The platinum afternoon sun shined across the channel off Pass-a-Grille as tour boat operators at Merry Pier broke down from their morning expeditions. Deck hands fished for snapper and grouper in the turquoise water. Captains laughed as they toiled below decks with boat engines grumbling, sending a sequence of soft crescendos to vibrate through the air.
Boat Capt. Alva Sholty sat in his kiosk, his sun-drenched arms leaned across the desk, hands clasped. The social worker turned career boater has run his shuttles and sunset cruises aboard his 49-passenger boat, the Albion, from Merry Pier since 1989. The management company the city picked more than a year ago to revamp the pier has made doing business on the Pass-a-Grille pier a pleasure again, Sholty said.
“They’re more tourist-friendly and environmentally friendly,” Sholty said as the Albion bucked against its slip in a hilly wake.
The city of St. Pete Beach agreed to a five-year lease with Dolphin Landings last year to run Merry Pier despite concerns from charter boat operators and residents who were worried the St. Pete Beach company would alter the tone of the historic landmark, flooding its hectic surf with personal watercraft and large dinner boats.
The pier has been a focal point of Pass-a-Grille since the turn of the 20th century when the Merry family built a general store over the water off Eighth Street, according to articles on display at the Gulf Beaches Historical Museum. Management of the city-owned pier was eventually taken over by the Hubbard family, but Kenneth Merry still ran fishing charters from its docks. By then, he was known as the most experienced and celebrated fisherman in the area. The city renovated the pier in 1981, naming it after the Merry family.
Pass-a-Grille Bait and Tackle began a succession of three five-year leases with the city in 1990. In 2005, the city entertained bids from two other operators, Dolphin Landings and Yacht Star Ship Dining in Tampa. On Jan. 10, 2006, the city voted to approve a five-year lease with Dolphin Landings with yearly rent increasing by about $12,000 to $39,000. The actual number could fluctuate because it’s based on profit, Peretz said.
The increase in rent prompted the Dolphin Landings owner, Capt. Dan Peretz, to increase cost for boat operators on the pier, which was passed on to customers by about $5 per trip. Peretz said his contracts with boat operators are also on a commission scale, which helps ease stress from the off-season.
Peretz said he took over the property in February 2006 and by then, the facility had fallen into disrepair. One of the problems was two tanks used to store fuel for sale to boaters. The city agreed to replace them in 2009 as long as Peretz maintained the pumps and fuel lines, according to City Commission minutes. Peretz said he hired a company to clean the tanks and filter the fuel already in them, but a few days later, the pipes had broken. The company that made them went out of business. With Peretz facing a hefty $20,000 repair bill, he said the city agreed to fix the lines when the tanks were replaced, costing taxpayers $300,000. Peretz said that could happen by the end of the year.
Peretz said his decision to take on Merry Pier was a move to ensure his company’s survival in Tampa Bay. His main location at the Dolphin Village Shopping Center on Gulf Way faced uncertainty. The center was sold to a company that wanted to build condos, but was resold to a new investor who was pleased with Peretz’s operation, for now.
“That’s still waterfront property. Anything can happen,” Peretz said.
He has been in the boat operator business since 1972 and began Dolphin Landings in 1986. Dolphin Landings also runs an operation at the pier in downtown St. Petersburg.
Peretz enlisted the help of one of his captains, Randall Fleming, to map out plans for Merry Pier. Although he doesn’t normally get the chance to run charters there, Fleming’s dedication to Merry Pier was visible on a recent Friday afternoon. He donned one of the company’s white collared Merry Pier T-shirts as he docked the Phoenix, a 41-foot sailboat, at a slip in the Dolphin Village Center. His hands were rested at the 10 and 2 o’clock positions on the boat’s skinny silver helm. The watery gurgle of the boat’s engine stopped with a burp of blue smoke lifting in the air. His eyes were focused on the dock as the white fiberglass vessel quietly glided toward it, stopping just short of the edge .
After helping passengers off, Randall sat down at a picnic bench under a tree, fumbling his tanned fingers in the pocket of his shorts for his cigarettes. Through his sunglasses, his eyes lit up when he began talking about Merry Pier. He says this project was designed to put less stress on the community.
“I think the first thing we told everyone who was down there that we weren’t changing anything, just enhancing the good parts,” he said. “We wanted to bring it back to the community.”
Along with some fresh paint and environmentally friendly features like the recycling bins, Fleming said he also hired more staff to assist tourists and boat operators.
“Hiring more staff will increase overhead, but that’s what makes people remember us,” he said.
Dolphin Landings also moved the charter boat desks from a small building along the street to kiosks on the pier. The building has the faint salty scent of a beach at low tide. One corner has several coolers holding beer, soda and water. Another offers fishing supplies and a variety of poles starting at about $20. In another corner, postcards and Pass-a-Grille T-shirts with red price tags scream for attention from tourists.
There’s also a clean bathroom.
Fleming said he’s now working with area research institutes to create small educational kiosks similar to those installed on the St. Petersburg pier. He’s also coordinating with area schools to take students on tours around the area’s pristine barrier islands. There are plans to install a weather station for boaters and a Web cam.
Back at Merry Pier, Randy Coffman, owner of the fishing tour boat Miss Pass-A-Grille, was taking a break from doing repairs. He thought a fuse had blown, but his vessel’s engine still droned deeply. He looked around as he wiped his brown-stained hands to survey the pier to see what was different. He says the price increase is the only adjustment he has seen.
“Sure, there are more people out here, but prices went up, too,” Coffman said. “We’re still getting the same amount of people.”
However, he is pleased with how much easier it is to work with the new management.
St. Pete Beach District 4 Commissioner Harry Metz lives two blocks away from the pier along Pass-a-Grille Way. He raised concerns about side street parking and traffic as a member of the audience in January 2006 when the city voted to approve the lease. Now he says traffic has not changed.
“No problems with traffic,” he said from his front porch, which has an elevated view of the pier and its street parking in the distance. By midday, about half the parking spots were taken, with the bright sun sparkling in the windows of pick-up trucks, sedans and minivans. The morning tours had already left for the day.
“It’s like this almost every weekend,” Metz added.
Gone are the days when the pier was only for the “good old boys,” Sholty said, leaning out over his kiosk desk as if to tell a secret. He then sat back, looked to the partly cloudy sky. But it’s different now, he said calmly.
“Just this week we had a school and a Girl Scout troop come here,” he said. “Before, (the management) would not be happy with them.”
Lolita Lawrence, 52, was fighting a snagged line as she fished off the pier. She’s a disabled retired teacher who drives from her southeast St. Petersburg home regularly. She sat under one of the pier’s bright red umbrellas to try her hand at catching a record-sized snapper, or maybe a grouper, but mainly to talk with friends.
“It’s more people-friendly and handicapped-accessible,” she said as a Merry Pier employee tended to her tangled pole. Her friend, a fellow teacher, had just delivered a McDonald’s Big and Tasty sandwich for lunch.
“See? You wouldn’t have anything like this at the old Merry Pier,” she said. “This is how it should be.”
