The end of the Cayucos Pier has been closed for over a year.
“I have my plaque at the end of the pier that’s blocked off right now,” said Chuck Kennon, Cayucos resident.
Kennon moved to Cayucos with his wife 10 years ago when he retired.
“We’d go out to the end of the pier, and I’d pretend I was on the bow of the ship. Do the 'Titanic' move,” Kennon recalled.
He and his wife were married for 27 years.
“Michalene was wonderful. She was the love of my life,” Kennon said.
After she passed away, he scattered his wife’s ashes off the pier and placed a plaque there in her memory.
“When I want to talk to her, I like to go out to the end of the pier and say hello,” Kennon said.
Last year's winter storms damaged the end of the pier. San Luis Obispo County Parks says a total of seven pilings have broken away since then.
“Right now, the last 15 feet of the decking of the pier is hanging out over the water without any support,” said Shaun Cooper, SLO County Parks Assistant Director.
For safety reasons, the end of the pier was blocked off and has remained that way for over a year.
$1 million has been secured to repair the pier. The first phase is to remove the 15-foot end section, which would cost $250,000. To potentially rebuild that end section would cost $750,000.
“We have the funding, but it’s a matter of weighing the cost-benefit of putting it back,” Cooper said.
He says they are currently out to bid for the removal of the pier. They plan to award that contract in August.
“We hope to start work in the middle of September, and the construction will take two months, and hopefully finish it up by November.”
As far as what will happen to the plaques at the end of the pier, Cooper said, “We’ll be saving the plaques and reinstalling them on the new railing, which will be at the end of the pier.”
