Latest news with #WorkingWaterfrontProject
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fairhope Pier temporarily closed for construction — what to know
FAIRHOPE, Ala. (WKRG) – It's an unusual sight at the Fairhope pier: no crowds, no fishing poles, just a construction crew and a sign that says it's closed for renovations. Theodore family shocked after lightning strike leads to surprise discovery Starting Monday, the Fairhope Municipal Pier and Park is closed for two days. It's part of a bigger plan for some much needed renovations of the bayfront. 'Because there's so much vehicular traffic and pedestrian traffic down at the pier, it just made sense for us to just close it for these two days and make sure we can get all the work done really quickly, really efficiently,' Fairhope's Mayor Sherry Sullivan said. It's a part of the city's Working Waterfront Project that started last fall. It's a $6.2 million dollar effort to improve the pier and bayfront with new sidewalks, drainage, better shoreline protection and more. City officials confirmed that the bulk of the work is set to be complete just in time for the city's annual 4th of July celebration. 'This is one of the most iconic spots in town, if not the most iconic,' Sullivan said. 'It's Fairhope's gathering place. It's our town square. So, I really wanted to make sure that we maintained the charm that people see when they go down there again.' This is the first time they have had to close the pier during these renovations, but there were things that needed to be done. 'Specifically, the seawalls needed to be rehabbed and that's a multimillion dollar project,' Sullivan said. 'The handrails on the pier needed to be redone, we needed new lighting. And all that's been able to be done.' Margaritaville Resort Orange Beach groundbreaking set for May So yes, the pier might be closed, but at the end of the day, the breathtaking view will always remain the same. The pier and the restaurant down on the pier, The Blind Tiger, are expected to reopen to pedestrian and vehicle traffic by Wednesday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Yahoo
‘It hurt to the core': Fairhope woman reunited with what's left of husband's memorial bench from pier renovations
FAIRHOPE, Ala. (WKRG) — Every month after her husband passed in 2010, Brenda Till would take a walk down the Fairhope Pier to visit her husband's memorial bench that she purchased nearly 13 years ago. 'It was a memorial marker. It was a place for us to go and visit with him,' Till said. 'I would come at night and talk to him. It was our little time, our space.' 'The process was working well': ICE detainees no longer held in Baldwin County Jail But everything changed one evening in the past few months when she noticed the bench was gone. 'When I got out to Frank's bench, well where it should have been, it was heartbreaking,' Till said. 'It really was. I can't even tell you what I felt that night.' All of the memorial benches on the pier were removed during renovations and repairs to the Municipal Park as a part of the city's Working Waterfront Project that began in August 2024. The original memorial benches along the pier were replaced with ones made of a composite, durable material. City officials said they plan to add memorial plaques to the benches soon. The old benches were made of wood and were beginning to tarnish from the outdoor elements. 'It's not the bench. It's the sentiment behind the boards,' Till said. 'My first cousin's bench was the first bench on the left as you go in. The next bench on the right was a good friend of ours, and he used to go fishing with Frank. The one up from that, we knew their family.' 'No one ever said, 'And we're throwing away your benches.' That's what hurt me more than anything,' she added. In a January council meeting, the city declared the benches as surplus, so they could return the engraved boards to the families who originally purchased the bench. City property is not allowed to be given away without going through the proper channels first such as marking the material as surplus when it is no longer needed for public for municipal purposes. When the city decided to surplus the boards, there were two disposal options for family members who purchased the benches: to dispose of them via landfill, or the engraved bench boards were available to family or person who donated the bench according to the council meeting notes. Now, families can collect what's left of those benches. Till said she was eager to discover her loved one's engraved boards were safe and couldn't wait to pick them up — until the city informed her the pickup address was the city landfill. 'I called my kids, and I said, 'I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can go to the dump and get Frank,'' Till said. 'It hurt to the core, it really did. But at least we got the boards back.' At the end of the day, Till said she was just happy she was able to bring this piece of her husband's memory home. 'The relief was just unreal,' Till said. 'I didn't want to get emotional, but it meant a lot to us, to my whole family.' Mobile County foster families frustrated with lack of staff at DHR And she already has big plans for what she wants to do with her husband's wooden memorial boards. 'My sons are going to make me another bench with the boards, and we'll sit it out by the house,' Till said. 'So we'll have Frank at home still, and I'm thankful for that.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
