CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — In November 2023, Meteorologist Stefanie Lauber and I took our workout outside and walked onto Cole Park Pier.
We noticed some of the tables on the pier were missing and the two water pumps where people can wash their hands or clean their catch were both broken.
By December, the tables were back looking shiny and brand new. But, the pumps were still broken.
“Ya the last time I was trying to use the water pumps and they weren’t working,” Corpus Christi resident Joe Frank Morin said.
Morin said he visits the pier often with his family.
The pier officially opened in December 2021. With it less than two years old at the time of this story, I wondered - ‘What happened to the tables? Where did the tables go? Where the tables destroyed? Were they stolen?’
I wasn’t the only one asking questions.
“I don’t know where the tables went,” Jake Cisneros, a Corpus Christi resident visiting the pier, said. “Where did the tables go?”
“We take those tables out and we have them re-galvanized and put some corrosion protection on there and we remove them two at a time,” Robert Dodd, the director of Corpus Christi Parks and Recreation said.
Dodd said the process will happen every year in the off season. The tables are sent to be coated in San Antonio and each one takes two to four weeks.
“With that corrosive environment down there with the wind, and the sand and the water, it’s something that we need to make sure we do to do our preventative maintenance," Dodd said.
Dodd said the pumps broke sometime in November and he is working with the contractor to alleviate those issues.
He said one pump doesn’t retrieve water from the bay because of natural sludge build up and the other has detached from the handle from people using it so much.
“Right now, we are worried about the fix and then we’ll worry about the cost,” Dodd said.
Dodd said the city comes out daily to clean and do general maintenance on the pier and they will continue to, so it will be ready for the spring and summer crowds.
Cole Park Pier is open everyday form 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and is closed for daily maintenance from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
