Emerald Isle plans new pier

Town partners with N.C. Aquariums

EMERALD ISLE -- A year after its bid to buy the Bogue Inlet Fishing Pier fell through, the town of Emerald Isle is working with the N.C. Aquariums for a new structure at the site of a pier wiped out by storms in 1996.

State and local officials Thursday announced a joint effort to build a 1,000-foot concrete pier that eventually would be one of three state-operated piers along the coast. Plans call for the $12.2 million project to be completed in five years.

The town had tried to buy the existing pier near Bogue Inlet last year, but the deal fell through, Town Manager Frank Rush Jr. said.

Ocean fishing piers have disappeared because of storms and demand for oceanfront property. Rush said the town's bid to buy the pier last year received support from people across the country. A Web site on the project received about 11,000 responses, and a paper petition received 7,000 signatures.

But Rush said the current project was "10 times better" because the public access area would be larger, and it would be closer to the state aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

The town, which has operated a beach access area at the 4.2-acre site, would transfer the property, which is worth $5.5 million, to the state.

Aquarium officials are seeking $4 million from the new N.C. Waterfront Access and Marine Industry Fund for the coastwide effort, with $2 million earmarked as initial funding for The Aquarium Pier on Emerald Isle.

The remaining construction cost will be funded through a combination of N.C. Aquariums admission receipts, future grant requests, local government contributions and a private fundraising campaign, according to a town release.

The proposal calls for construction in Emerald Isle to begin in 2010, with the new pier complete and open to the public in 2012. Eventually, the piers would be operated in conjunction with aquariums at Manteo on the northern coast, Pine Knoll Shores on Bogue Banks in the central area, and Fort Fisher in the south.

David Griffin, director of the N.C. Aquariums, said the piers enhance the aquarium's mission "and the need to preserve the ocean pier experience for current and future generations of North Carolinians."

Patricia Smith, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Marine Fisheries, said the division has received more than 100 requests for funding from the waterfront access fund. She said several other beach communities, including Oak Island, have submitted requests for help with fishing piers.

Smith said a citizens advisory committee will meet Thursday and begin to look at the projects. That committee, along with marine fisheries staff and representatives of other agencies, will pare the projects down to 20. Supporters of those projects will be asked to prepare formal proposals.

Emerald Isle officials said the new ocean fishing pier and related facilities would be modeled after a similar project currently under way in Nags Head involving the N.C. Aquarium at Roanoke Island. The Emerald Isle project would be a satellite facility of the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

The pier would be constructed primarily from concrete, to enable it to withstand hurricane activity. It would include a pier house, tackle shop, food service, public meeting spaces and N.C. Aquarium exhibits.

The project also calls for the construction of a smaller sound-side pier on Bogue Sound across from the new ocean fishing pier.