Newcomers on the Holden Beach Board of Commissioners have halted a years-long effort to renovate the town’s pier, which has been closed to the public for months.
Since the town purchased the pier and pier house property for around $3.3 million in 2022, the board of commissioners has further assessed the pier’s structural issues and worked on a conceptual plan to renovate the property. The board unanimously approved a final site plan for the property a year ago, in February 2023.
At the board’s regular meeting in December, the board was set to act on the two bids it received for phase one of the pier renovation project. After going to bid twice, the project received two bids: a nearly $2.2 million bid from Paragon Building Corp, and a $3.9 million bid from TD Eure. The 2023-24 fiscal year budget budgeted just $1.13 million for the pier renovation and repair project.
The board was given three options: award one of the bids and direct staff to prepare a budget amendment for the budget shortfall; direct staff to negotiate with Paragon to reduce the scope of the work and the budget; or direct staff to reduce the scope of the project and totally rebid the project again.