My wife's uncle thought it was a scam. A hand-written sign near the entrance to the pier at Jacksonville Beach, charging $1 to walk on the pier. $3 to fish. We paid the money because they are from Wisconsin and don't get a chance to walk on an ocean pier very often. But I still wonder what the deal is, really.
I searched for it online, and there it is on the official Jacksonville Beach website. I guess the official way to make official signs in Jacksonville Beach is to use a marker on a piece of construction paper. I'll have to watch for hand-scrawled No Parking signs. Or Road Construction.
Walking out on the pier is cool, but not something I'll pay $1 to do again, at least not until my parents show up and foot the bill. Once you get far enough out (it's blocked off at some point), then you run into all the fishing people. That's exciting if you like to see fish getting caught and cleaned. One guy caught a hammerhead shark, so that was cool to see, but then he was so intent on getting all kinds of photos of himself with it that he probably killed it.
Mostly, be aware that there is a $1 charge to walk on the pier. And it's real. Just like the hand-made sign on top of a SAAB 9-5 that asks for $1 to view the car. Just toss the cash in the sunroof.
When I was researching the cost to rebuild the pier, it struck me as odd that the City of Jacksonville paid for the pier. If that's our $800,000 that was set aside to rebuild it, then we should probably be allowed to stroll on it for free. I don't really understand the difference between Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach, apparently. Maybe Jacksonville just pays for all the things that go wrong down at the beach. I mean, why does Jax Beach have its own mayor and city council if Jacksonville pays for the pier? I assume Jacksonville owns the pier somehow, but then I should get to walk on it for free if I live in Jacksonville, right?
Well, it looks like Jacksonville (not Jax Beach) gets between $5000 and $6000 a month to lease the pier out. Who knew? So it's not Jax Beach and not Jax that made the hokey signs; it's Diana Pier Management. Diana is probably the lady who was working the counter.
Also, in case you're wondering about the rules on the pier, here they are:
NO:
Roller Blades
Surf boards
Bicycles
Pets
Sleeping bag
Fly rods
Hand lines
Cast nets
Shark fishing
Running
Throwing items from the pier
Sitting on pier railings
Jumping or diving from the pier
