By MEGHAN BRADBURY
mbradbury@breezenewspapers.com
The community came together and took the steps to bring back an island favorite — a landmark — that was damaged by Hurricane Ian.
Last week a groundbreaking was held for the Sanibel Fishing Pier, thanks to a citizen-driven effort that raised funds to have temporary repairs done.
“At this point, I am elated,” Sanibel Fishing Pier Citizen Committee Chair Richard Birney said. “It’s really going to happen and I am very thankful for the way the community rallied behind us.”
Birney said they now get to do the fun part, distribute swag to those who invested in the pier.
Stokes Marine is the contractor doing the repairs, which are expected to be done by the end of November.
The city is calling it a temporary pier, as one of the pilings of the pier was damaged by Hurricane Ian. Birney said to make it safe and useable, it was decided not to replace the piling, but rather level the top of it, so a new deck could be placed on top. He said they came up with a design that was inexpensive and quick, but safe to get the fishermen back on the pier as soon as possible.
“They came up with a design where they didn’t have to replace the pilings (but rather) level out the pier using a different support structure underneath on top of the pilings,” Birney said.
While raising money for the pier, he and City Manager Dana Souza met with Lee County Commissioner Kevin Ruane to present him with the plan of the pier and see if there were any funds for a permanent new pier available.
“I took him through the plan and how we were going to get the pier back up and running again through this less elegant approach — but certainly safe and workable,” he said.
That conversation led to a $2.1 million Tourist Development Beach and Shoreline Funding Grant to build a new pier.
“We accepted the offer knowing that it would certainly be nice to have a new pier built correctly to withstand the next Category 5 storm,” Birney said. “The new pier was a good investment. The city is working on putting together the new pier, just down from the existing pier (allowing people to) continue to fish while we wait for the new one to be built.”
A number of people who lived in the area became tired of walking past the Sanibel Fishing Pier and not seeing any progress being made since Hurricane Ian made landfall in 2022.
Birney said there were a number of citizens that began working late in 2024 and early 2025 to see what options were available for repairing the pier with the City of Sanibel. The effort was led by Bob Stern, a member of the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club, and Frances and Simon Tutt.
“As I understand it, it became clear they couldn’t get any funding,” Birney said.
Souza, he said, helped in creating a public-private partnership model that could be used to advance the cause of restoring the Sanibel Fishing Pier. That partnership was between the City of Sanibel, the Charitable Foundation of the Islands (CFI) and a citizen’s committee.
In October 2025, Birney sat down with Stern to eat breakfast at a Rotary meeting, where he learned he was not making much progress.
“I asked, ‘What can I do to help you?’ Well, you can take it over,” he said, adding that an email was sent to the City Council saying “Richard Birney was involved.”
When he started, he was at ground zero, so to speak, so he had a meeting with Souza and CFI Executive Director Dolly Farrell to understand his role in the public-private partnership.
“It became clear, help facilitate getting the design to be what would be adequate for what the fisherman wanted and raise money to do it,” Birney said.
Through the fourth quarter of 2025, he worked with engineers and presented information to City Council.
“The council liked the approach. Once I had approval of direction from the council, then we set about forming a citizen’s committee,” Birney said.
The reach touched the bait stores, fishing club, boat club, as well as other venues to share a committee meeting would be held. The community began showing up at the Community House for his meetings, which was how the committee was borne.
“It was large at the beginning and filtered down to a faithful few — 10 — that stuck with it through thick and thin and did all the work to raise money,” Birney said.
The target was $300,000, with work still continuing parallel with Public Works to get contractors identified, bidding completed, and the selection of a contractor.
Birney said they were running around talking to people and doing whatever they could to raise money.
The most compelling reason why — the pier is the last major infrastructure piece that had not been restored since Ian, and lacked a plan to make it happen. The community — local fishermen, those who liked to sit on the benches and watch, wanted their beloved pier back open.
A campaign began, with the committee leaning heavily on CFI.
“They covered us with their 501c3 and all of the money went directly to them,” Birney said.
Through that CFI partnership, the Sanibel Pier Fund was established, which served as the charitable partners responsible for receiving and acknowledging donations, managing contributions, and disbursing funds to the City of Sanibel as progress was made with the project.
“This project is a wonderful example of what can happen when citizens, local government and philanthropy work together,” Farrell said in a prepared statement. “Richard Birney and the citizen committee brought the community together, the City of Sanibel provided tremendous leadership and expertise, and CFI was proud to help facilitate the generosity that made this effort possible. We are grateful to everyone who played a role in bringing the Fishing Pier one step closer to reopening.”
The Sanibel-Captiva Chamber of Commerce also got on board to build and finance their website.
“John Lai was terrific to work with,” he said of them putting together a website that told their story, and link CFI’s website for people to make donations.
The average donation was around $150, Birney said, with well over 200 individual names that supported the pier.
“We had a very broad base, and a lot of help,” he said.
One lady called the committee, and said she would match anything they raised up to $100,000, due to her family growing up on the island and having lots of memories on the pier.
To view those who donated, and read about the committee’s story, visit www.sanibel-captiva.org/restore-sanibel-pier/.