Ventura OKs Contract to Renovate Pier : Redevelopment: A Santa Barbara firm will restore the storm-battered landmark. The pact ends a six-year effort to save the 120-year-old facility.

The Ventura City Council awarded Monday a $2.75-million contract to renovate the historic Ventura Pier, the longest wooden pier in California.

The contract with a Santa Barbara construction firm ends a six-year effort to save the 120-year-old pier, which was so battered by storms that it was temporarily closed in 1986.

The contract is “a statement that even in difficult times we believe in our history,” Councilman Tom Buford said.

By next July, when the restoration is expected to be completed, the entire above-water portion of the 1,958-foot pier will be new, and the old seafood restaurant and bait shop will be replaced by new snack, bait and fish-cleaning facilities.

The entrance to the pier will be widened, and benches, restrooms and lighting will be upgraded, city officials said. The city has also commissioned an $80,000 copper fountain that will spray a stream of seawater into the air.

The city also hopes to build restaurants and shops at the base of the pier.

The City Council chose Cushman Contracting Corp. over five competitors because its bid was lowest and the company has restored other wooden piers in Southern California.

“There aren’t that many remaining wood piers in the state,” project engineer Shane Alexander said. “Not too many of these jobs come along.”

The company has restored piers at Port Hueneme, Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor and Gaviota State Park, north of Santa Barbara, Alexander said.

“We don’t foresee any problems. Basically from about 10 feet above water, it’s going to be a whole new pier.”

The aging pier was closed in 1986 because its pillars had been undermined by severe storms. About three-quarters of the pier was reopened after repairs in 1987. But the rest has been fenced off because it is unsafe for pedestrians.

The restoration project has been delayed for almost a year because three different state agencies and the city are involved, said Barbara Harison, Ventura director of Parks and Recreation.

“It took longer than we anticipated, but we’re finally ready,” Harison said.

Funding for the restoration--totaling $2.5 million in grants and $1 million in loans to the city--is being provided by the California Coastal Conservancy, the California State Wildlife Conservation Board and a special state construction fund.

The state Department of Parks and Recreation, which owns the pier, considered demolishing it several years ago because maintenance was too expensive.

The City Council voted two years ago to assume ownership in exchange for the $3.5 million to renovate the landmark.

The city expects the pier’s $150,000-a-year upkeep to be offset by leasing 150,000 square feet of restaurants and shops that it hopes to build at the base of the pier. Officials are hoping that the pier renovation will boost the city’s downtown redevelopment effort.