The storm of February 2005 was one not easily forgotten by homeowners in Kingston’s Jefferson Beach Estates. The furious winds took out the neighborhood’s prized possession – its fishing pier. The pier had been enjoyed by both young and old for many years.
The neighborhood celebrated the re-opening of its fishing pier this summer after a long process to complete the project, and kids are again reeling in fish.
With high winds on Puget Sound at high tide, a lot of debris came in from the south during the 2005 storm. The debris consisted of large logs, stumps, boards and just about anything else imaginable. The combination of wind, high tide and large debris lifted about 60 feet of the dock from below and dropped it in the water.
Access to the pier was completely demolished. What remained was the outer half of the wood pier with no way to get out onto it. The repairs necessary to bring the pier to a safe and usable condition included replacing pilings and the missing portion of the pier.
The total cost for the pier and piling replacement came to about $54,000 not including incidental work such as building a form and pouring cement steps from the beach up to the pier deck and a plate under a transition deck to prevent wear of the metal deck plate against the movement of the remaining wood pier.
The contractor was Thompson’s Pile Driving of Port Orchard. Work was done under the scrutiny of the vendors’ engineers and Kitsap County Engineering Department as well as the Jefferson Beach board of directors. It took the contractor a full day to get a barge to Bellingham, pick up new sections for the pier and barge them back to Jefferson Head Point. The barge brought in the pilings during high tide and a crane lifted each section into place, which were secured to the pilings.
The community is pleased and surprised at how good the pier looks and how much stronger it is.
When Jan Zufelt of Kingston’s John L. Scott Real Estate heard the board was raising funds for the pier, she and her husband, Gordon, offered support.
“When we moved here our son was 11 years old. Finding places safe for young people to fish were hard to find,” Zufelt said. She and Gordon presented the board with $1,000 to help defray costs of the project before its meeting last month.
The board expressed its thanks to the Zufelts, and to Jan for helping resolve issues in order to sell property owned by the neighborhood to fund the pier repair.
Jefferson Beach Estates Community, Inc. is a private, non-profit, community. The park, beach and fishing pier are private property for community member use only.
(Jan Zufelt and Bruce Olson contributed to this article.)
