By WILLIE HOWARD
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 9:16 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012
Posted: 9:04 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012
- LAKE WORTH — A new fishing pier, boardwalk and floating boat docks are scheduled to open Feb. 29 on the north side of the Lake Avenue Bridge, giving the city a second fishing pier and more access to the Lake Worth Lagoon.
Palm Beach County paid for most of the $1.9 million Snook Islands Natural Area Public Use Facilities, located at the south end of the Snook Islands habitat-restoration project.
"It will be great for people who don't boat and want to see the thing called Snook Islands," said Ian Esplin, owner of Kayak Lake Worth. "It's a wonderful addition to the waterfront."
Completed in 2005, the Snook Islands project cost $18 million and involved bringing in 1.2 million cubic yards of sand from Peanut Island to fill a biologically dead trench along a 1.2-mile stretch of the city golf course. It created places for mangroves, oysters and sea grasses to grow and has become a haven for fish and wading birds.
Visitors using the new 545-foot boardwalk, built with ultra-hard ipe wood, can see the mangroves of one island up close and also can look north over the many islands nearby.
The new public-use facilities include bicycle racks, a sidewalk leading under the bridge to Bryant Park, and a road leading to a grass drop-off area where kayaks and canoes can be unloaded and carried to floating launch docks.
Vehicle access is from the westbound lanes on the north side of the Lake Avenue Bridge. The county plans to install a flashing light to warn motorists that drivers might slow down at the base of the bridge to make the turn into the kayak drop-off area.
The boat docks and water-taxi stop should invite more boaters to visit Lake Worth, Commissioner Andy Amoroso said.
"I see people coming from West Palm Beach, pulling up their boats and coming to the green market (at Old Bridge Park) on Saturdays," Amoroso said.
Hours for the fishing pier, docks and boardwalk will be 6 a.m. until midnight. No overnight boat docking will be allowed.
"We are thrilled that a new fishing pier has been incorporated into the Snook Islands public-use facility," said Tom Twyford, president of the West Palm Beach Fishing Club. "Public fishing access on many bridges throughout Palm Beach County has been diminished."
Educational kiosks at the public-use area will describe the fish, birds, manatees, sea grasses and habitats of the Lake Worth Lagoon.
Commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill, a kayaker who helped create the 8-mile Lake Worth Paddling Trail, said the new facilities should attract visitors interested in nature-based recreation.
County Commission Chairwoman Shelley Vana is scheduled to speak at the grand opening of the public-use facilities, set for 9 a.m. Feb. 29.
Volunteers are being organized to install more than 400 native plants and shrubs to dress up the land around the Snook Islands facilities March 3. Anyone interested in volunteering should call David Nieme at (561) 533-9460 .
This summer, the county's Department of Environmental Resources Management plans to begin additional habitat-restoration work near Snook Islands.
The $5.5 million project includes the Snook Islands Phase 2 north of the Lake Avenue Bridge, and the Bryant Park Wetland Restoration Project south of the bridge.
The work is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2013.
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