Author Archives: Jennifer Reed

Beach renourishment is finished at the St. Augustine Beach Pier

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Finally after over 7 months of work and $16 million dollars later, the beach renourishment project at St. Augustine Beach has been completed.  This has positively affected the St. Augustine Beach Pier and Pier Park allowing beach access during both low and high tide periods.  As you may remember, the beach access at the pier was very difficult and often closed before the beach renourishment project.

 

From my perspective standing on the beach and looking back at the pier, it is going to be a long time before the pier has any amount of water beneath it’s pilings for fishing to return for the local anglers.  The current sand line extends out to the end of the pier, even during the high tide period.  We have seen this happen before with previous renourishment projects.  Not to worry.  Soon the sea and all its tidal fury will reclaim the sand and the St. Augustine Beach Pier will return to being a local fishing hot spot and surfers paradise.

 

You can read more about the recent renourishment project in a recent article feature in the St. Augustine Record titled Renourishment Gives St. Augustine Beach a New Look by Stuart Korfhage at the following link: http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2012-09-12/renourishment-gives-st-augustine-beach-new-look#.UFNOAlF5GSp.  You can also see some recent pictures listed below.

 

Beach before and after courtesy of The St. Augustine Record

Update on the Beach renovations at the St. Augustine Beach Pier

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I spent the last weekend in and around St. Augustine Beach especially near the St. Augustine Beach Pier.  I noticed the beach and Pier were closed around the Pier parking access due to the current inlet dredging and beach renourishment project as well as some much needed Pier renovations.  I also noticed that the City has been relocating beach-goers to the North end beach from the Pier.  I was all ready to Blog about this issue when I noticed a recent news report from the local station, First Coast News, and found their story and video posted on their website.

 

First Coast News reporter Jessica Clark did a great job reporting the current status of as I am attaching a link to their site which provides a great update of the project (make sure you check out the video posted in the story):

http://staugustine.firstcoastnews.com/news/news/81181-st-augustine-beach-pier-surrounding-beach-are-closed

 

St. Augustine Beach Pier renovation project

Renovations at the St. Augustine Beach Pier, courtesy First Coast News, Jacksonville, FL

Music By The Sea returns to the Pier with much fanfare

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It’s that time of the year again when Wednesday evenings at the St. Augustine Beach Pier come alive with the sounds of great local music and the aroma of delicious local cuisine.  Yes it’s Summer time in St. Augustine Beach and the “Music By The Sea” has returned every Wednesday evening beginning at 6:00 p.m. to the St. Augustine Beach Pier.  The great thing about this event is that it is free to the public, including free “Voltage Shuttle” rides from the St. Augustine Beach City Hall parking lot located at 2200 SR A1A in St. Augustine Beach.  Parking can be a little challenging at the public parking lot located at the pier, so try to come early.

 

The evening begins with various local restaurants serving their specialties at 6:00 p.m. for a fair price-per-serving and the featured band playing at 7:00 p.m. inside the St. Augustine Beach Pier pavilion.  Attendees are encouraged to bring a beach chair to set up in the soft sand adjacent to the pavilion and food and beverage of their choice (alcohol included).  Coolers are allowed.

 

The current schedule of bands and participating restaurants through the season includes the following:

 

July 4th – Those Guys – Classic R/R – Panama Hatties

July 11th – Rob Peck & Friends – Classic Southern Blues – Paula’s Beachside Grill

July 18th – Funk Shui – R/R – Coquina Beach

July 25th – Bush Doctors – Reggae R/R – Mango Mango’s

August 1st – Steam the Band – Motown revue – Raintree

August 8th – Mid Life Crisis – Classic R/R – LaStrada

August 15th – Jimmy Parrish & The Ocean Waves – Beach Music – FA Cafe

August 22nd – Smokin Mirrors – R/R – Gypsy Cab

August 29th – Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg – Classic R/R – Maui Grill

 

The free concert series is presented by The St. Augustine Beach Civic Association and sponsored by The Bailey Group and TD Bank.

Taste of St. Augustine Beach featuring local restaurants on May 20th

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On Sunday, May 20th, The St. Augustine Beach Civic Association (which this site is not affiliated with) will feature the 7th annual Taste of St. Augustine Beach to be held at the St. Augustine Beach Pier.  This year there is expected to be over 14 local restaurants featuring local cuisine to be voted on by “local celebrities” in one of four different categories:

  1. Best appetizer
  2. Best entree
  3. Best dessert
  4. Peoples Choice

The event, supporting The Betty Griffin House, runs from 12:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. and offers free admission for everyone.  Tickets for food cost $1.00 each as the charge from each vendor will range from 2 – 5 tickets per serving.  For more information on this event, please visit the website for The St. Augustine Beach Civic Association at (www.thecivicassociation.com).

The new beach access walkover and stairs are open to the public…

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We want to begin this post by pointing out what a beautiful day it has been in St. Augustine Beach today and how great the Pier looked this morning with the calm ocean of less that 1′ of wave action.  You can see from the photo posted that it certainly looks nice out and will only get better as we move towards the weekend.

As many of you may know from visiting St. Augustine Beach over the past few months, the walk-over and stairs leading to the beach from the seawall were not open to the public and in need of repair from months of water damage and erosion to the beach.  Well, we would like to note that a much needed replacement of the stairs has been made and it appears to now be open to the public making beach access from the St. Augustine Beach Pier Park possible for all.  In addition to the walk-over and stairs replacement, they have expanded the width of the stairs to accommodate two way pedestrian traffic and a much greater flow of beach-goers.  We wish to thank St. Johns County for the work that has been done…

 

Picture of St. Augustine Beach Pier

A beautiful morning looking at the Pier

St. Augustine Beach Pier stair replacement

Side view of stairs with Pier in the background

St. Augustine Beach Pier

New beach access stairs at the St. Augustine Beach Pier

Repairs are underway for the St. Augustine Beach Pier

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Well, the much needed repairs have started on our treasured St. Augustine Beach Pier.  The St. Johns County Commissioners approved $300,000 in repairs back in November for concrete reinforcement and repair of the pilings, as well as additional work to take place over the coming weeks.  The St. Augustine Beach Pier is expected to be closed to the public for the next month.  Not to worry though, it will be all ready to go in time for a warm Spring and sunny beach weather.

Read more about the project in the article titled Pier Renovations Underway, that was featured in the St. Augustine Record on Tuesday March 6th.

Beach renourishment is heading our way…

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It looks like another happening of large pipes, tractors and off shore barges are heading our way as the Army Corp of Engineers begins another round of beach renourishment on February 16th running through mid-April.  The project will cover about 2.3 miles of shoreline between Anastasia State Park south to the Bermuda Run development.  You can read more about this renourishment project at the St. Augustine Record – Beach Renourishment Article.

The feeling of Spring comes early to St. Augustine Beach this weekend…

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Spring will feel like is it has arrived early this weekend as temperatures are expected to be in the high 70’s and low 80’s on Saturday and Sunday (Jan 21st and 22nd).  And though the beach ocean water temperature is only expected to be about 61 degrees, the moderate SW winds will keep the beach and Pier Park warm for visitors.  So come on out and enjoy fishing at the Pier, kids splashing at Splash Park at the Pier, or beach walking, sunbathing or any other beach activity at our beaches in St. Augustine Beach.

 

2011 Beach Blast Off Tonight

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Happy New Year!  Tonight is the night of the annual Beach Blast Off party to send out the old year 2011 and usher in a new prosperous year 2012.  The annual event is open to the public from 4:00 – 10:00 pm.  Fireworks begin at 8:30 pm with the after-party continuing from 9 – 10 pm.  The event is loaded with food and beverage sponsors as well as loads of activities for the kids and family.

We are so fortunate to have this wonderful beach-side annual New Years event in our backyard here in St. Augustine Beach.  It is a great event for locals to visit and catch up with friends and business associates as well as have your kids see their friends and hang out for a fun filled night.  Tourist will find the friendliness of our locals to be welcoming and enjoyable as they experience good music, food and drink together.  Transportation is available at many local park-and-ride shuttle locations located throughout the beach area.

Check out the website provided by Avid Design Group, for more details on this wonderful community event at www.beachblastoff.com.  We hope to pack the Pier Park out tonight and see everyone there.  Have a wonderful New year and New Years Blessing to all…