Community Corner

Pier Float Back on the Water at Fisherman's Beach

The tide caused the problem — and corrected it.

Tuesday morning when the Department of Public Works crew arrived to refloat the submerged float at the end of the Fisherman's Beach pier they found it bobbing in its familiar place.

Nature takes away and nature fixes.

DPW Director Gino Cresta said the overnight tide unbound the bound-up chain and rollers — that led to the submerging — and the float was restored as a landing for boarding and unboarding boats.

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Monday morning during an astronomical low tide the float sank. The metal ramp that typically angles down to the float, instead, lowered right into the harbor.

The chain rigging the lifts and lowers the float — riding up and down pilings — got bound up causing the decking to tilt and submerge, according to Harris Tibbetts, a regular presence at the beach.

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The Department of Public Works, which had two crew members on stand-by Memorial Day, closed the end of the pier for safety reasons.

The director brought a full crew to the pier on Tuesday to fix the float but nature had interceded.

The director does not think the problem will reoccur. Crews will soon — by a week from tomorrow — add the remaining floats to the lone main float.

Once the flotilla of floats are tied together it is far less likely that the roller-covered chains — that ride up and down pilings with the tide — will snag, he said.

 

 


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