Right now, major renovations are happening at Clearwater Beach's Pier 60, forcing it to close most of the day. Soon, the pier will be closed day and night, but the plan is to open back up before Spring Breakers arrive.
"It looks great from here," Laura Fisher said.
The pier entrance is as close as Laura Fisher is getting Thursday. The few hours she is visiting Clearwater Beach from Colorado won't be spent walking over water.
"We were just super excited to be able to get out and look down in the water and check it out and it's sad cause we can't," Fisher said.
Pier 60 is closed until 3:30 daily, as the city of Clearwater spends $375,000 on renovations they said are desperately needed.
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"During Hurricane Irma we had some minor damage sustained to the bait house and some of the pier so we decided we need to get some of these things repaired because it's been more than 25 years since any renovations have been done on this," Jason Beisel with the city of Clearwater said.
They want to get the repairs done before peak season on Clearwater Beach, Spring Break, in the middle of March. That's when nearly 30,000 spring breakers flood the beach and pier. The last week of February, they plan to close the pier completely, even at night, pushing vendors for the Sunsets at Pier 60 Festival off the pier.
"It's just a little bit of a pain, but we know that it's not going to last forever, the beach is still open, the sunset festival is still open," Dallas Saupe, busker coordinator for the festival, said.
Work is moving forward. Fisher said, she'll have to plan another trip to see the finished pier.
"We'll come back, don't know when but we'll be back," Fisher said.
