dick Brock Memorial Pier when it reopened Aug. 27, the first weekend’s gate receipts alone might have covered the cost of rebuilding it.
Mayor Joe Ayoub announced the reopening Aug. 27 in a Facebook video, catching residents by surprise nearly two years after hurricanes Helene and Milton forced the pier’s closure in the fall of 2024. The city will hold a formal ribbon-cutting Sept. 12.
“It looks like everything is ready to go!” Ayoub said in the video, in which he checked the final box on a list of tasks to be completed before the reopening, joined by the city’s mascot, Fiona Fun. “The pier is now open, and we hope everyone can come out and enjoy!”
Nobody waited for the ribbon. Visitors began turning up at the marina within hours of the announcement.
By late morning on Aug. 29, in sweltering heat, families were making the 420-foot walk out to the pier’s T-shaped deck to fish, take in the view of Old Tampa Bay or simply stand in the shade.
“I love it! I’m so glad it’s done after two years,” Clearwater resident Debi Henderson said Aug. 29 as she took in the view with her sister. “I used to come here before the storms took it out, so it’s good to be back.”
Others said much the same, often before they reached the end. One woman finished the walk and announced, “We made it!” Another praised the shade waiting at the other end.
The pier has anchored the city’s waterfront since the late 1800s, when a simple wooden dock jutting into the bay carried mail and supplies and served commercial and recreational fishermen.
That history helps explain why the loss of a wooden structure hit residents as hard as it did, said Laura Kepner, a longtime resident and author of “A Brief History of Safety Harbor, Florida.” She spoke to Tampa Bay Beacons in October 2024, after the pier’s destruction drew hundreds of comments on social media within days.
“We attach our happy memories to it,” Kepner said. “It’s a place to see manatees and fish and hang out, and it reminds people of their happy memories in the Harbor. So, even though it’s not as traumatic as a person’s death, when something devastating happens to something you love, it hits home.”
For others, the draw was simpler.
“I’m not a big fisherman,” said Hank Weber, 10, of Safety Harbor, posing for photos with his surprise catch, a baby stingray that was quickly released back into the bay. “But my family was in town, so I decided to come down here and check it out.”