NAPLES, Fla. — The city of Naples has received approval for an $11.4 million FEMA grant to demolish what remains of the Naples Pier, bringing the community one step closer to rebuilding the beloved landmark.
WATCH: Fox 4's Eric Lovelace tells us where pier debris will go:
With demolition projected to begin around the first week of January, Collier County officials and the City of Naples have outlined plans for where all the debris will go once the pier is stripped down.
Which neighbors anxiously anticipate.
"I've been coming here for about 26 years, and we used to fish here every night," said Jim Ferber, a longtime Naples resident who has visited the pier for decades.
Ferber recalled memorable nights fishing at the pier.
"A 13 foot shark was right up against the moon, and when it landed, I just saw that splash," Ferber said.
The entire pier will be demolished and materials will be taken to one of two staging areas in the county. Commissioner Dan Kowal explained the first location will be at Bayview Park. He said this location will primarily be used for materials that can't be reused and need to be discarded.
"Anything that was part of the construction that you can't recycle in any way, maybe contaminated screws, nuts, bolts and rebar, that'll come to that area," Kowal said.
The second staging site will be located just before the Jolley Bridge, and will serve two functions for the pier rebuild.
Materials from demolition will be brought there on a barge, those materials will undergo inspection for artificial reef building.
“That stays on the barge, they’ll inspect it on the barge and take it out to the open water," Commissioner Kowal said.
The second use of the Jolley Bridge location will be for when the pier is actually being built.
Commissioner Kowal says the extremely large materials, like100-foot-long concrete pilings, for the rebuild will also be loaded here and taken to the pier's construction site.
Commissioner Kowal said traffic delays are expected when large building materials are being delivered to the Jolley Bridge location, but the public will receive advanced notification, and it will be temporary.
“It’ll be like one, maybe two days a week for a couple hours," Commissioner Kowal said.
For Ferber, the reconstruction timeline cannot move fast enough.
"I'm excited because, you know, this is getting a little old. The fence has been there for three and a half years," Ferber said.
