Construction at Silver Palm Park means boat ramps remain unavailable until sometime this summer. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
Silver Palm Park’s boat ramps, which closed in September and were supposed to reopen in March, will stay off-limits to boaters until sometime this summer.
City spokeswoman Ileana Olmsted said Boca Raton has “no specific month” in mind for the reopening at this time.
Bill Trinka, a retired city firefighter and frequent user of Silver Palm’s ramps before they closed, called the delay “ridiculous.”
“Right now, Deerfield is closed, too. They’re renovating their ramps,” he said.
Public ramps in Deerfield Beach and Boynton Beach are two options that Boca Raton suggested boaters use while Silver Palm’s are under construction as part of a project that includes the nearby Wildflower site. Boynton Beach’s ramps are tentatively set to close for renovations in April and May. Still available are two launch sites in Delray Beach: Knowles Park, 1001 S. Federal Highway, and Mangrove Park, 1211 S. Federal Highway.
“We’ve been out of business for six months on this already. They need to get the ramps going,” Trinka said.
Olmsted said two factors led to the delay. First, she said, there were supply chain issues with the park’s floating dock. And second, the north sea wall of the boat dock unexpectedly had to be replaced.
“It was not in the original plan, but after removal of decking it was found to be in need of repair,” Olmsted said.
Trinka did not accept the explanation. “It doesn’t take weeks and months to put in a sea wall,” he said.
Along with work on the boat ramps, crews at Silver Palm this month are building the foundation of a shade structure, installing pavers and landscaping, and constructing new restrooms.
On the Wildflower side of the park, workers were building a fountain, grading the site, relocating trees, roughing-in the irrigation, and pouring curbs in the parking lot. They also poured the slab for the park’s pavilion with restrooms and built the concrete block walls.
The construction is part of a multimillion-dollar project to enhance the Wildflower/Silver Palm Park with new pedestrian restrooms, walkways, green spaces, pavilion, promenade, additional parking, a third boat ramp and a much-anticipated connection between both parks.
The parks are on either side of Palmetto Park Road on the west bank of the Intracoastal Waterway.
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