The first block of the Port Gellhorn boardwalk reopened on Monday, after six years behind a chain-link fence. Four hundred feet of new planks, railings and streetlights now run from the foot of Gulf Street to the old pier: the first finished work of Gellhorn Comeback, the State and county plan to bring the town’s waterfront back.
The work was paid for by the tourist development tax that motels and short-term rentals file every month, matched dollar for dollar by the State. Nobody pretends one block changes everything: most of the arcades along the beach are still shut, and some motel signs say vacancy all year round. But it is a start people can walk on.
What comes next
- Storefront grants of up to $15,000 for motels, diners and shops on Gulf Street that repair a facade, a sign or their lights
- A beach clean-up every first Saturday from 8 a.m., with gloves and bags handed out at the pier
- The next block of the boardwalk, chosen with residents
- Leonida Rail trains from Vice City, which will stop in Port Gellhorn twelve times a day from January 12
We are not selling a postcard. We are fixing the boardwalk one block at a time, with money the coast raises itself, and the people who stayed get to decide where we go next.
The public meeting on the next block is on Tuesday, November 17, at 6 p.m. at the Kelly County Courthouse, 1 Gulf Street. The Tourist Tax Office on Wharf Row explains the storefront grants from Tuesday to Friday, and takes applications in person or by mail.
