Vendors react to Pier 60 partially reopening after last year's hurricanes

CLEARWATER, Fla., (WFLA) — For the first time in 11 months, parts of Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach are open to the public.

Until Labor Day, the Pier had been closed for nearly a year because of hurricane damage, but this is another step towards rebuilding after last year’s hurricanes.

Once again on Pier 60, you can see families casting lines and reeling them in, sometimes with a good catch from the ocean.

The full Pier 60 is not open quite yet, but Monday’s partial re-opening is a step local vendors said will help business.

“It’s been closed 11 months, so we’re excited for it to open. So many people come with their fishing rods and can’t get out there. It brings a lot of people, because you get people fishing and some people want to shop, so it helps us too,” said vendor, Michelle Quigley.

All the items sold from vendors along the Pier are both local and hand-crafted.

The Pier is a place where both locals and tourists come to spend quality time together.

“Good, today is my birthday, we were actually going to leave yesterday, and we decided to stay for one more night jus to fish,” said Will Kaster. “Canceled our plane tickets and everything just to fish out here.”

Everyone in the area is excited to get back to what everyone knows and loves.

“We’re hoping that people come down and check it out today and see the opening, it’s exciting, it’s feeling more and more back to normal, like it used to be,” said Shannon Yant, a vendor.

From around sunrise to sunset, you can pay $10 to fish on the pier, you can also rent rods or buy bait if you need to. For more on the hours of operation, click here.