Pavilion in Peril

The once dry boardwalk leading to the Pavilion is now a bridge.

Saturday's (October 19) brush with Tropical Storm Nestor brought rain, high winds and another round of beach scouring high tide to North Lido Key, further endangering our LSPOA Pavilion.  The beach is now virtually non-existent... and Gulf surf is running underneath the entire beach structure, including the wooden walk path.  

Once situated some 40-yards from the Gulf... the Pavilion is surrounded on three-sides by sea water.  Will it or won't it be reclaimed by the ever encroaching tide?  That's the question facing our LSPOA membership.  

Should we try to save the iconic structure erected in 2004 for a cost of nearly $80,000?

That would likely entail moving the Pavilion back beyond the coastal control line.  Or letting this one go and constructing another Pavilion?  Or...?  

Those are the immediate questions that need to be resolved.  Time, it seems, is not on our side.  We're on a barrier island, after all, and Mother Nature is ever so unpredictable.

Two LSPOA benches in the surf before they were moved to high ground.

Our two-wayward LSPOA benches were about to disappear for a third time around noon on Saturday... but were rescued from the surf by members Elliott Himelfarb and Bob Thill.  They were wrestled back to high ground, but it remains to be seen for how long.

Beach parking lot under water.

The beach parking lot is also under about a foot-and-a-half of water.  LSPOA President Lynn Carvel was alerted to the Pav's peril, and plans to address the situation at Sunday's October 20th Fall Potluck at the Umbrella House, 1300 Westway at 5:30pm.

Surf scouring the remaining sand from underneath the Pavilion and boardwalk.