Update on the new Pensacola Bay Fishing Bridge

Michael Hoyt Williamson · Update on the new Pensacola Bay Fishing Bridge

On Monday September 28, a committee meeting about the future of the new Pensacola Fishing Bridge was held on the fourth floor of City Hall. Mike Flowers and Ed Fish of the Florida Sportsman radio show and myself meet with David Flaherty of the City of Pensacola Parks and Recreation and some of his staff to debate the future usage of the new fishing bridge. Butch Condon and Shaun Condon were also serving on this committee. The main debate is whether or not to allow cars on the new fishing bridge. Mike, Ed, and myself want cars allowed on the bridge, whereas Tom, Shaun, and the staff of Parks and Recreation want pedestrians only on the bridge. After two hours of debate about this subject a decision was made to hold a town hall meeting at the new Sander’s Beach Community center in the near future. The City wants your input. They look at this as more than just a fishing bridge, but as a recreation facility that involves more than just fishermen. The idea of split usage of the bridge was discussed. By split usage I mean on one weekend allowing cars on the bridge and on the following weekend allowing pedestrians only. An even /odd system of the weekends on the calendar could be put in place for the split usage of the bridge. By doing this City could see first hand what brings the people and the money in. After doing this for a while a permanent decision could be made on what is best for the bridge. The City has not decided the future of the day-to-day operation of the gate and store yet either. The City may run it themselves, but must likely will contract the management of the bridge to the private sector. Anyone interested in running the bridge needs to contact Buddy Connelly [436-5679] with the City of Pensacola Parks and Recreation. He’s looking at his options and is interested in who the players are should they decide to contract out the day-to-day operation. The fourteen fish attracting lights on the bridge was also discussed. Some of you on the forum had mentioned that by allowing cars on the bridge would eliminate the amount of people who could get the good spots at night around these lights. The solution to this problem is to paint the areas around the lights yellow and make them no parking areas. This will allow a lot more fisherman around the lights at night. Mr. Flaherty made it perfectly clear that the City Manager Al Coby has no money what so ever to subsidize the bridge. The bridge must break even. I personally think that the only way this will happen is by letting cars on the bridge. From 1989 to 1997 the Pensacola side of the old bridge was walk on only due structural instability of the bridge. Very few people used the Pensacola side then, most fishermen crossed the Three Mile Bridge and paid to drive on the Gulf Breeze side of the fishing bridge. Admission on the new bridge will be $6.00 per person. Before hurricane Ivan destroyed the old bridge the price of admission was $1.00 per car and $2.00 per person in the car. Something I found very interesting was that both Mr. Flaherty and Mr. Connelly had spent time looking at the Forums to see what you guys had to say about my post. They even quoted some of you several times. At the time of this post 2,026 of you on the Pensacola Fishing Forum and 176 of you on the Emerald Coast Pier Fishing Forum have looked at my original post about the bridge. This shows a tremendous amount of interest by you the fishing public and I think they took notice of that fact.
Fellows here is the bottom line, this new bridge belongs to all of us in Escambia County. What do you want? The date for the town hall meeting has not yet been set. The time to act and be heard is now. Every fisherman who plans on using the new fishing bridge needs to attend this meeting!

I’ll see you there.
Michael Hoyt Williamson
Mhw60@cox.net
850-572-6342

kingling

thanks for the update mike!
that whole even odd thing would get really old after a while

ghettowrapped

Tiderider

Yeah $6 bucks a person to fish for white trout isn't going to drum up much business.

Jigslinger

I agree that's steep. Too many other places to go that won't cost a dime. Cut it in half and you'd get twice the people.

ghettowrapped

what is wrong with these idiots? build a stump of a fishing pier, don't let any cars drive on it, charge an exorbitant fee and have the nerve to "ask" us what we want because it's "our" pier. they could have started by driving the first pilings straight up their collective @$$e$! just my opine.

FishinDon

I enjoy fishing P'cola and P. C. bridges and piers and I have probably fished them all. I think they are a great place for fishermen and vacationers and will no doubt attract dollars to the area. I agree with Kingling, the even odd schduling will get confusing. Just allow cars, but set strict limits on speed and restrict parking to just certain spots to allow for better fishing.There should be some sort of break on the price for multiple days of fishing.Just my .02. Don

pop I

I spent a lot of time on the old bridge and one of the best things about it was that it was affordable for everyone. The people who are going to use this mini-pier will be the same ones that used to scrape their coins together just to make the three dollar entry fee. If they are making this a recreational facility and not just a fishing pier, then what are they going to do put merry-go-rounds and video games on it. Give me a break there are other places for recreational facilities not there.

It's a fishing pier. They don't charge money for their other parks or recreational facilities. I can't believe I'm agreeing with ghettowrapped again but he was correct when he said they should have driven those pilings up their A$$ES. Do you think any of the bozo's making the decisions have ever fished?