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is too racist for a pier.

Why would we take up beautiful beach space to have a pier. There are way too many tourists here as it is, and a pier would just attract more people to the area. Piers are for places like Tybee Island, GA and Folly Beach, SC. Hilton Head does not need to turn into a new Myrtle Beach or some sort of Jersey shore. It is absolutely ridiculous that people would even consider having a pier. Come on all you tourists lets save the environment not build massive structures that will kill plants and wildlife. Also off this subject, tourists need to understand that you cannot take wildlife off the beach including sand dollars because they are alive. All wildlife is put on our beaches for a reason, and it drives me crazy that people take boards full of sand dollars and conch shells off the beach. GET A CLUE PEOPLE!!!!

You know that they can be fined for taking living creatures off the beach--I always say something when I see a tourist doing that! They don't like it, and tend to try and argue with me about it, but the fact is, if it's alive, you are not supposed to take it off the beach. Usually they just discard them anyway once they start decaying because the smell is so bad! Most kids I've said something to are unaware that what they are taking is actually "alive" until I show them it "moves" and will generally put them back, understanding the error of their ways. Adults, however, just don't give a _____
and will take them anyway. Makes me furious!!! Sorry for ranting, especially since it was off subject!

We don't need a pier. The beach is so shallow here that you can walk a 1/2 into the water and still only be 6 feet deep. And it would bring about more annoying rules: No Drinking on the pier, no trash on the pier, no fishing on the pier, no swimming around the pier, no roller skating on the pier. It would be like going to Sun City.

If you meant it in jest the humour was lost on me. What does race have to do with the pier?

Oh wait, from my youth at the Jersey Shore I can recall the Pier being a draw for the Italian American crowd (lots of Gelato, sausage sandwiches, piza, pasta places) is that what you believe, Hilton Head is anti Italian?

are dead. Anyone with half a brain would know that.

A pier would be nice. Actually more beach access would be nice, as that is a public resource.

I guess ur having a "senior moment" cuz most of the sandollars I find on the beach are alive and I throw em back in.

Thanks Sarah420--you got there before I did. Here's a clue that lets you know if the sandollars are dead or not (for those of us with "half a brain"), if the cilia, or "legs", on the underside are still moving, it's alive!!

Ahhh, the Pier subject. Always lingering and rearing its head occasionally. I love piers. Growing up we would vacation to Myrtle and I would walk down the beach to the pier. We had a choice of two. One at the Holiday Inn to the North, and one closer to the South at Windy Hill. The HI pier had been shortened by a hurricane in the 60's and the one to the South was longer and certain times of the year you could catch bigger fish like Blues and Kings. I would walk down the beach, clip a ticket to my hat, buy a Coke and a couple of Moonpies and I was set for hours. I have a picture of me next to a 22lb King caught off that pier. I was 13. The Memories are great and I always wished that in my 20 years here, people would get the "clue" that a pier would be a wonderful place to take your kids to fish for the first time in their lives, that is if you aren't one of the privileged that happens to have a fishing boat or yacht docked here...

Piers do kill wildlife during construction. There's no doubt that a couple of thousand sand dollars and a few hundred fish will sacrifice their lives for the project, but that's minimal compared to the wildlife it attracts once in the water. If it were up to me, I would build a HUGE rip-rap n concrete jetty on the North end of the public beach at Folly Field that goes out about 2000 feet, and build the pier on top of and around that. If you're going to build anything at Folly Field, it should be a jetty... But THAT is all together another topic. And don't start...I know 6 experts that will say a jetty would work fine for every one of yours that says jetties are damning. Bla bla bla....

Take your kids fishing. My pier days were before Atari...

Think of the great activities we could plan on the pier. Birthday parties, concerts, picnics. The list is long. With today's building technologies, a pier is much simpler than years ago, and you can minimize the substructure for a larger public space, reducing the wildlife affected during construction.

Handicapped persons that rarely have the opportunity to go out on a boat, would be able to go fishing or explore the atmosphere over the ocean without getting their wheels wet.

Kids could experience catching a fish with their dad instead of shooting bad guys in a video game.

You can sit in the shade of a pier and listen to great music and eat PBJs.

I love piers. It's the pompous attitudes of the rich n famous that want to protect "Their" island. AND, what's this crap about turning HHI into Myrtle? A pier will not make tourists turn into anything different. AND I love tourists. Come one Come all, and bring lots of money!! Then spend it on our pier for lunch and activities.

And WTHeck does Racism have to do with piers? What part of the planet are you from? That was funny....NOT

Let's take a vote. Put it up for a vote and see who wins. The Pier already has one vote. two, three...four...

Goose

I've always loved piers, too. They sort of foster a sense of community as you stroll out over the water and talk to fishermen to see what thye've caught.

As a kid, my family used to vacation every year in Ocean Isle, N.C., which has a fairly substantial pier.

Seriously, what is the problem with building a pier? They'e not ugly and they can't have that big of an environmental impact. As for drawing tourists, that's ridiculous. The island already draws more than 2 million a year. Could a pier possibly draw more? Would that be a bad thing?

DB

"It's the pompous attitudes of the rich n famous that want to protect 'Their' island."

By the way most people who consider Hilton Head as "Their" island have lived here for a very very long time and most of them are neither rich nor famous!!!!

I used to work right near a pier in Seaside Heights, NJ for many summers. There were rides, boardwalk games, arcades and enough zeppoles and other fried doughs to choke a Long Islander, all stretching out into the murky Jersey waters. Then at night they'd lock up the pier and let loose these fearsome guard dogs that would snarl and snap at anyone who came anywhere near the fence. This usually drew the interest of many drunken New Yorkers, who must have thought the dogs were making fun of their permed hair and red IROC-Z parked near Lucky Leos.

One of the piers used to have this game where you shot tennis balls out of cannons at tanks and tried to hit a target. My Dad promised me that when I was old enough, they would let me drive the tank. Then, just as I became old enough, they replaced the tank game with a boring log flume or something. This is still perhaps one of the biggest disappointments of my childhood, besides growing up in Jersey, that is.

It's an interesting discussion for Hilton Head, and almost actually came true once: a company called, I think, Myrtle Beach Amusement Corporation tried to build a pier in South Forest Beach that would have included rides, a Ferris wheel, the works. It got a lot of people riled up, and the town found a way to shoot down the project before it even got started.

But the island may soon never have to worry about something like a pier. The council is soon going to bring forward an ordinance that would prohibit any more development on the beachfront whatsoever. They may also extend this to other waterways, like Broad Creek. If passed, it would mean what you see on the beach is what you're going to get for the future — that means no piers, no new Tiki Huts or hotels jutting out towards the ocean. Here's the story that mentions it from last weekend.

Td

Tdonnelly:

Your comments about the pier on the New Jersey beach just brought back some very long-ago forgotten memories. When I was a very young child (not even in school yet), I remember going to the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They had an attraction every night during the summer whereby a pretty young woman sat in a bathing suit and bathing cap atop a live horse. The horse was perched on a high dive above a very large deep tub of water. If I remember correctly, the tub was the silver metal kind with rims around it that resembled a very large washing tub that women used in the old days. The attraction was that the horse was made to "dive" (jump) from the high diving board into the water with the girl sitting on him. Looking back now, it was an absolutely barbaric act. The poor horse looked petrified (rightfully so!) and it really took some coaxing to get him to jump from that diving board. Fortunately, the animal rights people (I think) put an end to that particular "entertainment". But as far as a pier on HHI, it is still a lovely island, and I hate to think about any further development. Does anyone else here remember the Steel Pier and the horse-diving act?

I sure do, that and the diving bell at the Steel Pier.

I saw it as a kid in the late 1960s.

Thanks so much for the pictures. However, I am surprised that the "diving board" is even higher than I remember. When remembering something from childhood, it is usually the other way around. That poor horse much have been terrified! Also, I had completely forgotten about the diving bell.

Hilton Head Bun-Kissers! A Pier would be cool. We waste a ton of money on other things, why not have a pier too?

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Lmnk mn t vnhmxj. Vtjrnsx jxlajsk. Enjoy.

Let's do something so stupid as a pier.

I mean- think about it- the town wants to BUY more land- move the "coastal baseline" back for development to keep development away from the water, and recently built the Concrete Rose Park.

Anti-growth on the commercial side.

AND in contradicting themselves they did approve a movie theater at Shelter Cove Mall, and they did lift the parking meters in Coligny and now there is free parking at the beach.

I remember in Cape Cod- you paid to park everywhere. Either at the meter or in parking tickets.

They also built the Park to keep development of a previous commercial property from ever occurring again. Good times there- huddle house -scattered-smothered-and covered.

First of all, I see both sides to a Pier, but I have to admit, every Pier I have ever visited has been wonderful fun. Even the Navy Pier in Chicago.

Sadly, however, those who vote, have reached the age of "not wanting any change". It is almost like many voters on this island are "preparing to die" and building anything couldn't fit into those plans.

I think a Pier has both pros and cons, but can't fight codgerism, so it is a waste of time to discuss.

Second, let's not trash those tourists. Anyone who does, should ante up an additional ten fold on their Real Estate taxes. So one side of the mouth is no Pier, no tourists, leave me alone I have no more dreams, but the other side is I am hatching every last dollar I can, for whatever reason. Getting old must be a bummer.

remembering a pier in Jersey shouldn't be confused with what we would want or have here. Our pier would be a version of what they have in Myrtle. Imagine just a long pier with a shelter on the end, and a small commercial area on the pier's beach end. It wouldn't attract more traffic, and not sure why that thought is there. How many would travel to HHI just to see or go on the pier, unless you consider the few that would fish off of it as "traffic". A Ferris wheel? No, I don't think so...

The pier would not a be a resource for taxes, but an amenity for those already coming to HHI. And, what about the handicapped?

But we don't have to worry about a pier here. The "Northerners" here with their memories of horses jumping off piers would never allow a pier to be built, just out of their own ignorance of what the benefits a great pier would really have. They certainly aren't going to enhance "Their" island.

Folly Field would be a great place for a pier. Just go down there during the peak beach use and see for yourselves how much beach is going unused, and how much space there is for more parking and town-owned land.

To sit and remark "We would never build that here." is a great example of the closed minds that actually run this place, and will eventually run it right into the ground.

Compass Rose will be a monument to stupidity in a few years when the domino effect of land buying and non-development strategies make tourists and other visitors realize the benefits of going elsewhere. That will cure your traffic problem...there won't be any!

It's called "Amenities" of which Green space, compass roses, and signs on town-owned land are not.

It's unfortunate that the County is considering another closed minded ordinance to restrict any development near the beach. It won't matter when all you'll hear in HHI are the tumble weeds rolling down 278...

I agree bulldawg, lets not trash the tourists. I think it would be safe to say that a vast majority of property owners on HHI first came here on vacation. They were once considered tourist too.

First of all there is nothing wrong with a pier. Hilton Head needs more open public spaces other than bars. I think it would be lovely to head down to the pier in the early evening, get an ice cream, listen to some live music and maybe run into some friends.
Secondly, I used to live on an island up north and those of us that had been there a while used to laugh when we saw "the draw bridge syndrome" in action. Now that I'm here crank up the bridge, set the alligators in the moat, bring out the guards, and don't let anyone else in. How quickly we forget that we were "trespassers" once.

Another syndrome that small communities suffer from is the NIMBY syndrome; Not In My Back Yard. I bet if the pier was built in Bluffton and it was a huge success many of you who are opposed to the pier might put on a disguise, lower the bridge over the moat, and sneak across to enjoy the benefits of a new public gathering space.
My guess is most of you didn't even live in Hilton Head when the bridge was built.

By the way, it is my understanding that if sand dollars are on the beach they are usually dead, or dying; otherwise they would have followed the tide out.

A lot of the sand dollars on the beach are either dead, or dying--and a lot of those have been pulled from the ocean to be souveniers and forgotten, therefore left there to die. Like I said before, all you have to do is turn them over and see if their little "legs" on the underside are moving. If they are, then they are alive, and therefore can be thrown back in, in order to survive. When you find sand dollars on the beach, it's a good bet that they've been put there by a person because as you said, they will follow the tide out, and don't normally beach themselves.

Butterfly, you ain't from around here are ya? Walk the beach one night at low tide, when no one else is around and count the number of sand dollars that were beached when the tide went out. Sand dollars do indeed get beached as they are bottom dwelling creatures that move very slowly across the ocean floor. If they get too close to the shore, wave actions wash them up on the beach. They are not placed there by someone.
I grew up around here, lived in this area for 55 years and have seen countless sand dollars on the beach, even before HHI became a "tourist destination".

I've been here for 20 years, moved here from another ocean side community! When they get beached--they generally bury themselves back into the wet sand, just as they do in the ocean. You are right, they are bottom dwelling creatures, which is why they will bury themselves once they start to "dry out" on top of the sand. When they are just lying around on top of the sandy beach, it is generally from people. And why is it that people on these blogs have to be so snippy in their retorts?? By the way, FirNa Tine, I run every evening on the beach. I am there very often at low tide.
Are you saying that people don't take live creatures off our beaches? If you are, then perhaps you should look around one day at all the people (especially children) running out of the water with handfuls of live animals to let dry out and take back with them, which they usually abandon once something else catches their eye, or once they start to smell if in fact they have remembered to take them with them. Not trying to argue or get into a spitting contest with anyone, just commenting on a blog about something that I do know something about. I guess with only a paltry 20 years on the island I am just too green to know my you know what from a hole in the ground!

Fir, who cares how long you've been here? That doesn't make you a sand dollar expert. I was born and raised on HHI but I'm not nearly as old as you. When I find sand dollars on the beach, I throw them back. I've seen the stupid tourist who will find them in the ocean, lay them out on the towel and then throw them away when they start to smell. I've even narked some people out to the lifeguards who make them throw the sand dollars back into the ocean.
But this blog is about a pier. Maybe out in Bluffton cuz HHI would never allow one

Ok, I have contacted the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Stay posted for answer.

Oh yeah, the pier. Blogging A.D.D. Let's put it in Bluffton and we won't even charge to use it the way HHI charges everyone $5 to enjoy their docks. Waterfront should be accessible to all.

I have searched the HHI Town Ordinances and there is no mention of sand dollars, only turtles their nests and eggs, sea birds or their eggs and beach fauna(sea oats). I also contacted SC DNR and they stated there is no state law prohibiting the removal of sand dollars either dead or alive from state beaches.

Are you kidding me ?:?:?:?:?:?: And you've lived here how long?:?:?: The huge signs that are posted on beach pathways states you CANNOT remove sand dollars !!!!!
And I seriously doubt you contacted SC DNR. Nice try....

I never said it was against the law--I said you could be fined for taking live creatures off the beach. If you would like to argue with someone, A) you've chosen the wrong person, and B) get your accusations correct first please. I am so sorry that you are so miserable that you have to try to start arguments with strangers in order to make yourself feel superior. What a sad, sad life. I am done now, I have far too many other things to do besides argue with someone I DON'T EVEN KNOW!!!!

It's my understanding that it's against "the law" to remove ANY living organism from the beaches; sea oats, turtles/eggs, starfish...and sand dollars.

The reason this is my understanding is because of the 6 years I spent on the loggerhead seaturtle protection project here on the island.

Also, as has been stated before, there are these white signs posted...kinda large if you want to get right down to it...that list all the rules and regulations that one must follow and abide by while on HHI beaches.

One of those clearly states the no-no about taking living things from the beach.

This was also ingrained not only into me, but many tourists and their children, by my sister who was in charge of the protection project for over 10 years. Lovingly referred to by many as "The Beach Nazi" for many years.

You may also catch some of the "informational" programs on public access that state the same things.

And yes...those little sand dollars are still alive if they're moving, and those little buggers ARE found on the beach, unlike some people with only half a brain who think that they're dead.

(I guess that while people with HALF a brain know they're dead, those with a WHOLE brain know otherwise...)

EDIT: For those who can't be bothered to try to find one of those white signs that seem to be posted for only certain people to read (why else would we even be having this discussion?) here's a link that they can possibly bring themselves to read instead...

http://www.islandcastaways.com/beachrules.shtml

Actually, there's a tunnel out there: Chesapeake Bay Fishing on the Sea Gull fishing pier. Located at the first island of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Anglers can catch many  bay fish species including flounder, striper, and drum.

• A list of your piers: This Web site lists public piers closest to us:

There's also a fishing pier beside the Broad River bridge, on what's left of the old bridge.

Bluffton has a Town Dock at the end of Calhoun Street.

This is from the Town of Hilton Head Island's Web site (note No. 10 on the list):

Beach Prohibitions

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department patrols the beaches and enforces all beach regulations. Violators of beach regulations are subject to fines up to $500 per each offense.

The following are PROHIBITED on all beaches:

* Alcoholic liquor, beer, wine
* Glass (bottles, containers, etc.)
* Littering
* Indecent exposure (nudity)
* Disorderly conduct
* Disturbing the peace
* Unauthorized vehicles
* Fires and Fireworks
* Shark Fishing
* Removal, harming , or harassment of any live beach fauna (sea turtles, sand dollars, conchs, starfish, etc.)
* Removal, alteration, or damage to dunes, sea oats, or other dune flora
* Operation, launching, or landing of unauthorized motorized watercraft
* Unauthorized commercial activity
* Sleeping on the beach between midnight and 6 a.m.
* Unauthorized wearing of lifeguard emblems, insignias, etc.
* Solicitation or distribution of handouts
* Kites not under manual control
* Stunt kites 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. April 1 through September 30
* Sand-sailing

Janet Smith
Editorial page editor

What a fast response! This was what Jim Covel wrote back in response to my question about sand dollars being dead if they are on the beach.

"Dear ---
I received your recent question about sand dollars that are found washed up on the beach. I'm afraid that most sand dollars are deceased by the time they appear on the beach. A live sand dollar will have a fuzzy appearance due to all the tiny spines and tube feet attached to the outside of their shell. When you find those nice, smooth, white sand dollars on the beach, you're really finding the hollow shell (called a "test") that is left after the animal dies.

There are other considerations with gathering shells from the beach, but I hope this helps address your specific question about sand dollars."

Thanks for writing in to us.
- Jim Covel

Fined for doing something that is not against the law??? My attorney would love that one in court!!!!!

"My attorney would love that one in court!!!!!"

Unfortunately, I don't think YOU would love it too much, since you would have to pay both your attorney AND the fine.

Yes...you can be fined for something that "is not against the law" as has been stated many times here already. Regardless of the utopian society you live in, this is the real world, Hilton Head Island, and there are rules to follow that, if NOT followed, will get your fanny fined, regardless of what YOU personally think or believe.

I guess like the huge white signs that state the rules and regulations, these posts also are invisible to people such as this, who seem to care more about their money, themselves and being "right" than following the rules and regulations of the area.

I think the above posts by Mediocrisvir and Janet Smith should be enough to answer those questions you have--and thanks to you both for posting on the subject, as I had no time to do so myself until now. And thanks to Sarah--you seem to always get there before I have a chance!! You are on the ball girl!!

Well, there goes my plan to my hand out fliers advertising my motorized, rocket-propelled naked stunt shark peace disturbance rally at Burke's Beach this weekend. Thanks a lot, Hilton Head.

All this and school uniforms in all public schools...it's like living under Hitler!

Oy vay!!! I'm going outside to shake my bottle tree!!!!

I'd be willing to do time on your behalf to see that!