FAIRHOPE – Almost six months after Hurricane Zeta destroyed utility connections to the Fairhope Municipal Pier, water, sewer and electrical services have been restored to the structure, city officials said Friday.
Mayor Sherry Sullivan praised the work done by Fairhope public works and utilities employees who worked several weeks to reconnect the lines.
“I want to thank public works and utilities for the work they did on the pier. We all know that saved us in excess of $200,000, actually more than that,” Sullivan said at the May 10 Fairhope City Council meeting. “We appreciate how they came together and worked really hard to get that project done. We’re looking forward to having the pier reopened at full capacity and having the restrooms and the lights there.”
After utilities were damaged by Hurricane Zeta on Oct. 28, the city went out for bids to repair the services on two occasions. Each time the bids were about $250,000, according to reports at the time. The Fairhope City Council voted in March to buy the utility trays needed for the job at a cost of $38,568.30 and to have city crews repair the connections.
At the May 10 council meeting, Richard Johnson, public works director, said the project went well.
“The utility restoration at Municipal Pier has gone, knock on wood, much smoother than expected,” Johnson told council members. “The utility tray is in. All of the conduit is there, and each respective utility is working to make their’s operational and kind of our goal of a pretty quick order of operation is to get the lights on the pier back on, water and sewer so we can open the bathrooms and then we can start addressing the secondary issues.”
He said secondary issues include connections for water lines and faucets to allow pier visitors to clean fish and their hands.
“When I was down there at the end of last week, it was like an ant bed crawling with ants with all the utility guys working together to make it happen. We’re just kind of glad that’s coming closer to an end,” Johnson said.
Baldwin County was not declared a disaster area after Hurricane Zeta. Areas affected by the storm were not eligible for federal disaster relief, so the cost of repair projects such as restoring utility services to the pier were not eligible for funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to reports.
