boat ramps - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T14:12:44Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/boat+rampsBoynton Beach: Oyer Park reopens with new boat ramps, dockshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-oyer-park-reopens-with-new-boat-ramps-docks2023-01-04T16:01:15.000Z2023-01-04T16:01:15.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p>The boat ramp renovation at Boynton Beach’s Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park has been completed and the docks and the park have reopened.<br />“They look great,” Kacy Young, the city’s parks and recreation director, said of the three ramps. The site also has “new stations for cleaning fish that are already very popular,” Young said.<br />The city held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Dec. 17, which was attended by the public, city officials and city staff.<br />The $1.25 million project was funded equally by the Palm Beach County penny sales tax — approved by voters to pay for park, road, bridge and other public projects — and the Florida Inland Navigation District. To accommodate the construction, the park was closed from mid-September through Dec. 1, 2022.</p>
<p style="text-align:right;"><em> — Tao Woolfe</em></p></div>Boca Raton: After 10 months of work, boat ramps to reopen in Julyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-after-10-months-of-work-boat-ramps-to-reopen-in-july2022-06-01T15:17:16.000Z2022-06-01T15:17:16.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>Boaters who need a ramp to reach the water will have a special Fourth of July this year — Silver Palm Park’s ramps, off-limits since September, will finally reopen.<br />And permits to use the ramps, usually $60 and good from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, will cost $25 and be valid for this July, August and September.<br />The City Council approved the rate at its May 24 meeting.<br />“This will just open the boat ramp and the parking area for the boats,” City Manager Leif Ahnell said. “The rest of the park and the other amenities will not be available. We’re actually still working on Silver Palm Park.”<br />Ahnell also said neighboring Wildflower Park and the rest of Silver Palm will reopen to the public in September, “hopefully the earlier part of September rather than the later.”<br />Silver Palm’s boat ramps closed on Sept. 7 for what was planned to be six months to relocate the restrooms, add a new ramp and other construction. But supply issues and an unexpected sea wall replacement slowed the work.<br />Ahnell said he did not yet know whether the new bathrooms will open when the ramps do.<br />“All of the Wildflower side but even on Silver Palm, there will be areas blocked off, under construction,” he said. “We as well as the contractor wanted to get the boat ramp opened as quickly as possible.”<br />The daily use fee for the boat ramps will remain $25. Any resident of Palm Beach County can buy the daily or three-month permit.<br />Boaters were directed to other ramps in Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Deerfield Beach while Silver Palm was closed. But Boynton Beach and Deerfield Beach had plans to limit access because of their own ramp renovations.<br />Boca Raton’s construction is part of a multimillion-dollar project to enhance Wildflower/Silver Palm Park with new walkways, green spaces, public art, a pavilion, shade structures, additional parking and a much-anticipated connection between both parks under the Palmetto Park Road bridge.<br />The parks are separated by Palmetto Park Road on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway. </p></div>Boca Raton: Boaters’ options dwindle with park delayhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-boaters-options-dwindle-with-park-delay2022-03-30T15:14:52.000Z2022-03-30T15:14:52.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10249056678,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10249056678,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10249056678?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></strong><em>Construction at Silver Palm Park means boat ramps remain unavailable until sometime this summer. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>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.<br /> City spokeswoman Ileana Olmsted said Boca Raton has “no specific month” in mind for the reopening at this time.<br /> Bill Trinka, a retired city firefighter and frequent user of Silver Palm’s ramps before they closed, called the delay “ridiculous.”<br /> “Right now, Deerfield is closed, too. They’re renovating their ramps,” he said.<br /> 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. <br /> “We’ve been out of business for six months on this already. They need to get the ramps going,” Trinka said.<br /> 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.<br /> “It was not in the original plan, but after removal of decking it was found to be in need of repair,” Olmsted said.<br /> Trinka did not accept the explanation. “It doesn’t take weeks and months to put in a sea wall,” he said.<br /> 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.<br /> 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.<br /> 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.<br /> The parks are on either side of Palmetto Park Road on the west bank of the Intracoastal Waterway. </p></div>Boca Raton: Raising Silver Palm boat docks will cost $470,000https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-raising-silver-palm-boat-docks-will-cost-470-0002020-10-28T14:15:09.000Z2020-10-28T14:15:09.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p>By Mary Hladky</p>
<p>The city will raise docks at Silver Palm Park so they no longer will be inundated with water during king tides.<br />The project will cost about $470,000, including engineering and design work. City officials will have a firm number soon.<br />City Council member Monica Mayotte raised the issue with city staff after seeing the docks under water during recent king tides.<br />Other council members agreed with her at an Oct. 26 meeting that this work should be part of building a connected Wildflower/ Silver Palm Park at a cost of $8.25 million.<br />“It’s a lot of money,” said council member Andy Thomson. “But … we have taken the stance we take climate change in the form of higher tides seriously. If we are going to be serious about making our city resilient, this is a no-brainer.”<br />“The longer we wait, the more expensive this gets,” Mayotte said.<br />The work will include raising the decking along the Intracoastal Waterway, raising the boat ramp dock and building a floating dock at the boat launch.<br />The city is building a higher sea wall at the Wildflower site, but such work is not needed at Silver Palm, city officials said.<br />The dock work will not affect the January start of the 6.4-acre Wildflower/Silver Palm park project.</p></div>Boca Raton: Public input scuttles talk of boat launches at Rutherford Parkhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-public-input-scuttles-talk-of-boat-launches-at-rutherf2018-02-28T17:06:24.000Z2018-02-28T17:06:24.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><span><b>By Steve Plunkett</b></span></p>
<p>Boaters and landlubbers alike appear to have put the kibosh on a proposal to add boat launches at Rutherford Park.</p>
<p>Only one person held up his hand signaling a desire to proceed at the end of a crowded outreach session Feb. 26 at the Downtown Library. </p>
<p>“Who will be accountable for the opinions that you’ve heard here today, which is 99 to 1?” asked the boater who sought the show of hands.</p>
<p>Dan Grippo, the city’s municipal services director, said his department would carefully consider the input.</p>
<p>“Clearly no one here wants boat ramps, so it probably won’t go anywhere,” Grippo said. “Typically, from my experience here in six years, when the public speaks out, you tend to get what you want in the projects we’re in charge of. … If you don’t want them, trust me, they don’t happen.”</p>
<p>The evening started off calmly, with consultant Mike Jenkins of Applied Technology and Management Inc. polling the room to determine that more than half the 150 attendees owned a boat, perhaps a quarter owned a kayak or paddleboard.</p>
<p>Jenkins went through the concept: adding two double boat launches to a centrally located spoil island in the park, along with a bridge to reach the island, converting the parking area to accommodate 67 boat trailers and seven cars without trailers, adding three boat wash-down areas.</p>
<p>Few residents were impressed.</p>
<p>“I don’t want to spend 2 miles of idle speed coming down to get to Palmetto Park Road and then go outside. … That trip would add 20 minutes … each way,” said Bill Trinka, who wanted assurances that the double launch at Silver Palm Park would remain where it is.</p>
<p>Over and over, residents asked about Silver Palm. Jennifer Bistyga, the city’s coastal program manager, tried with little success to keep the discussion on Rutherford Park, the announced topic of the evening. While the session was open to the public at large, at the City Council’s direction Bistyga had made an effort to invite all Boca Raton boaters who held Silver Palm launch permits. </p>
<p>Other residents were concerned about effects on the environment. Michele Peel, president of the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, cautioned that the proposed boat launches would be right across from the nature center.</p>
<p>“This is Gumbo Limbo’s backyard,” she said. “People come to get close to nature … to see animals that are living over in the … area, animals that are not compatible with having an active, motorized boat launch there. Those animals will disappear.” </p>
<p>Still other concerns were raised about how boaters would ignore markings leading to the main Intracoastal Waterway channel 450 feet away and take shortcuts over seagrass, how trailer traffic would clog Northeast 24th Street and Federal Highway, and whether boaters and paddleboarders could coexist close by.</p>
<p>Bistyga passed out a survey for residents to fill out but did not have to go far to advise the City Council about what happened. Mayor Susan Haynie, Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers and council members Scott Singer and Andrea O’Rourke were quietly watching the proceedings.</p>
<p>Overall, the gathering gave a collective thumbs-up to plans to remove exotic plants and restore Rutherford’s boardwalk and canoe trails. Several people complained about homeless people congregating in the park.</p>
<p>Gene Folden, chairman of the marine advisory board, said “it’s hard to say” how representative the session was of the city’s overall boating community, but that attendees had made their point.</p>
<p>“Their message was, they like their Silver Palm Park,” Folden said. </p></div>Boca Raton: Find another place for boat ramps, new commissioners sayhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-find-another-place-for-boat-ramps-new-commissioners-sa2017-03-01T16:42:29.000Z2017-03-01T16:42:29.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960704479,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960704479,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="308" alt="7960704479?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /><br /> The city’s plans to renovate Rutherford and Lake Wyman parks — revised to appease their Golden Harbour neighbors — have new opponents: the two new commissioners of the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District.<br /> Commissioners Craig Ehrnst and Erin Wright, who took their seats in January, were dismayed to learn the proposal includes adding two double boat ramps at Rutherford with a parking lot for 38 boat trailers.<br /> “I would just hate to see a boat ramp put into that natural habitat there,” said Wright, who frequents the park with her two young sons. “I think it would throw off the whole vibe back there.”<br /> Ehrnst also was critical. <br /> “Putting all that concrete and a boat ramp in there — I just have a lot of hesitation to do something that is so permanent,” he said.<br /> Jennifer Bistyga, the city’s coastal program manager, updated the beach and park commission Feb. 6 and asked members if they would finance part of the $6.5 million project. The district had agreed to contribute $250,000 for the earlier plan, which would have cost $3.5 million, with all but $500,000 coming from the Florida Inland Navigation District and Palm Beach County.<br /> Commission Chairman Robert Rollins said the Beach & Park District has since committed millions of dollars to potentially acquiring the Ocean Breeze golf course, installing artificial turf at Patch Reef Park and building a new community center at the Swim and Racquet Center.<br /> “We have a lot of projects on our hands already,” Rollins said.<br /> Vice Chairman Steve Engel agreed. <br /> “I don’t see how we can, given what’s on our plate right now,” he said.<br /> City Council members endorsed building the boat ramps in October.<br /> The ramps are the biggest change to the Lake Wyman proposal. Gone in the revised plan is a seagrass basin that would have been scooped out of a spoil island that FIND owns. Among other concerns, Golden Harbour neighbors feared the project would bring seagrass-munching manatees too close to boats docking at a proposed day slip.<br /> “We don’t want to submerge it anymore, but we want to create a coastal hammock,” Bistyga told the beach and park commissioners. “We haven’t gone too far into what we do there, but it will be all upland, there will be no submerging of lands.”<br /> The revised plan still calls for removing invasive plants, restoring wetlands and a mangrove habitat, restoring and expanding a canoe trail, and extending Rutherford’s boardwalk to Lake Wyman Park.<br /> At a Feb. 27 workshop, City Council members were loath to take money from FIND. Any project FIND finances must be open to residents of all 12 coastal counties that pay its taxes.<br /> City residents “are eager to see us do the improvements. They’re not eager to share them,” council member Robert Weinroth said.<br /> Arthur Koski, the Beach & Park District’s executive director, said commissioners may have money to put toward everything but the boat ramps by 2021, “anywhere from zero to $2 million,” if the city can wait until then. Bistyga’s timetable has construction starting in 2019.<br /> Bistyga also updated commissioners on the city’s waterfront master plan. Fort Lauderdale-based EDSA Inc.’s first task was to visit all city-owned waterfront parcels and the district-owned Ocean Strand property.<br /> “Now they’re going to develop ideas that could be passive park ideas, maybe additional boat launch facilities — not motorized boats but kayak and paddleboards — looking at even just enhancing components of Red Reef east [of A1A], maybe some pavilions,” Bistyga said. “So the consultant now is looking at everything.”<br /> The second task is public outreach, and Bistyga said she hopes something is scheduled in March. EDSA will take that public input and develop conceptual plans for Spanish River, Red Reef and South Beach parks and Ocean Strand.<br /> The city is also looking to turn its Wildflower property into a passive park, she said.</p></div>